Fall Training Begins...

Ahhhhhhh yes, it is that time of the year again! Time for lower temps, falling leaves, shorter days, white knuckle rides on the bike with the dogs that usually come with crashes, blood, and bruises.

Yes, my friends, it is fall.

We've already gone on one training run (which went so smoothly I began to wonder if I had dreamed it.) and we can't wait for more!

The first run, like I said, was absolutely flawless. I took out 3 teams of 2 with the bike and everyone ran perfectly. We ran at 6am to catch the cold temps (which were still a bit warm so we ran short and slow). I don't know if my neighbors agree but it sure was nice to hear the dogs scream in anticipation of the first run of the season. I miss that sound during the summer. :P

I have high hopes for this racing season so we will have to work hard this fall! Speaking of that ....I think its time to go run dogs!

Melanie Gould was found alive and well but is the compassion showed by the people who followed her story dead?

*Originally posted on June 12, 2011*

As some of you may or may not know, Alaskan musher Melanie Gould, mysteriously went missing on June 1, 2011. Her absence was discovered when she did not show up for work at the Roadhouse in Talkeetna. Melanie left behind her kennel of sled dogs which were later taken care of by friends and neighbors.

Eleven days after her disappearance, Melanie was found alive and well. She is now recovering in a hospital. No details are being released.

Many people are expressing their opinion on Melanie's strange disappearance. Many are not being nice about it either. It's been said that she "abandoned her dogs" and "just wanted time off of work". The Animal Rights activists are trying to turn the story into an animal abuse case.

Well, you want to know what my opinion is? WHO KNOWS? Who knows what happened out there besides Melanie? NO ONE. Last time I checked the troopers in Alaska were searching for one woman and one woman only. She is the only one who truly knows what happened out there.

Opinions based on assumptions are not opinions at all but fantasies. We can't believe all that the media is saying. When it all boils down, the media is nothing but a fancy way to gossip.

Remember playing the game Telephone when you were a child? When people stand in a line, the person at the front of the line thinks of a word and whispers it to the person next to them, who whispers it to the person next to themand so on. Finally, the word reaches the person at the end of the line, they say it out loud, and it ends up being something totally different from what the first person said. That is because someone along the line didn't hear the word right so they just say what they think they heard. I see the same thing happening with Melanie's story.

All in all, we need to be happy and thankful that Melanie was found alive and well. What ever happened out there is frankly none of our business.

I will leave you with this quote for the day. "It is a mistake to theorize before one had data. Inevitably, on begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts." ~ Sherlock Holmes