| Our mission at Husky Mountain is to carry on the
traditions of sled dog touring and racing in the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. One of my philosophies is that knowledge not shared
is knowledge wasted. I believe that we
can all teach each other. I don't only learn from mushers that
have more experience than me, I also learn from people that have less
experience and I can learn a lot from people that don't even have
dogs.
In the spring of 2001 I was just finishing my
first season running sled dogs. I was working for a touring
company in the Lake Tahoe area that first year.
It was getting closer to the end of the season
and my restless mind did not know what to do. I had been reading a
book about Joe Redington. He is known as “The Father of the
Iditarod.” It was this book that inspired me to move to Alaska.
I packed my things in two vehicles. One of those
was a 1977 International Scout II. I had been slowly rebuilding the
Scout over the past year and was confident it could make the journey.
The second vehicle was a 1973 VW Camper Van. I thought the van would
make a nice travel trailer and a place to sleep when I first got to
Alaska. I had no idea what I was going to do when I got to Alaska. I
had no job lined up or place to stay. I just had to be there.
With only one blown radiator hose, and a Hitch
Hiker that traveled over 3000 miles with me, I pulled into Anchorage
on the night of May 25th, 2001. The next day I went to the
Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla. There I learned that there was a
kennel up the road looking for a handler. I moved to the kennel on
the 29th of May.
There were close to three hundred dogs at that
kennel. There were seven different mushers that trained off of the
property. Five were distance racers, one was a sprint racer, and I
would make the seventh.
I would be running a yearling team for an
Iditarod veteran that year. The amount of experience I gained was
priceless. The days were long and the work was often tedious. The
big pay off was running a race called the Klondike 300. I had
specific instructions from the dogs owner, “This is a training run for
these young dogs and you, you are not racing.” What I learned that
year was to become the basis of my own kennel.
It is five years later and I’m still running
dogs. In 2005 I
bought six dogs from Alaska. Now I have a kennel of twenty dogs.
Running this kennel is a full time job for me. I am interested in
mid and long distance racing. One day we hope to run the Yukon
Quest. It is considered by most to be the toughest sled dog race in
the world.
I invite you to join us on our journey. Come
with us over the long trail and experience the wonders of sled dogs.
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Husky Mountain |