As alluded to in our earlier post, Chris has a very young team with him for the Northern Lights 300, along with a few of the older guard. He will decide on the actual line up on Friday morning but for your info, here is who he has with him:
Woody, Schmoe, Willie, Waylon and Scout will show the ropes to nine yearlings: Sanka, Bean, Creamer, Bruno, QT, McCaw, Barista, Perky and Decaf. Click here for more information about each athlete.
Creamer and Sanka make the team
He has four great leaders, plus excellent team dog Willie, and will be able to rotate some of the youngsters up front during the race. They will learn a great deal over the weekend and really come-of-age.
Steve Parker, Chris’ dad, will be handling for the team and hopefully will be able to send us through some details – depending on cell coverage.
Yesterday everyone passed their vet check then Chris and Steve dropped off the checkpoint drop bags for delivery to the checkpoints. Today (Thursday) is for final preparation and rest before the race starts at 11am on Friday.
They are staying at Matt Failor’s kennel in Big Lake and he was kind enough to clear some space for a temporary home for our athletes. Thanks so much Matt, we appreciate it!
Temporary lodgings in Big Lake
Note: It was a difficult task to narrow down the yearlings to take as Chris needed to take some experience with him leaving only so many slots for the youngsters. Those left behind are Dancer, Chevie and Jefe. These three were some of the most advanced yearlings earlier in the season and they went on a number of longer runs and trained well. This, combined with the cold temperatures last week, unfortunately took a little weight off them as can tend to happen with youngsters, and we felt they needed more time to get back into condition before embarking on a 300 mile adventure. They will continue to train while their siblings are away.
Wishing lots of luck to Chris and his team. How awesome his dad is handling for him. Also, very generous of Matt and the 17th Dog Team to provide a temporary home for the athletes. Love following him, too. Go SPK!
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Maryalice Adams
Now that's a team for training! Coffee litter represents. Go Team! Go Chris! What a great bunch of trainers too! This will be so much fun.
Go, puppies! Go, Chris! And thanks to Chris' dad for handling and Matt for providing lodgings for the pups. Really looking forward to this weekend, for sure.
WOOF WOOF WOOF!!! What a bunch of planners at SP Kennel!!!
What an awesome team!!! Olivia & Nacho's COFFEE guys are well represented!!!
And it really is a ChaCha family retrospective too (including Schmoe, who is part of ChaCha's son Ranger's unplanned-for family of 4 "S" pups)!!! GO R&B!!!
Thank you, thank you Matt Failor from SP Kennel fans!!!
SP Kennel is a family, and so happy Chris' Dad is jumping into the season!!! WOOF!!!
I'll be rooting for Chris and the R&B team. Hope Chris's dad enjoys himself too. Thanks to Matt for be so hospitable. Always enjoy when it's a dog racing weekend. Go Chris! Go Dogs!
What a Team!! Gotta love the Coffee Litter stepping up to the plate….and some of the Golden Harness Litter get to start breaking in their own harnesses on this 300 mile trek! Thank goodness they have a talented and experianced group of awesome SPK Veterans to show them the ropes! And YEAH Woody….nice to see this fella travel with his best buddy Chris!
This is going to be fun to follow! Go SPK! And once again, through Matt's generosity, we see the true class of the mushing community. I keep saying that the world could learn a lot from the mushing community! All the best!
Go Chris, great team you will take on the trail. Awesome that your dad is handling for you.
I agree! This is going to be fun to watch. I will tune in when I can this weekend. How cool to have your Dad as your handler, Chris.
I agree too! Coming late to this post. WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?! Thank you so much Matt for letting the team stay there. The accommodations look very nice. I can't believe the 'babies' are growing up. Coffee litter and some of the golden harness Quito/Kosak litter. Oh how exciting. GO CHRIS GO! Other than little mvp superstar Woody, the lead team looks like an BIG MVP list…the YEARS of Iditarods and Quests those dogs have run. Amazing. The youngsters will learn from the experienced old timers. Oh please let us know how it's going. Thank you for the updates.
GO SPK GO.