November 18, 2012
Back now from three days in Eureka & scraping for the footholds of the normal life I have to resume after three days of dogs, dogs, a new alternator & more dogs. We loaded the kennel into the new dog boxes for the haul, puppies in tow in various states of sleepiness, sprawled across our coats or laps or bags, limp from exhaustion on the way home & sort of unfurled like loose ribbons. In Eureka, almost at the end of the Elliot Highway, there live four humans & roughly ninety dogs. Our visit was coupled with the visit of three other humans & their thirty dogs as well, so all in all, we had seven people & 130 dogs or so. Good numbers. Wind thrashed through our entire visit, though on the trails, for the most part, the trees socked us in & kept us warm enough to sweat up the hills. The trails suffer from a lack of snow compared to the embarrassment of riches we have on Stampede at present, but for me, they were endlessly thrilling for a number of reasons. Ru