Brent's Blog

Happy Christmas Eve! I thought I would take some time to give an update on how things are going out here at the Wild and free Camp. This season has been very different then the pervious two years out here at camp. Instead of it being just Kyla and I we have had many visitors throughout the past weeks and the addition of Cody, Paige and josh for the whole month of Dec has made Eureka come alive. As you can probably imagine Lance's visit was awesome. it provided some great training on and off the trail for the dogs and I. Having the 4 time Quest Champion and 3 time Iditarod Champ here was a little crazy at first but Lance is an extremely down to earth guy and made it very easy to keep things real. Im not going to lie, I was a bit nervous when he first showed up, Its a big deal when the the guy I have been looking up to the past 5 years shows up at your place and want to train with ya. but like I said lance made it so easy that after the first day it was like we were just a bunch of friends doing what we love to do. I look forward to training with Lance in the future. Kyla and Flo have been training all of the Trail Breaker Kennel dogs and doing a great job. With some Help from Josh, they take three teams a day out on runs ranging from 25-40 miles, with a camping trip mixed in every few days to get them use to camping out. I am feeling very good about the condition of the dogs and feel they are going to be well prepared for the march trip. Kyla has really stepped up to the plate this year, I have basically put her in total control of the tour dogs and all the responsibilities that come along with training and caring for 40+ dogs and she has done well. She has come a long way in the past three seasons, and is a key element to success of Wild and Free, I couldnt do it without her! The puppy training is also in full swing up until today I have been doing most of the training, but stating tomorrow Kyla and Flo are going to be running them on a more regular basis. It has been good for me to run them up until now but it is time to get them out more then my schedule allows. I feel like I have a good grasp on each puppies ability at this point and now can monitor there progress from a distance since there is no way I can do all the training with my race training schedule. The chicken pups are now closing in on 5 weeks old and growing faster then ever. They are highly advanced for their age and showing lots of great potential. When lance as here he was also very impressed and showed some interest in getting a pup. wouldnt that be awesome, Lance Mackey driving a Silver pup, we will see. As for my race team, they are AWESOME. its better then its ever been at this point in the season, I am on a totally different training program then I have been in the past and it seems to be working great, there have have been very few injuries, no major ones at all, and the dogs attitudes are great. Yesterday I got back from a 150 mile training run and they were all still bouncing around and barking while I was putting them away. At the moment I am trying to pick which dogs are going to race in the Gin Gin 200 this coming weekend. Its hard to pick I want to be able to run them all. My friends Cody and Paige are a few dogs short so they are going to take a couple of my steady eddies to fill their teams out, its a great deal for all of us and the dogs. The weather has been amazing the trails are in perfect shape and the outlook is good. I am still trying to recover from the Flu bug that has been lingering in me for the past week, I really hope I am able to kick it before the Gin Gin on the 28th. Kyla and the crew just took off for a 35 mile run on their way to Ed and Willows for Christmas Eve Dinner. I am currently working on dog bios and plan on getting the dog Sponsorship program up and running real soon so if your interested in sponsoring a dog this season, watch the website for that. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season be sure to check back in, race season is about to begin and its going to be very exciting. Enjoy the pics and the video of the crew headed out on their Christmas Eve Run!

Being Wild and Free

B