Flandriens-Husky-Kennel: Tobacco Trail 2012

Jörg went out from Jukkasjärvi at 4:12 pm on friday. The trail was more than perfect because of the thousands of snowmobiles driving around Kiruna. He was staying all the way to Övre Soppero on the break to hold the dogs on their "trainingsspeed" and that they didn´t overpace. In Övre Soppero he had to stay a bit more than two hours for the first mandatory rest. Even if this was only the third race for our dogs, they lay directly down on the straw and slept until it was time to move on. All 12 dogs looks good when he left Övre Soppero. It were now 80 km to the next checkpoint Saivomuotka. The first kilometers were well, but then the trail turned into sugarsnow. Very deep and soft and he had to be very careful that the dogs didn´t get any injury. He passed Taisto very soon and came only a few minutes after Milos into the checkpoint. There the dogs got some food and were cheked by the veterinarians - btw the vets did a great job! The dogs slept directly after they ate and Jörg got also 3 hours of good and deep sleep. Then in the morning he had to move on, all the way back to Övre Soppero. The weather was not that bad when he was leaving, but after a short while the light snowfall went into a blizzard. Jörg passed Milos very soon and after a while he didn´t see him anymore. Then on the free areas the trail was completly blown away, but the dogs did a great job and found the trail and broke the trail for about 30 km. In the woods the trail was better and he needed only a few minutes longer on the way back as on the way to Saivo. In Övre Soppero we decided that we scratch. The doggs looked great, they did a great job. But our maincompetiton is the Finnmarkslopet and we wanted to go with fresh dogs to that race. We were a bit afraid that the dogs got tired in their mind if they had to go through the storm to Kiruna. Jörg said that he was impressed how unimpressed Sean and Fränk plow through the deep snow and the storm. This good and positive mood we wanted to keep for the Finnmarkslopet. We had always in mind that our dogs are still young - only 2 ½ years old. And we want to drive them a few more years :) And we are very proud over our dogs. Jörg had Didi, Sean, Fränk, Tchmil, Pedro, Vino, Jaja, Tony, Frederico, Luis, Klödi and Hinault in his team.

We want to thank the Kiruna SHK for that great competition and we hope for the future that the race will grow. Thanks also to Aki Holk who organized and drove out the straw for the checkpoints. The checkpoints were well organized and the vets were experts and open minded.

We fed as kibble Royal Canin 4800 and Vom og Hundemat meat Nr.33 at the checkpoints. The snacks we made out from meat. Directly at the checkpoint the dogs got some super energy-snacks from Royal Canin.