Sled dog

The Dog Days of Summer

June 17, 2014 by robertforto Leave a Comment

Here in the land of the midnight sun, the mosquitos are out and the dogs are enjoying their vacation. They spend their days lounging around in the barking lot and wishing for the colder days when training will start again. We are truly in the dog days of summer here at Team Ineka.

That does not mean that nothing is happening, the mushers are busy running triathlons, working their summer jobs, fishing for salmon that they will use for trail snacks and backyard BBQ’s, plenty of chores to be had, dog houses to build and kennels and fencing to be installed, bees to attended too and cord wood to be stacked.

We are already planning our season. Robert will attempt (once again) to do his Iditarod qualifiers IF the snow comes and none are cancelled like they have been for the last two seasons. Nicole will run the Junior Iditarod for the last time before she heads off to college in the fall of 2015, Michele plans to enter a small race or two and our friend Dale will too.

We are always looking for people to be a part of the team too! You can learn more about our incredible athletes, the mushers and our daily life with 40 sled dogs.

You can sponsor a dog, booties or become a race entry sponsor, or help with the daily kennel needs with your generous contributions.

It takes a small army to get to the starting line. Our sponsors and supporters are not just people that donate money, goods or services to us. They are part of the team. We appreciate your support and look forward to new partnerships.

Our sponsors receive letters and pictures directly from your favorite mushers. You have the opportunity to meet the team at race events and if you are up in Alaska we can teach you how to drive your own dog team. The mushers are always willing to travel to speak to our sponsors and supporters and to school and other groups that would like to learn more about living a life with dogs!

If you would like to find out more, comment below or check out our sponsorship page by clicking the button below.
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Nome Sign 40 race recap

March 25, 2013 by robertforto Leave a Comment

This past weekend my son Tyler and I participated in the Nome Sign 40 race. It is a 40 mile race over the orginal Iditarod trail to the Nome sign and back. It starts on Knik Lake in the heart of Redingtonville. There is more mushing history in the first two miles of this race than probably anywhere in the world!

This was actually Tyler’s first race ever. He was super excited to give the dogs a run when we decided to go late Saturday afternoon. We packed up the gear in a hurry Saturday night and made our lists of the dogs that would be going. It was the first race for the Nightmare Crew pups as well as some others too.

The teams (This is the first race for dogs with an *):

Robert

TyTy-Vela

Rasp-Shock*

Barrel*-Dandy*

Cassie-Burton*

Shifter-Denali

Aussie-Trapper

Tyler

Ringo-Sidney

Scarlett-Lock*

Ragnar*-Zero*

Casper*-Raegan

Bodhi-Spencer

(Lock didn’t run in the race as we found she was in heat at the race)

Sunday

We were on the road early Sunday morning for the hour drive to Knik. The roads were terrible, it has snowed almost two feet in the last 24 hours. We had 22 dogs loaded up. All of the spots in the dog box were doubled, we had two in the cab in my truck, two in the cab of the Ranger and four in crates. We need a bigger dog truck!

About 10 miles in I realized I forgot my beaver hat and Tyler calls from the other truck and says we forgot the snacks for the dogs! Rather than turn around we stopped at 3-Bears and bought the hamburger patties again. No the optimum trail snack for the dogs but the seem to work.

When we arrived at Knik Lake there were just two other mushers there, one was my friend Karen Cline who I met on the Serum Run Boot Camp last year.

We had about an hour and a half before race time and several other mushers arrived pretty quickly.

Our musher meeting consisted of paying the 50 dollar entry fee and drawing our starting order from a coffee can as the race organizers came around to our trucks. Pretty informal.

There was only six teams in the 40 mile race and several others in a ten miler-six dog class. I drew bib 2, Tyler number 4. We would be going out four minutes apart.

Race Time!

Our friends and sponsors of the teams, Kim and Dale came out to help out and see us off. They were a huge help in getting us to the starting line (we actually ran off right from our trucks). In usual fashion I was yelling hurry up from the back of the sled as the “handlers” scurried to get all of the dogs on the line before the last second. And I was off!

The race left the lake and winded through Redingtonville and past the Dog Mushers Hall of Fame before hitting 7 mile lake. Just about 5 miles into the race, Rasp, one of my best swing dogs quit on me. She laid down right on the line and wouldnt get back up. I quickly set the hook and couldn’t find anything wrong with her so I put her in the bag of my new sled from Sled Dog Systems and dropped the 50 pounds of weight I was carrying on the side of the trail.

I travelled with Rasp in the bag for about an hour as teams passed us and we passed them. I think Karen and I passed each other three or four times.

We ran up and down the rolling hills and I made it a point to let the dogs work up each one. I wanted them to learn that hills mean to continue to pull. The trails were awesome with the snow falling and not too cold. It was a perfect day for mushing.

About 15 miles in Rasp was anxious to get out of the bag and I put her back in the team. I don’t know what happened to her back there but I am thinking that she had a stinger or something, sort of like when you lay on your arm and it goes to sleep.

As we approached the halfway point the other four mushers passed me going the other way. I knew I was getting close when Karen said, “the turn around is just up there.”

Sure enough there was the Nome Sign. The nome sign is a piece of mushing history that has been there since the early days. It points towards Nome (of course) along with a symbolic 1049 miles.

About a mile heading back towards the finish I passed Tyler and let him know the turn around was coming up. His team looked good and he was in good spirits.

We mushed on for a few hours by ourselves occasionally seeing Karen in the distance.

At about 7 Mile Lake Tyler caught up to me. He was running Sidney in single lead! We decided to mush in together. It was fun talking to him on the trail and enjoying each other as we headed toward the finish.

The Finish

We arrived at the finish line at 4:42. Five hours, 38 minutes after I left. Everyone else was in and up at the Knik Bar except for Karen who (I believe) was resting in her truck.

Michele overheard one of the mushers say as they came onto the lake on a snow machine, “I have ran every race with those guys and they come in last every time. It is like they don’t train their dogs to run.”

Excuse me?

I am very pleased with our run. We knew we weren’t going to break any records. It was Tyler’s first race ever and we had eight dogs that I had never experienced this, ever!

All of our dogs came in with their tails waggin’ and were happy. No dog was pushed too hard. We finished with all the dogs, including all of the Nightmare Crew, in the team and “smiling” as we gave them a snack at the truck.

I learned a long time ago that mushing is not about winning or losing. It is about spending time out in the woods with your dogs. It is about the bond you have built over countless miles on the trails with the team and knowing what to look out for on the trail. It is a sad day when mushing as turned into; I have to be first no matter what, or I have to win because I have to be in the “money.”

If mushing is that way for some, I am sorry. That is not what Team Ineka is about. We are a family kennel with dogs that we love and care about. Sure we have several dogs from other kennels that make up our teams but for us it is about raising our two litters–The Nightmare Crew and the 9-11 Crew–to get out on the trails and have fun with every one in the family taking part. That is what mushing is about, at least for us.

Mush on!

Neighbor…

August 6, 2012 by robertforto 4 Comments

This post is disturbing on many levels. One of much is the sheer disregard for a person’s right to privacy, but I have also included the language as transpired.

After 850 miles in 30 hours this weekend, all Michele and I wanted to do is come home, take a hot shower and sleep.

We arrived at 10:15 and knew that bringing three new dogs into the dog yard would stir up the others and make a fuss. Our dogs are pretty good about settling down quickly and not causing too much of a commotion.

Not three minutes of our arrival with the dogs barking we started hearing our neighbor, Dave, screaming at the top of his lungs:

Mother fucker. Mother fucker. Mother FUCKER.

Dave lives on the corner of Allen Drive and Sue Drive in our neighborhood of less than 10 homes. In this little community there are five of us that are mushers. The dogs outnumber the humans, something like 12 to 1.

Dave has a reputation of being to the full extreme against the mushers in the neighborhood. Some would call him a bully. Some would call him a pest.

He is out of control.

Dave has a history of filing complaints with the borough. Video taping us as we run by with our teams and even blocking our access on more than one occasion.

Every musher in Willow knows Dave. His actions supersede him. But last night he took it a step too far.

When we applied for our kennel license we were required to have an inspection by Animal Control to make sure we were in compliance. The officer checked things like, proper waste disposal, noise control polices, the number of sled dogs, etc.

We received our license with a bit of advice: If that guy gives you any problems, call the troopers. Get everything in writing and make sure you document everything.

Over the past couple months Dave has harassed my daughter Nicole. Has walked INTO the dog yard while Michele was feeding and harassed her and had more than several screaming fits from his front porch when the dogs bark.

Dogs bark. That’s what they do.

I have lived in the company of sled dogs for the better part of twenty years. The normal cycle of a dog yard barking is that it ebbs and flows with the barking not lasting more than a minute or two maybe once or twice a night if something riles the dogs up.

Up to this point we have dismissed Dave’s actions and non-consequentiual. Just a bitter man that wants to push his weight around and be the neighborhood bully.

Then at 12:27 AM the chaos began that will change the course of history for our little neighborhood and it is not something that anyone should be subjected to.

Michele and I had laid down to sleep and Nicole rushed into our room saying, “Dave’s in down in the dog yard!”

The dogs were barking like crazy.

Michele and I jumped up and ran downstairs. We could hear our son, Tyler, on the front porch saying, “Sir, why don’t you just get outta here! The dogs will calm down once we leave. Sir, just leave!”

Dave was in our driveway at that point standing next to my Jeep. He was screaming at the top of his lungs,”Robert, you mother fucker, shut those dogs up before I bash their heads in!”

That was it. The last straw.

As I was getting dressed in our bedroom at the back of the house I could hear Michele frantic on the phone. She had called 9-1-1. She was giving the dispatcher the run down. Saying things like, “I don’t know if he has a weapon!”

By 12:36 I was dressed and out in my truck. I was shaking. I could taste pennies in my mouth. As I drove down our little road, that is no longer than a 1/8 of a mile, I saw the Trooper vehicle approach–blacked out as they call it–heading up the hill.

The trooper took a statement and was there for no longer than five minutes. Dave, curiously, was not home when they went to his place. I wonder where he was?

I was so stressed I went for a drive.

Some will ask, why did you leave? For one I knew the troopers were there and had it under control. Two, if I were to confront Dave it could have end up much worse than it did. Knowing that Dave sometimes carried a weapon I didn’t want to find out if he had one that night. I don’t own a gun and I don’t intend to.

I arrived back home about an hour later to a quite dog yard and a dark house. I had been texting Michele so I knew what had transpired since my departure.

When one moves into a neighborhood they expect certain things. The right of peaceful enjoyment. The right to privacy and the ability or at least the hope of getting along with their neighbors.

Having a neighbor dispute can disrupt everyone’s lives. I can’t think of much worse. Can you? The satisfaction of enjoying your property is diminished if you don’t know if someone will approach and go off the deep end. I have known people that have moved for neighbor disputes much less than this.

I know my dogs bark. All of the sled dogs in the neighborhood do. It is not an issue, at least as far as I can tell, for anyone except Dave.

It has now been 12 hours post event and I don’t know what will happen from here. I just hope that we could all just get along…

NaBloPoMo: What is the last game you played?

May 22, 2012 by robertforto Leave a Comment

I am participating in the NaBloPoMo challenge for May. It should be a fun one. It is titled: Play.

Todays topic is: what is the last game you played?

I haven’t had the privilege, or the curse depending on how you look at it, for the last couple weeks of hanging out with another human being. I am up in Tok, Alaska watching my friends pack of Iditarod sled dogs while he is on a school tour on the east coast.

I am just glad my name is not Jack because it has been all work and no play. You know what that means?

Jack can be a dull boy!

So in the sprit of the theme, I guess the last game I played was catch with my daughter, Nicole, a couple weeks ago.

As I have said in previous posts, Nicole is turning out to be a pretty good little catcher on her high school softball team. She starts for the junior varsity team and is the back-up catcher on the varsity team. As a freshman!

Back to the game of catch. It had been a while since we have played catch together. Several years in fact. She took a two year hiatus from softball to play lacrosse–I taught her how to play that too.

But as soon as we started throwing the ball around she started talking about the way you used to play catch.

“Don’t let anything by you, Nicole!” she said. And,

“Catch the ball Nicole or you are walking home!”

I may have mentioned that I am very competitive and it has rubbed off on my kids. I am sure some of you are saying–man, what is up with this guy? Give you kids a break, dude.

To the contrary. Nicole is glad I forced her to try her best. She is glad I was hard on her in sports.

Why? Because she is playing varsity softball. As a freshman.

Enough said.

______________________

Robert Forto is mushin’ down a dream in the wilds of Alaska. He and is wife are raising two teenagers at Forto’s Fort.

Iditarod 40: Never too old to run sled dogs

March 8, 2012 by robertforto 2 Comments

Even the old dogs can teach a thing or two to the pups. No, I am not talking about sled dogs here. I am talking about the mushers. 71 year old Jim Lanier just won the GCI Dorothy Page Halfway Award for being the first musher to run into the checkpoint of Cripple.

Lanier, running in his 15th Iditarod shows no signs of slowing down. Never have scratched in his last 14 Iditarod attempts, Lanier has entered and finished the race in each of the last five decades the race has been in existence. His goal is to finish this year in competitive fashion and after that; “who knows” he says.

Lanier arrived to Cripple at 1:35 pm Alaska time with 13 dogs. Cripple signifies the halfway point of this year’s Iditarod, the 40th running of the Last Great Race on Earth.

The GCI Dorothy Page Halfway Award is a trophy and $3,000 in placer gold nuggets courtesy of Iditarod Principle Partner, GCI.

The award will be presented again to Jim Lanier in Nome on Sunday, March 18th during the Iditarod Awards Banquet at the Nome Recreation Center.

Way to go Jim! Show those young musher’s how it’s done!