October 2002 - TRAINING, TRAINING, TRAINING, of course in this horrible RAIN ! It's kind of like living in the boggs and wondering whats going to jump up out of the mud at you. (Ha Ha) The dogs are doing Great and we're still working with some new leaders. One of my main lead dogs has really come back from his illness after this past race season and is looking wonderful and back to his old self running the lot and of course still coming in the house on a regular basis. ( he really isn't spoiled is he ?) We're training right at 40 dogs for this next race and some shorter races for my wonderful handlers. We will soon have to truck the dogs to new areas for additional miles as they are becoming BORED with the same trail we've been running for the last 3 months. ( there are only so many loops in the campground ). We have acquired another wonderful dog from the local animal shelter with the hopes of him running the team in the future. He is 2 yrs old, nuetered ( which I highly reccomend ), great coat, feet, attitude, gait and he eats and drinks, what more can I ask for. He has run with our puppy team and isn't yet quite sure if he wants to be a sled dog. He has lived in the house at his previous owners most of his life so he's not too sure about this mud, rain and really big mud puddles with lots of MUD! We'll keep you updated on his progress.
One of our yearlings that Joe and Leslie gave me for my birthday last year has finally decided that he is a sled dog and thinks it's the greatest thing since kibble, he is running with the big dogs now and doing GREAT. We've been repairing the tires alot on the 4- wheeler due to lg. sticks embedding themselves in the tires, we've ordered new tires. Our local baby moose hasn't visited for a while now , but there is another one our handler had to chase from the trail last week during a training run. We have used the information that John Schandelmier suggested several years ago, which is to make yourself look larger than the moose by using either your coat, a large bright colored piece of fabric, I have used 2 large branches and run in front of the team making these horrblie noises, so far this has worked and the mooes have left my dog teams alone. We've been running some night runs because my dogs like the brisk air and they stay alot cooler, on a run a couple of nights ago we came around this corner on the way out of the campground doing 15 miles an hour and lo and behold here stands a Porcupine! Thank goodness for some really awesome lead dogs, who skirted the whole team right around it, we were running a 14 dog line with some younger less experinced dogs. Poor little porcupine, he really did try to move pretty fast off the trail with his short little legs. Dog team and cute little porcupine are doing fine.
We are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our future Iditarod team members today or tomorrow , we'll let everyone know when they arrive and how Mom is doing.
We've been busy with processing fish for the trail and assembling lists and equipment for Iditarod 2003. We will be making alot of changes to help us be more successful for next years race. We'll keep everyone updated on our changes, our goal is still finishing the race with all my team members who left the start line coming into Nome strong, healthy and happy, and hopefully the musher won't be banged up too bad ! We will have another WONDERFUL JOURNEY traveling with a light heart and happy expectations. ( Thanks Leslie & Joe ).
Just a small Thank You to all my AWESOME handlers and my WONDERFUL sponsors, without all of you this would never be possible. We have been truly Blessed.

Happy Trails, Team 2002/2003 & Judy

August 2002
Greetings from Trail River Huskies Kennel
The season is upon us again, Whew, where did it go? We started our training on August the 1st with several new team members and a few we have retired now. As they look out at the rest of the team getting hooked up and ready for the run, they sit patiently in the house on their rugs and blankets wishing they could go too.
We are training 41 dogs at the present time and 8 puppies. We're up to about 5 mile runs now and wishing for snow every time we crawl onto th back of the 4 wheeler, ( boy I wish I was 20 years younger ugh! ) Bill is still being a trooper and driving the 4 wheeler almost every day. We have only had 4 run ins with the Moose this season so far and as John Shandelmier suggested several years ago to appear bigger than you are and try to scare the moose off. So far it has worked but he is only a baby right now.
We have been blessed with 2 wonderful handlers Dianne and Nick and 6 dogs and 1 more fur kitty. They have been a Godsend, Dianne was my nurse when I had my knee surgery last year and we got together in December for a dogsled ride and our friendship has blossomed. They moved from Anchorage in July and have been the driving force here. We are expecting a litter of puppies in October and hope for a repeat Iditarod team to start training for 2004. ( I haven't told Bill yet about the 2004 race interest. ) I have some sad news, my 17 year old Pomeranian passed away on August 12th. I sure miss him. Our grandson is now 14 months old and sure has allot of energy. I guess I forgot just how much comes in such little packages.
I e-mailed Ray at Blackfoot and he has been gracious enough to fix my broken sled. Well I suppose I'd better close for now and go out and do another "SNOWDANCE", ha ha.
Have a good evening, Judy

Feb 1st, 2002

We needed to leave for the Klondike 300 race and do food drop and vet check 2 days before the race, well as luck would sometimes have it we didn't get to drop our food off til about 11:00 pm on Thursday night and as far as our vet check went we needed to do it on Friday. All the dogs were great to go vet approved. We had a day to get other errand ran and get a little bit of rest before Saturday. Saturday morning came and we were the first ones on the lake about 7:00 am, we proceeded to get ready with packing of the sled, getting gear on harnessing the team and booting their feet to prevent any problems down the trail. I picked # 7 to leave the start line. As time came close to starting the race my wonderful friend Dianne came to help us get ready and brought her new little puppy" Knik" to see us, what a cutie! ( Siberian Puppy). She also brought my favorite stuff to eat: Candy bars! and also treats for the dogs on the trail. We get to the starting line and the count down is on as I give my husband a kiss for good luck and pet my team on the way back to the sled 20 seconds to go, 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3.2,1, GO! Hike Hike Hike, and we're off headed to the Tug Bar ( one of the checkpoints with a 2 hour layover before we head out for several days. We had some interesting trails on our way over there a couple of oh my turns, hills to descend, plowed roads to run on, a tree that was about 4 1/2 ft off the ground, here we had to see how limber I was, whew missed it Yeah! The trail was about 20 miles , we arrived with the team and looking great. 2 hours doesn't give you much time to get ready for the run so you need to be prepared and have alot of help. My wonderful crew consisted of My husband, Dianne, David Straub, GB Jones, Danny Seavey, Dallas Seavey, Ryan Reddington, helping to maneuver the team out and around the other team who stopped ahead of us so their driver could catch up to his sled ( his team decided he was taking to long to get ready so they were going to leave without him, it caused him to leave last due to the mistake), The team went screaming out of the checkpoint and I holding on , it took the team about 5 miles to realize we didn't need to go that fast and burn out, We got into a rhythm about 35 miles down the trail after stopping briefly for snacks, we we're off running again. We arrived at yetna station and picked up a few snacks and supplies for the run into Skwentna rested the team about 2 hours and took off for Skwentna. I was fortunate enough to travel this trip with several wonderful mushers Bill Borden, Perry Soloman, were big helps for me out there as I was trying to run the race with 3 abscessed teeth and my knees hurting from a previous injury. We arrived at Skwentna with a 6 hour layover, I took care of the team ( feeding, rubbing them down, checking feet for any problems and strawing them so they could rest.) Now it was time for me to get some rest and some food as I had left my food sitting on the hood of our dog truck at the Tug Bar in Big Lake which now wasn't going to do me any good. Skwentna has wonderful food! I rested about 2 hours and my scheduled time out was 12:30pm We prepared to leave and we're off headed for the Forks roadhouse 65 mile away, our run to there wasn't very good as the team seemed to get tangled up easily and the trail was nothing but moguls and steep hills, I was pretty tired when we arrived at Forks. On the way in I had a pretty bad tangle on a really tight corner with Mitch Seavey's team he was headed back to Yentna station, but we managed to get all dogs untangled and back on the trail again. I arrived at forks and

David Straub was there to help get the team parked, I was really grateful to have some help to do that. The checker came and did all the necessary sled check for required items and then the vet came and checked for any problems that may have occurred on the way there. No Major problems and everybody looked GREAT ! My traveling companions were already there and bedded down. After my normal duties for the team I went in to get some shut eye too. The temperature went to -25 below zero and the cabin we stayed in was cold even though there was a wall heater it just couldn't keep up, there was ice on the inside of the windows! We arose to a cold morning and decided tio rest the team an additional 6 hours , the more rest they get the better they will run. Our goal was just to finish the race with a healthy, happy dogteam. As the morning went on I had some breakfast, fed and got the team ready to leave the checkpoint headed back to Yentna. We had such an awesome run to Yentna, we did it in about 6 1/2 hours. We arrived at Yentna with a mandatory layover of 6 hours, but due to the temperature dropping in the night to -46 below zero decided to stay there til the temps rose ( we we're hoping) It didn't hurt them to rest more it just set us up to have another great run to the finish line also I didn't want to risk frostbite on the dogs or myself. About 12:30 pm the temps rose to - 25 degrees and still coming up so by the time we left it was alot warmer . We we're only out of Yentna maybe 10-15 minutes and from across the river here comes this big bull moose charging at my team and he wasn't slowing down as I tried to encourage the team to move faster it only got worse, the team had the biggest tangle and I couldn't seem to work fast enough to get them lined back out. The MOOSE is still Coming pretty fast, he got within 100 yards of my team & I and came to a stop! looked at us as enough to say you're not worth chasing turned and meandered back to the other side of the river. I stopped and prayed and thanked the lord for not letting the moose come into the team, gathered my senses and off we went. About 35 miles from the finish line it started to blow and the snow started to come down, the trail was difficult to find under the accumulation but thankfully I had Renoire, my main leader up in front of the team, he follows the markers and scent on the trail he is truly a wonderful dog!We crossed alot of swamps and a few treed sections and finally came to Big Lake, you're actually on what the folks in Big Lake call it "The freeway", people really drive their cars on this lake in the winter to have access to their properties. Several cars past me on my way to the finish line, and I knew we were getting close because the team was cookin!!!! fast. My husband was at the finish line along with David Straub and helped get the team to the truck. the dogs were extremely happy as I had promised them that they were going to sleep in their beds that night. I met several wonderful people out there on the trail that I will always remember, because without the help from all of these folks the races wouldn't be possible and without our dogs it definitely wouldn't be possible ! So my hat is off to all the people and dogs that has made this possible A GREAT BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE who has made this years qualifiers possible for me to do and now on to the BIG race eeeekkkks! alot of work ahead for team 2002 and Judy & family too. Will keep you all updated on the food drop and vet check for Iditarod,

Happy Trails , Team 2002 and Judy

2002 KLONDIKE 300 SLED DOG RACE Wraps Up!
Judy Merritt takes the Red Lantern
Big Lake, Alaska January 22, 2002- 6:30 PM
They are all in! The last three mushers crossed the finish line a little after 5 PM. With temperatures dipping to minus 30 degrees last night , the back of the pack got a real taste of Alaska's winter. Congratulations to all.

Read Judy's Training and Race Diary: