I'm headed to Glenallen to be the race handler for a husband and wife who are both running the Copper Basin 300--John Schandelmeir and Zoya deNure. I spent a month at their place in Paxson last April and I really can't say enough good things about them as people and dog lovers. They race competitively with many second chance dogs, dogs that have behavioral issues for a myriad of reasons--or just weren't fast enough--or whatever random reasons people have--and are dumped at the shelter. They have the patience and passion to bring these dogs around to being happy and healthy competitors. Zoya left a lucrative modeling career to live off the grid as a dog musher--a pretty huge change. I've heard John refered to as a "dog whisperer" and have learned a great deal from them both about treating dogs as individuals with kindness and respect, hard work and the crucial importance of a good cup of coffee! John will be running the Yukon Quest in February and Zoya will be a rookie in this year's Iditarod. I'm looking forward to helping them out since I can't do the Quest this year (that takes three weeks and I gotta work!) This should be a fun couple of days and will take me to places in AK I haven't been yet, like Chistochina--I've never even heard of it! The weather is supposed to be in the zeros--super warm, yeah! Anyway, check out Zoya's blog for updates at www.dogsleddenali.blogspot.com!