Oz: The great and powerful
You know how a certain smell can take you right back to your grandmother’s kitchen or your elementary school classroom? How hugging your child can allow you to feel your baby in your arms? The same is true with the dogs. Born and raised here at the kennel, each dog can take me back to their goofy antics as a puppy and the memorable times we have shared on and off the trail.
Oz and Mike
Oz is 13 years old. He was born the second summer we lived in Alaska. He participated in every race Mike entered until just the past couple of years. As we prepared for our first Iditarod Mike described him as “Speed, grace, and flexibility that would make Gumby envious.” Oz is featured everywhere. When I designed our t-shirts several of the dogs were traced from images I had of Oz. He is displayed throughout our theater and presentation. I see him daily in these images as well as in person and it brings me back to these moments in my life.
Oz: The wise
Age challenges us all and dogs are no exception. Oz is showing his age. He no longer leads the team on runs and I know that this could be the last winter we share. Mushers, too, feel the challenges of age. While driving sled dogs favors the wisdom that comes with years of experience, joints, tendons, and circulation beg to differ. To help with these challenges, we find ways to cheat age: aspirin, braces, and stubbornness being some of our favorite tools.
Max and his Mountains
Our weather is starting to get cold. The days use sunshine as a disguise, but the nights are honest. Their cold creeps into your bones, foreshadowing what is to come. So too, do we ultimately have to come to terms with the physical challenges of growing older. Aging athletes move into coaching and commentary roles, determined to stay involved with the sport and lifestyle that has consumed their lives. Mike and I have fought these truths, but have also taken on younger comrades to fill in where we once were. Amanda has already spent both a summer and a winter with us and she is back to chase her own Iditarod dream. An athlete herself, she has found passion in both the dogs athleticism and the power of being stronger together.
Amanda and Gypsy
This magic, when dog team and human become one, fuels our passion. Bruce Springsteen said it best, “The primary math of the real world is one and one equals two. The layman swings that every day. He goes to the job, does his work, pays his bills and comes home. One plus one equals two. It keeps the world spinning. But artists, musicians, con men, poets, mystics and such are paid to turn that math on its head, to rub two sticks together and bring forth fire. Everybody performs this alchemy somewhere in their life, but it’s hard to hold on to and easy to forget. People don’t come to rock shows to learn something. They come to be reminded of something they already know and feel deep down in their gut. That when the world is at its best, when we are at our best, when life feels fullest, one and one equals three.” This is the essential equation of mushing. When you have given everything, you can create a situation where you and your dogs are more together than each of you are separately. It is the reason our relationships with dogs, like Oz, are so compelling. They bring us back to those moments in time “when the world is at its best, when we are at our best, when life feels fullest, one and one equals three.”
We have signed Amanda up to participate several races with our dogs. These are 200 and 300 mile long events taking place during January and February. Preparation for these races consumes all of our time and energy. There are 36 dogs in training. This includes 15 one year old dogs entering their first winter of real training. While not all of them will race this year, they are experiencing camping on the trail, traveling in the dog trailer, and learning good habits like eating when dinner is served, sleeping when they have the chance, and enjoying pedicures and booties.
Most people experience Alaska in the summer, but you have the chance to partake in these winter experiences with us. Not only will I continue to bring you photos and stories from our training and racing experiences this year, but you can develop a relationship with one of the dogs through our dog sponsorship program. Your support makes all the magic possible, but also gives you the opportunity to participate in the alchemy of coming together, to develop that magic that comes from sharing your life with a dog. One and one equals three.
Quigley
Max and I go to school each day. There are exactly 10 kids enrolled, which is enough to still receive state funding, enough for a few friends, but feels small, even for Cantwell. The days still feel long, although there is much less light than summer. The daylight is always skewed here, so mornings are darker than evenings. I drive to work in the dark, but come home in the light. There are things about the dark that I love: the way the mountains look reflecting in the moonlight, the chance to wear my headlamp all the time.
While I love living where we do, I still long for a finished house. We started work on the upper floor in April and I am still sleeping on an air mattress. The room is beautiful, but everything seems to take so long. Supplies take forever to get to Alaska, expenses delay when you can make purchases, and we have only so much time to work on the house in between the hours of dog care. I admit wondering about easier lifestyles as I climb the ladder yet again to haul the wood to fill the fire. Imagine living in a house where you just turn the heat on. Imagine being able to leave home and go somewhere with your spouse, and yet I am compelled by the moments when one and one equals three.
A rare Denali snowman
Max and I walk in the fresh fallen snow looking for tracks. We find places where moose have traveled, where birds have walked and then left feather imprints as they flew away. We see lots and lots of snowshoe hare tracks and then the straight line of alternating tracks left by a lynx. We traced his route as he crossed foot bridges and followed a trail. For days in a row we returned and found his fresh tracks.
Trixie, Tickle, Tyvek, Tigger, and Taz
The pups are growing fast. Tigger, Trixie, Tyvek, Tickle, and Taz watch with excitement as the teams charge out of the yard. The adult team will spend more and more time away from home over the next few months. They have started training long miles, but there is not yet enough snow for a sled. Mike uses the truck with chains on the tires. Mike, Amanda, and Jeremiah work around the clock. They run to camp, rest, and run again. Over and over, preparing and then running into the cold, dark distance.
Training with the Dog Truck
My responsibilities will keep me mostly at home. There are lessons to prepare, meals to cook, harnesses to repair, and a child to nurture. I work hard to fill these many roles, to be the one behind the curtain. Yet I sneak time watch the puppies play with the ravens, to enjoy the energy of the young dogs, to reminisce with Oz. One and one equals three.
Ramrod
Until next time, I hope you are all having as much fun with your dogs as we are with ours. Mike, Caitlin, and Max