October 9, 1998 "Late
September.......made first visit to Montana training in Lincoln . I was very impressed
with the local trails and the kennel as a whole. also the training methods and the
eagerness and fitness of the dogs. The dogs look superb for this stage in the season and I
hope I can do them justice. Of course at this stage in the season there is not yet any
snow so training is on 4 wheelers but nevertheless the enthusiasm of the canines is
tremendous. I will return again in November for phase 2 of of training and again in
December...phase 3. After that I will wait until the dogs have been transferred up to
Alaska and will rejoin them there in mid-February prior to the race start. eventually
ending up in Anchorage around the 2nd March.
The one major hurdle as a foreigner entering Iditarod
is the obvious point relating to the difficulty of giving enough time to the dogs and yet
not letting go of the real world and self-destructing one's ability to fund the race by
neglecting one's livelihood back home .I am not unfortunately in a position to just leave
and spend the winter with the dogs and I am therefore well aware of the limitations this
presents.
Then of course there is the problem of financing the race from a foreign
country.....a daunting task and constantly a challenge trying to raise the necessary
sponsorship $ to be able to allow the project to reach maturity and finish the race. We
are presently spending an equal amount of time and effort endeavoring to reach that goal
to allow more of our efforts to be spent with the dogs."
