Had a super fun time at the Ely Wolftrack Classic, first time I have done the 8 dog race. It was a warm day so the dogs were a bit hot wanting to scoop snow but the first part of the trail was lots of dirt and rocks from all the snowmobile traffic that had torn it up Fri. and Sat. unfortunately. Without much snow base it just went right down to the rocky gravel underneath for that first (and last) section of trail. So I stopped quite a bit where there was clean snow (without rocks/less dirt) to let them cool off and bite snow:) Thankfully it was better the farther from Ely and it snowed a little bit too which helped cover up the dirt so we had a bit better glide coming back which was nice:) Was awesome to have my uncle and cousin from Alaska down to visit and watch me race!!! Super cool!!! Team did great but wanted to take it easy to protect the team for the Copper Dog race the following weekend which is a 3 day race. So easier on the way out, let them come back a bit faster and they sure flew into the finish looking great and ready for more!!!! Very happy with a fun run on a beautiful trail, happy dogs and 3rd place finish!!!