Welcome to Happy Trails Kennels:
Home of four-time Iditarod Champion
Martin Buser, and family!

http://web.me.com/kchap1/2010_Iditarod_News_and_Photos/Welcome.html

See photos from the Start and REStart and Our Fabulous team!!!

Sean got this little video together from the REstart on Sunday.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3kr6hQwvV0&feature=autofb

Also, for those of you not familiar with Martin's racing, he usually stops 10 miles outside Nikolai at a place called Salmon River.  He then goes straight through Nikolai without stopping on to McGrath, which sets him up for a 24 hour layover in Ophir or Cripple ( the halfway).  Mushers who rested at Nikolai go through McGrath and usually take their 24 hour layover in Takotna, the delicious food and pie capital of the Iditarod Trail.  Mushers usually try to drive the teams a bit more going into the 24 knowing the dogs have 24 hours to recover.

I think Martin is maintaining a 50/50 run rest schedule.  If you notice the times of other mushers, their rest time is much shorter.  The rest helps maintain the speed in the dogs.  When he set the record in 2002, he maintained a strict 50/50 schedule until the coast.

happy trails~

We are having trouble posting photos to this site.  Go to

http://web.me.com/kchap1/Site/Our_2010_team.html

to visit our 2010 Iditarod News and Photos.

 Our team exploded out of the finish chute today, under crisply cool sunny skies.  We couldn't have gotten underway with such precision without our "professional" pit crew.  Most all of these folks have helped us with many, many Iditarod starts!!!

We had a fun day today!!!

Martin with TAPS widows and ribbons with their husbands' names.
Rohn keeps FRODO calm.  He loves to scream.
Pat Hahn from Nome with leaders!
The team heads down 4th Ave.

Martin's starting number for the 2010 Iditarod is 37, Rohn's number when he ran the race in 2008.  We are having a very difficult time deciding on the final 16 dogs to race, as we have 18 solid contenders!!  Will post the list on Sunday.  Martin can take any of his 20 approved dogs tomorrow.

The ceremonial start begins at 10:00 tomorrow in downtown Anchorage. 

A bit of sad news is that Sue Allen, who has done a fabulous job training our young dogs, has a hamstring injury preventing her from taking that team to Nome.  Art Church, a veteran Iditarod musher, will substitute and take the team to Nome.  Sue will surely be traveling every mile with that team.  Art and Sue are good friends and we have known Art for almost 28 years.  We are confident in Art's ability to do right by the dogs.

I will try to update the blog more often.  It's been a very busy week.

Martin along with several other mushers will be carrying ribbons to commerate fallen soldiers as part of the TAPS program.  100 military widows will be at the Ceremonial Start of the Race.

TAPS is a national non-profit veterans service organization providing compassionate care - at no charge - to the families and friends of America's fallen military heroes. It is an amazing organization, founded by Bonnie Carroll, following the death of her husband, Brigadier General Tom Carroll, in an Army C-12 plane crash in Alaska in 1992.

We honor their service to America. 

Labels: 2010Ateam