I lived at a hunting lodge that was snowed in from Nov.15 until the first week of May. The was in the Colorado Rockies and we had used either snow shoes or a snow machine for transportation in the winter to our 4X4. Our 1961 scout was parked at the end of the plowed road which was 7 to 10 miles away. This is a true story of our first time learning to drive a dog team.
Copyright© George Michaud December 26, 2001
First Time Dog Driving
By George Michaud
It was late December when my wife informed me that we were either buying a dog team, or we were moving or she was leaving. We were living in a remote hunting lodge in the Colorado High Country and depending on a snow machine for transportation for 8 months out of the year. The only problem with this is you can’t depend on a snow machine. Sue was getting tired of snow shoeing the 7 miles to our cabin. This wasn’t just a simple hike we had to pack in all our supplies too.
We parked our four wheel drive Scout at the end of the nearest plowed road which was 7 miles from our cabin. The snow machine would usually get us about halfway home and then either break down, get stuck or just die for some unknown reason leaving us to finish the trip on snowshoes. After 7 years of this Sue was tired of it and had decided to try a dog team or move. I had my doubts about a dog team as I had read all the Jack London stories about sled dogs. I didn’t want this snarling pack of huskies that would try to eat me every time I walked into the yard.
We discussed what kind of huskies we would buy Malamutes, Siberians, or Samoyeds. What we wound up with were mutts, and boy am I glad we did. A musher had tried to give me a dog team, but I didn’t want any part of it because besides being eaten by them I didn’t want to put up with the constant barking and I didn’t think they could break trail and pull a sled in the deep powder snow of the Colorado High Country.
Sue had kept his phone number and rather than move or lose Sue I decided to try out a dog team. On our next trip to town, which was the very next day, Sue called Roger and invited him up to the lodge for the weekend to show us what a dog team could do.
For the rest of the week we were excited about what kind of dogs he would have, how big they would be, and would they be friendly. We had all the movie stereo types in our heads. You know they bark all the time when they run. They stop on command and just do everything they are supposed to do.
Well Saturday finally arrived and so did Roger with the dogs. We were surprised when we first saw the dogs, the dogs were smaller than we had expected, a lot smaller and very few looked like huskies and a couple looked like wolves. The sled he had didn’t look like anything we had imagined a dog sled would look like, there was very little wood to it. It had a long plastic bed and the runners were only 2 inches tall. He told us it was a Tim White Iditirod racing toboggan. Also the harnesses were strange looking affairs. No buckles and they were made of nylon webbing that looked sort of like an ancient Chinese finger trap.
Roger began giving us our first dog sled driving lesson. First he explained that nobody used the word “Mush” that was purely Sergeant Preston of the Royal Canadian Mounties. Then he went on to explain the sled and brakes, how they worked and 2 rules of dog sledding. Rule number one: never, never turn loose of the sled because the minute you do you are a pedestrian”. Rule number 2: Never walk away to the rear of the sled no matter what if you do refer to the penalty for breaking rule number 1.
Then there was the other equipment that went with a dog sled. The first thing I noticed was the snow hook a heavy ugly hunk of iron that looks like some torture device from the Spanish inquisition that was on the end of a ½ inch rope. On the other end of the rope there was a loop braided into it. Next came the snub line this was a ½ inch rope that had a horse panic snap about 6 ft from the end and a loop on both ends. Both of these and the gang line were attached with loop through a circle of rope and a doubled half an inch aircraft bungee cord. These were secured to the bridle of the sled with a large carabineer. After he had attached these items to the bridle Roger strung the snub line and snow hook through the brush bow to the rear of the sled. He dropped the snow hook into the snow and stomped on it to set it. He then wrapped the snub line around the bumper of the truck snapping the loop in the end into the panic snap.
Now he started laying out the gang line. Between the gang line and the sled was a doubled ½ aircraft bungee cord along with a safety rope, Roger explained that this was shock absorber designed to prevent injuring the dogs.
He showed us how to harness the dogs and hook them into the gang line. Roger started with the two lead dogs Irene and Cowboy. The dogs were hooked to the gang line with a tug line and there was a neckline that attached to the collar of both lead dogs . The neck line was attached to a ring on the collar, with the tug line being attached with a snap to a loop at the tail of the harness then Rodger gave them the command line out. Irene and Cowboy stretched out the gang line and held it tight while Roger hooked the remaining dogs on to the gang line. By this time the dog were going wild, lounging into their harnesses jerking the sled and truck. Roger stepped on to the sled runners, reaching down he pick up the snow hook and released the snub line at the same time giving the command “Hike”.
The dogs were instantly quiet, running hard and Roger was gone in a cloud of snow. This was looking like it might work for us. They hadn’t tried to eat us once and as soon as they were on the trail they were absolutely quiet. These small dogs were strong and fast, but I had yet to try to drive them.
Sue and I took the snow machine and headed for the lodge. We hadn’t been there long before Roger and the dogs arrived. Roger gave the command “Haw” and the dogs turned left through the gate and into the yard. This was going to be easy, or so I thought. I didn’t realize that owning my own team would be different.
Roger and I headed out with his team I was the passenger riding in the sled bag. The first thing I noticed was the silence. The only sound was the runners swishing through the snow and the panting of the dogs. We were traveling at about 10 miles per hour, at this speed I noticed trap sets that I had missed when I was on my snow machine. So far this was better than a snow machine a lot better.
After awhile Roger had me get on the back of the sled and he became the passenger. This was great, I was a musher driving a dog team through the Rockies. I was Sergeant Preston of the Mounties, I wasn’t dealing with reality. This was easy, easier than fighting with the snow machine.
I drove the team to Hog Park where we decided to turn around and head back to the cabin as it was getting late. We had broken trail, climbed steep hills, and even crossed the avalanche shoot that almost claimed my snow machine and myself the week before. I was completely sold on owning a dog team.
The previous week on crossing this avalanche shoot, which was the only way to get to my upper pine marten trap line. I was at the top of the shoot and about half way across on my snow machine when I noticed that all the snow round me was sliding down hill and so was I. I realized suddenly that I might have a problem here. The only thing I could think of doing other than panicking was to angle the snow machine down hill and giving it all the gas I could. Screaming my war cry MAMMMMMAAAAA! I headed down the mountain along with all the snow on the mountain. It worked I made it across the shoot and out of the avalanche. If it hadn’t I probably wouldn’t be writing this.
On reaching the other side to say my Adeline was pumping is putting it mildly. Even when there wasn’t an avalanche it was a frightening experience just due to the way the almost trail sloped. With a dog team this trail wouldn’t be near as scary.
Rodger let me drive the dog team the rest of the way home. The sun was setting over Mount Zerkel when we arrived back at the cabin. Sue had a hot meal of elk steaks and fresh bread ready for us when we returned. After feeding and caring for the dogs we sat down to dinner in a warm cabin and a hot meal.
Later that night as Sue and I laid in bed I told her that I wanted a dog team. She looked over at me and said “I knew that the minute you drove the dog team into the yard”.
The next morning was Sunday and it was time for Roger to leave. Sue and I had decided to buy a dog team. Roger had already giving away the dog team he wanted to give to us, but said that he would sell us 5 dogs, a sled, harnesses, and gang lines for $700.00 which was a good deal. The dogs we would get were Fancy, Paco, Bobbie, Patch, and Spanky.
Bright and early Monday morning found Sue and I at the local bank borrowing $800.00 to buy the dog team. The banker told us they would take the team as collateral on the loan. This was a very small town bank. He also told us that this was the first time he had ever done something like this. He also hoped that we would make the payments as he didn’t really want a dog team.
Next we took the snow machine to the snow machine dealer and told them they could have it for the repair bill against it. We didn’t want anything to do with it anymore. It had already cost us more in money and grief than it was worth. On more than one occasion I had wanted to stuff a rag into the gas tank light it and walk off or just shoot it to put it out of my misery.
Then it was off to Fort Collins to buy our dog team. On arriving at Roger’s house we handed him the money and started to load our new sled, equipment and dogs. The only problem was that we didn’t have a truck with dog boxes like Roger had to load the dogs into. What we had was 1963 International Scout. With us and 5 huskies in the Scout it was crowded, besides these dogs had never ridden inside the cab of a vehicle.
The first thing Poco did was lift his leg on the back of the seat, after which Patch had to mark it too. Things weren’t going quit how we thought they should. By the time we got a couple of miles from Roger’s house Fancy was foaming at the mouth and doing a good impression of a rabid animal, she didn’t ride well. At least she wasn’t throwing up and they weren’t fighting.
The next stop was the sled dog equipment store where we bought chains swivels and snaps so we would be able to stake out the dogs once we got them to their new home.
By the time we got back to Walden it was late and getting dark so we decide to stay at a friend’s house, besides they wanted to see the dogs. Steve told me we could put them in his yard for the night, it had an 8-foot high fence all around it and we thought it would hold them. We were wrong, I was just shutting the gate as Bobby and her sister Spanky were clearing the top of the fence. So much for that idea, they were going to have to be chained up if we ever caught them. Luckily we caught them after a short chase.
The next morning we decided to try out the team, this was going to be our first experience driving a team by ourselves. Although Pam and Steve were going to help us none of us had any real experience driving dogs, and these dogs were going to be a real experience they knew every under handed dirty sled dog trick there was.
We hooked up the sled Sue and Pam got in the basket, Steve held them lined out I jumped on the runners hollered hike and off we went, sort of. We had made one minor mistake, we hadn’t bought a lead dog. We went wherever the dogs wanted to go and one of these places was the first fire hydrant they saw. It would have made a great video, an entire dog team lined up and taking their turn at the hydrant. When we finally got them back to the house we loaded them into the Scout and headed for home, which was 29 miles just to the trail head.
Arriving at the end of the road we harnessed the team and loaded the sled with our supplies and 50 pounds of dog food. Sue was holding the team lined out while I got on the runners. We had Fancy and Patch at lead they were the 2 oldest and there fore the most experienced of the crew and would be the best leaders, I was wrong. As soon as Sue turned them loose Fancy took the entire team under the Scout, Fancy definitely was not a lead dog. Then we tried Spanky and Bobby at lead, we were at least moving, but we were all over the place. Spanky wanted to check out everything even if it meant going up Battle Ridge.
Next we tried Poco and Bobby at lead this time we were going in the right direction but Poco had to stop at every bush and rock along the trail. Sue asked me “are you mad at me for wanting to get a dog team”. Telling her no that I loved her to much to be mad at her and that I wished we had bought a lead dog. I returned to the job at hand mainly trying to get the dogs to go down the trail. She had asked this because our usual 20 minute trip home, (providing the snow machine didn’t break down). Had turned into a 4 hour ordeal and we weren’t there yet. I told her “things will work out it is just going to take time”.
After a total of 4 ½ hours on the trail we were home, it was getting dark and the wind was blowing hard by now causing a ground blizzard. We still had to feed and water the dogs, which was going to take time as we had to melt snow for water. We had a well but it was under 8 feet of snow and I wasn’t even real sure of its exact location. After we chained them up in their new dog yard, which doubled as horse stalls in the summer we got to go in, get warm and eat. It had been a long day, but at least it wasn’t boring. This was the beginning of our long relation ship with sled dogs and one I have never regretted.
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