For Lori's Celebration of Life ~ Directions to Happy Trails Kennel

<Caution:  GPS and various maps programs on smart phones may not be reliable >

From Parks Highway turn on Big Lake Road (mile 52)

Drive 3 ¼ miles on Big Lake road 

turn RIGHT on 
Beaver Lake road,

**
Drive 1 mile, turn LEFT onto West Lakes Boulevard 
(long name, short sign "W.Lks.Blvd")


Drive 4 ½ miles to our driveway on Right and marked with

Happy Trails sign on a wooden tripod.  Follow the signs to Tour Parking.

(You can also follow the blue information signs from Big Lake Road)

 

 

Reservation System having Technical Difficulty

Our TOUR reservation system currently not working.  Please email martin@buserdog.com to make reservations for a tour. 

Sorry for the inconvenience ~~~ 

Martin's 2013 Team by photographer Albert Lewis (Born to Run)

Flash

Payton

Martian

Suzette

Rigid

Lindsey Vonn

Kikkan Randall

Baloo

Shaun White

Rosie Fletcher

Roll

Kinley

Heath

SherKhan

Quick

Doc

THE STORY coming SOON

Martin is diligently working on writing his story of the 2013 race. 

Thanks so much to all our loyal and encouraging fans - it means so much to hear how excited many of you were even though the finish was disappointing. 

Odds are better for 2014.  3 of his 4 wins have come on the Northern Route. 

MAIL ORDERS

Just a note to let you know that all mail orders placed before March 31 have been shipped.  Please remember that most of our shipping goes out from a small rural post office.  Orders placed during the race were processed after March 18.  We are experiencing some mail order problems.  However, all orders should be received by April 12.  If you are having problems, please send an email to martin@buserdog.com. 

Day 1  Smooth and Fast

Starting number 2 has many advantages, the best of which is being finished with the Ceremonial Start and back home by 1:00.  It almost felt like a day off.

A major disadvantage is being 6 blocks from the starting line and having to get an excited dog team through foot deep snow dumped on to the street  AND being over 50!!  We have a dedicated pit crew who has been with us at a majority of Martin's starts but we are all getting older.  After the start our loyal pit crew has decided to be simply a pit crew - getting the dogs harnesses and bootied BUT NOT bringing them to the starting line.  We will be recruiting under 30 year olds next year.  Thanks Nancy Marty, Jim Davis, Pat Hahn, Kent Harrington and Sue Allen.  Along the way we even grabbed Mike Davis to assist.  But what a crew they were!!!!!!!!!!!  Got the job done, red faces, sore muscles and all.

The trail through town was well groomed and lined with so many excited fans.  We really appreciate seeing all the families with children making an outing of the day.

Home by 1:00.  Sled packed and repacked.   Quiet time all afternoon.

TROUBLE did rear it's ugly head but having nothing to do with the dogs.  During final preparations for our snow machine trip, Kent's son-in-law and ace mechanic found a problem with the throttle cable on my machine.  Many hours later,  Kent decided to haul my machine into Anchorage for further study and repair.  Kent assures me it will be ready to go by 10:00 am.  Thanks so much to Brandon McBride for spending his Saturday night working on my machine.

Tomorrow's schedule

8:30 load Martin's team and head to the REAL START in Willow

sometime soon after, Matt Failor and James Volek load their teams and head to Willow

10:30 6 snowmachines depart on the Rich Allen Memorial Ride ANC-OME

We'd really like to thank our many supporters, sponsors who have been with us for a long time, and new sponsors who believe in the spirit of Happy Trails - dogs and people.  This sport has a pretty high overhead and wouldn't be possible without sponsors.  Check out our sponsors on our website, frequent these businesses or just say thanks to them for what they do for us.

Tomorrow at this time, we'll be scattered out all over the first 120 miles of the Iditarod Trail.

Martin's TEAM - young, excited, lots of girls!

 BALOO

 HEATH

 FLASH

 KINLEY

 MARTIAN

 PAYTON

 RIGID

 RACHEL

 SHAUN WHITE

 SHERKAHN

 ROSIE

 ROLL

SUZETTE

Coming soon..... photos of Kikkan Randall, Rosie Fletcher and Quick.

GOING for 5!

Hot news and upcoming events:

Kathy spent Mardi Gras in New Orleans last week - combining Alaska family with Louisiana family for an eventful few days.

Martin and Rohn are combining teams.  Martin is driving the SUPER Team!!!!  Rohn and Nikolai will manage the kennel during the race.  We are pretty jazzed about the potential for the team and Dad.  Martin is totally excited to get all the best dogs.

James is making his final choices among his spirited yearling dogs for his Rookie run to Nome this year.  He has worked so hard to transform a screaming bunch of middle schoolers into a working group. 

Kathy and Elliot are gearing up to drive snow machines to Nome heading out early Sunday, March 3 - RESTART Day.  They are part of the "hcir allen memorial expedition to nome."  hcir is how Rich often spelled his name.  Rich really wanted to travel the trail and two years ago we made plans to ride under the guidance of seasoned ANC-OME snow machine driver, Kent Harrington.  Rich unexpectedly passed away in the fall so the trip is in his honor.  The crew is rounded out by Sue Allen, Rich's wife, and Jim Davis and Nancy Marty, great friends.

So hold on everyone for an exciting next few weeks……………….

Thanks for all your support, prayers and good vibes - now's the time to start thinking 5!!!!

Paul Johnson Norton Sound 450 Dog Race Begins TOMORROW!

Information and Spot Tracking at http://nortonsound450.com/index.html

Picked the line up for the Paul Johnson 450
Elliot and I both wanted to keep on going while training for the race. We headed up towards old woman cabin and felt like going on all the way to Kaltag, the teams, the trail and the weather were so fine ……
After the run I realized that Elliot is in need of a hearing aid :  I asked him which was the best dog in his team so I could make just one more adjustment, but he just seemed not to hear me, he wanted to keep them all !  Looks like we brought two good teams.

I'll be running a lot of the young dogs.  Lindsey Vonn and Baloo will lead out my team.  Rosie, Kikkan, Rock and Roll are some of the graduates from last years yearling graduates that Matt took to Nome.
Elliot will be entrusted with some of the most experienced dogs like Caribou, Angel and Lionel.  Those racers have seen this trail at least twenty times between the three of them. He will also have a few young horses, literally, like Michael Phelps and Sean White. Fuji and Vesuvius will add some explosive power to his team.

We are super excited to head out on the trail wednesday!
The hospitality in this town is just superb. We feel at home at the Wilson family and hope to return the favors one day.  (by Martin)

RACE OVER

Rohn mushing the team home!

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Both teams are snug as a bug.  Both boys are very tired and a little confounded at what happened.  It seems the snow drifts were a bit of their undoing and the dogs didn’t really eat as well as they usually do.  Just a few hiccups in a fast paced race like that and it’s difficult to regroup. It always takes a few days to digest exactly what happened when.

After finishing with a cluster of other teams, Rohn decided to mush the team right back to Jeff’s house.  He certainly looked tired while the dogs still had energy to move him on to the house. 

Martin came in without pressure from behind, moseying down the trail with his old man Caribou right in lead!  Martin opted for his dogs to ride home in the back of the pick-up truck.  Rohn and Nikolai were there to help with the dogs. 

We have had such a great time with the Hoffman crew.  Lots of family members at the start and finish and Nikolai and I just love hanging out at Mike and Jill’s while the boys are on the trail.  Even though we don’t get here often, sure feels like family.

Jill Hoffman pets old Caribou

Rohn says to his Dad, " Did you hear where I finished?

  Dad says, "no." Rohn says "6th."  Dad says, "Great, Better than 7th,  heck way better than 10th."

Busers at the FINISH

Rohn escaped his interview since so many teams where coming in together.  Reporter tries again.

Caribou gets a pet from Mike Hoffman

Kathy with Bev Hoffman - race organizer and 49er fan!

John flew in from Chevak for the K300.

Buser Boys ready to head for the house.