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

The time slot for the DISCOVERY Iditarod Show has been changed to FRIDAYS at 8:00 ET/PT beginning next Friday, November 7. Hope you are enjoying the show.

photo by Jeff Schultz
We are having an unseasonably COLD October!!! This photo was taken last week. Martin, Magnus, and Sean are training large teams on 4-wheelers traveling about 10 miles but it's 2 degrees so sitting on that 4 wheeler gets awfully cold. Trails to go cross country are ready but there's not quite enough snow yet to brave the tundra.

Toughest Race on Earth, Iditarod will not be aired on Election Night, next Tuesday, Nov. 4. Episode 4 will be shown the following Tuesday. Remember to tune in to Episode 3 tonight. Check you local listings.

If you have feedback(especially postivite), go to

http://dsc.discovery.com/utilities/about/viewer-relations.html

and down to number 33. for the comments form.

Martin and team picked up Mayor Begich and Julie Saupe and the Mayor drove the team straight through the double doors blasting throught the paper banner to officially open the center. It was a lot of fun!!!

The Weekly Standard reporter, Charlotte Allen, visited us a couple of weeks ago to profile Alaskans and the last frontier mentality (as it relates to Sarah Palin and women in particular). Most of the details of her story are accurate and she is one of the only writers that actually sent emails to clarify some of the details. We admire her for trying to get the story right, which seems lacking in so many of the stories written today. One mistake that Charlotte wrote, which she apologized for, was that Nikolai and Rohn played hockey with Track Palin. All the boys were on a kiddie hockey team when they were about 5 or 6 years old. Track went on to be a hockey star. Our boys preferred dog mushing and cross country running. One other tiny bit of misinformation was that my family always voted Democrat. Many of my siblings vote for Republicans but never my Dad. I think maybe he was one of those "blue dog Democrats" of southern tradition. (Rather vote for a blue dog than a republican.)

For folks who went to college with me, the article is a bit nostalgic. My how many of us have found ourselves in places we never imagined.

Read the article here.

~Kathy

Many of you wrote to ask about the October 18 date of Good Morning America's airing of Alaska in it's 50 states program. It is indeed scheduled to be aired on a Saturday. Check Alaska info on the GMA website at:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/elections?category=Alaska

thanks for your interest!!!!!!!

Tune in to the Discovery Channel tonight for Episode 1 of "Toughest Race on Earth, Iditarod." Check your local listings for the time.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/iditarod/iditarod.html

This weekend, October 18 & 19, is the Grand Opening of the NEW Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage. http://www.anchorage.net/Opening

The facility is amazing, capturing as much natural light and spectacular views as possible. Martin and dogs will be there Saturday as part of the Street Fair; DeeDee Jonrowe will do the same on Sunday. If you live anywhere near Anchorage take time to come and visit the center. Activities and performances will be scattered throughout the facility on both days. We are honored and excited to be part of this celebration!!!

Kate Snow of Good Morning America was here last week filming part of the "50 States" segment on Alaska. She came to get a taste of training Iditarod dogs. Unfortunately, we didn't have snow but Martin took her on a 4-wheeler training run. The segment will be aired on October 18.

Winter is here and we are having a little snowstorm right now. Everything is being quickly covered with snow. YIPEE!

Martin is in his own whirlwind out on the campaign trail traveling with Sarah and Todd Palin. He started out going to some outdoor activities with Todd in Maine and New Hampshire and ended up on the McCain bus with the whole crew. Down to earth and smart is how he described Senator McCain after chatting with him on the bus.

Martin enjoys sharing stories about Alaska and the Iditarod with folks out on the trail. He's not making any big speeches at the rallies, more of spreading the good word about Alaska and his friends. He says it's a different kind of trail but has similarities to Iditarod. Intense is one way he described it but promises to share more when he returns.

He hopes everyone exercises their right to VOTE!!!!!!!!!Being a new voter, he really takes that right seriously.

He really couldn't be out on the campaign trail if he didn't have a great crew at home. Sean Williams, originally from Houston, Texas and Magnus Kaltenborn, from Norway, are running dogs and keeping all the details of the training program going. Booties for the racing season are packed and gear is being checked. We feel very fortunate to have such positive energy from both guys!!!

I'm glad I took this photo this morning trying to capture the fiery colors of fall because now we have snow on the ground. Each morning begins with a 7:00 hook up of 18 dogs to one of the 4 wheelers. The teams make a loop of 5-6 miles before coming back to the kennel. 60 dogs are currently in training.