I was outside in a sweatshirt and jacket this afternoon, tinkering with the fish smoker to get just the right mixture of smoke and heat, as if I knew, when Bree said, “Why don’t you hook up 10 dogs and take Salem on a two-miler?” She didn’t have to ask twice.

I don’t generally do any formal exercise with my dogs in the summer, instead letting one or two loose at a time for part of the day. Since they overheat in anything warmer than the low 50s Fahrenheit, I don’t usually have a chance to run them until late August or even early September. I’m usually out in T-shirt and baggy shorts half the summer, acquiring a red neck. But this year has been amazingly cool.

It was about 51 and drizzling at 3 0′clock on July 22, so what the heck. With my son in front of me, secured by my left hand, I steered my dauntless ‘87 Yamaha Big Bear with my right and enjoyed a quick spin with the dogs. (No hand free to take photos.) The dogs plainly enjoyed it, and it was the first time I’d seen a couple of them run at all for the better part of a year, since a few were leased out last summer for the entire season. They settled in to a strong trot as we cruised down Yukon Road, our neighborhood dirt road.

My two-year-old liked the ride, too. When got back he watched me unhook the team, then went inside to shed his rain-soaked jacket and warm up with a mug of Ovaltine. Later, I lit a small fire in the wood stove to goose the house temperature up a little. Not normal activity for July.

It may be warm elsewhere in the state, up north of the Alaska Range, but down here on the Kenai Peninsula, it’s as gray and drizzly as a Seattle winter.