Skijoring

Skijor = to ski while being pulled by 1 to 3 animals

Pulk = to skijor and then also pull a sled behind you

Well, due to all the questions on my mushing posts about whether or not the Disreputable Dog pulls, I thought I should address skijoring. Of course the Disreputable pulls! Not only that but if you were to google my real name many of the top posted items would be skijoring races. Now, the Disreputable Dog is not a very fast dog but he's not supposed to be; he's more along the lines of what you need to pull a heavy sled and believe me, he can pull twice his body weight all day if need be. He's a great skijorer (see pictures) on long skis especially overnight trips or hut trips. He's game for racing too but he's never in the top league because he's too big, he's not a sprint dog but a dog built for stamina. He's the type of dog the post office would have used to haul the mail across the tundra.

He's never been part of a mushing team but has raced together in two dog teams in skijoring. And done trips. Once when we lived on a sandbar on a tributary to the Yukon River (umm...we were doing field work) some of the locals (meaning they lived in a town upriver from us, about 4 hours by boat) tried to steal him because they thought he would be the perfect trapline dog. And he would. Except he is extremely loyal and wasn't having anything to do with being abducted. When a 120lb dog digs his feet into soft river sand you can bet that no one will get him to budge, but I digress.

The point is he loves to pull and I love to ski and we spend lots of time every winter hooked up into a harness with me skate or classic skiing behind him as he pulls. That makes it sound easy but it isn't. It's a lot of work for both of us. It is important for the skier to maintain a rhythm that doesn't work against the rhythm of the dog. It's great fun and it's particularly useful when you are on a trail that requires your dog to be leashed because he is, and yet you have your hands free.

When we first took up skijoring (in Fairbanks of course, where else?) I happened to mention it to a relative of mine who is one of the original Marlboro Men (seriously) and he mentioned that in his youth they used to do it down Colorado ski hills pulled by horses! Now that, sounds a little crazy to me. A dog, at least, will notice and stop if you fall down.

Dog Mushing

I am a sucker for dog races and since I don't know if I'll be in Alaska to watch any of my favorite ones in person this year, I showed up at a little local race that happened this weekend in Colorado. I almost brought the Disreputable Dog and my skate skis, just in the off chance that we could register for the skijor races on race day, but since I wasn't sure I didn't. I had a blast. There were some great young mushers, 13-16 years old and one 5 year old who went off together with his older brother. It was entertaining talking to the people in the town who talked about the "great dog races"; the Yukon Quest (February) & the Iditarod (March). I heard them asking each other questions about the races and the mushers and since I've volunteered as a handler and know some of the mushers who run those races personally I stepped in to answer their questions. I love February and March, hearing the barking of dogs on my radio in the dark of morning and the mushing reports from the trail, trying to follow my favorite mushers, every year I choose a few to follow - sometimes it's ones I know, sometimes it's one's I just met because I handled for them, and sometimes it's because they come from another place that I have a connection to.

I love being at the starting line and watching the excitement of the dogs, every vocal noise you've ever heard come from a dog is pitched into the frosty air and excited dogs lunge in their harnesses like whales leaping through the spray, excited to get away and to run. When they finally get going their excitement and beauty is so much it almost makes tears come to your eyes. These Colorado races had one thing right, the whole community was involved. This seems to be tradition in the mushing sports that every community that either hosts races or has them pass through takes part in some way in making the race happen. Perhaps that is why I enjoy this sport so much.