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Click here for more info...  If you haven't seen it, be sure to see my Iditarod 2011 story. Well a lot of time has passed since I last updated this website and even more has happened. I am so sorry I haven't kept up with updates better. Time has a way of flying by and before we know it we look back and wonder where it all went! Iditarod 2011 went fantastic and I was thrilled to make the top 10 again this year and top female. Summer rolled around and found most of my dogs working up on the glaciers giving rides to guests off of the cruise ships. Two of my main females off my team, Ferrari & Tetsa, had litters of puppies, 4each. I named Ferrari's pups after fighter jets; Tomcat (F-14), Raptor (F-22), Falcon (F-16), and Hornet (F-18). Tetsa's pups were named after Alaskan mountain ranges; Wrangle, Elias, Brooks, & Chilcat. All are getting big and doing very well in harness now. Mean while summer found me in Montana this year training with a friend of mine for mounted shooting. Unfortunately at the end of June I was in a horse accident and badly injured my knee. It took two months for the swelling to go down in order for me to have surgery. Both my ACL and meniscus were torn. I had my surgery at the end of August and so far the recovery is doing really well. In September I headed back to AK for fall training with the dogs and to start getting ready for the Iditarod. I was fully planning on running Iditarod again even with my injured knee but by October several things added up for me to finally make the decision not to run the race this year. For one it certainly would be a good thing to let my knee completely heal and not take the chance of re-injuring it and the second main reason for not racing this year was simply expense. I just can not afford to keep racing anymore. As much as I want to keep racing, especially after doing so well and being the top placing female for the last 4 years it is just getting too expensive for me to continue. It was a tough decision to make but I ended up leasing out most of my main younger dogs and then I took the rest of my kennel and headed south to Montana again. I am currently working for a guest ranch doing catered sled dog rides. It has been going very well and keeps me and the dogs busy. I hope to still make it back to Alaska in March and help out on the Iditarod as a race volunteer, it will be nice to still be involved with the race and learn a different side of it. I want to thank everyone so much for all their support of me and my team! Maybe one day I can make it back to the Iditarod again with another team. I certainly hope so! Until then I hope you all have a great winter! Happy Trails, Jessie and the J team  Hailey - my Jack Russel "helping" me on my tours this winter. She runs up to 30 miles a day with the big dogs. |