As can be seen by the water drops on the lens...
Teresa, Gabe and I went dog sledding in Michigan's Upper Peninsula on Saturday, March 9.
Teresa spotted the flyer at one of the Michigan Welcome Centers and was very high on the idea of going.
To say that I was not as enthusiastic is a significant understatement.
Boy, was I wrong
. I now think that dog sledding is something everyone should do at least once in their life. Mushing through the beautiful and snowy Hiawatha National Forest (with snow occasionally falling) behind seven dogs that love to run is an experience that I will never forget.
Ah, well, back to the description. To dog sled, we had to go from Kalamazoo to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This is a long peninsula that sticks out from Wisconsin into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan.
The residents of the UP refer to the residents of lower Michigan as "trolls", since they live "under" the Mackinac Bridge. It isn't like the rest of Michigan. Frankly, the people up there are more than a little proud that they AREN'T like the rest of Michigan - or anywhere else that I've ever seen or heard of. The extreme upper portion of the UP had 248 inches of snow this year.
To get there, we drove to the "top" of lower Michigan, then crossed the Mackinac Bridge. This is a huge (5 mile) suspension bridge over the Straits of Mackinac, which is where Lake Michigan flows into Lake Huron.
(this picture was actually taken on Sunday, on the way back)
This area is well known for severe weather (the straits do freeze in the winter). Crossing the Straits of Mackinac late night Friday, with a freeze warning and warnings coming over the bridge radio stations about ice on the bridge was a bit nerve wracking. No problems at all, but a bit worrisome.
Once we got on solid land on the other side, things were
different. For one thing, there were some (what I consider) real hills. In Michigan, the land does roll some but a hill is pretty rare. For another thing, the area is "empty". In Michigan, about every five miles or so, even out in the country, you will come to an intersection with a gas station, a little diner - SOMETHING.
In the UP, that is more like 30 miles apart - and frequently between them, you wouldn't see a house.
We headed onto US 2 West and settled down for the drive. US 2 goes fairly close to Lake Michigan fairly often, but it was night and a bit foggy: we only caught occasional glimpses.
We had about 100 miles to go to get to our hotel, Tylenne's. This turned out to be a nice little "mom and pop" hotel, with the Lake Michigan beach right across US 2 from it, and one of the UP snowmobile trails right behind it (it supposedly fills up when the snow is right for snowmobiling).
I had warned them we might be late, so they had said they would just leave our room unlocked for us (with no deposit, I might add). Like I said, the UP is a bit different, but we like it.
The owners were still awake when arrived. They told us which room was ours (yes, it was unlocked) and we settled in.
The weather changed during the night: rain came in. Saying this is unusual is putting it mildly. This also caused the first power outage Tylenne's had had in a year.
I am continually amazed in my journeys with Teresa how "mistakes" and "difficulties" that might put a damper on a trip always seem to end up making the trip better. This was no exception.
We were supposed to go dog sledding early the next morning after a continental breakfast at Tylenne's. With the power out, we couldn't do breakfast. With the rain, it wasn't a good idea to do sledding in the morning. So, sledding was postponed until the afternoon, and we piled into the car and hit the road in search of breakfast.
Remember my comment about the land being empty? We ended up driving into Escambia (which was a good 30 miles down the road) for breakfast - and I am very glad we did. We ended up at the Swedish Pantry (a lot of Nordics emigrated to the UP and it shows) Breakfast was Swedish
WONDERFUL.
After that, we drove around a bit, ate an early lunch at "Jack's Eats" (which was very good, despite the stigma of the name), got our stuff from the hotel and headed for dog sledding.
We got there to find preparations in full swing for the afternoon sledding. A group of four men (evidently friends who had a "guy's weekend" every year) were going on a two hour trip Saturday, and a six hour trip on Sunday.
This meant that both Kelli and Fred (the owners) would be sledding and everyone (except Fred) would have two people on their sled.
Fred took the four, while Kelli stayed with Teresa, Gabe and I.
Your dog sledding starts with a lesson on how to mush your team. "Hike Left", "Hike Right" (turns), "Hup" (speed up - you say it more than once for more speed), "tight line" (you dogs in front quit coasting and making the dogs in back do all the work), "Stop, Stay" (pretty obvious) and "take a break" (sit down and rest) were pretty much it.
That, and how the bakes on the sled worked. There were two: a flap to drag and bar that you stood on that would drag two bars into the ground.
By the way, NEITHER of these are really like a brake on a car - if the dogs wanted to go, these really wouldn't stop them.
Fred and Kelli had help from some friends harnessing the dogs. Each sled was attached to a post driven solidly into the ground, with a "quick release" clip.
Gabe holding Fireball, waiting for him to be harnessed
Kelli told us to hang on REALLY tight when we let the dogs go (i.e. unclipped the quick release).
Fred took his team out first, and then the guy's weekend group.
I was very thankful for that order, since it showed me some things to watch out for. When released, the dogs lunge forward and then will take a hard right onto the driveway. After watching one sled turn over, we knew to be careful and use our brakes on that turn.
All of the dogs are lean - they run too much to get fat and very well cared for. And they LOVE to run. The dogs had a total of 2,400 miles on them since December.
Harnessing was QUITE noisy since most of the dogs were excitedly barking. 45 dogs getting excited is pretty loud.
Teresa and I were paired, with Teresa starting as the musher. Gabe was mushing on the other sled with Kelli as his rider.
The dogs know the trails and will follow the sled in front (sometimes this is a problem
)
Fred and the guys took off, then our two teams finished harnessing. Gabe pulled the release and off he and Kelli went.
Now it was Teresa's and my turn
.
Jon getting ready to start
Teresa yanked the release and
VOOM, off like a rocket we went.
Well, not really
but it FEELS that way when you are sitting in the sled, about three inches off snow or standing on the runners.
The dogs consistently go about seven miles per hour. That doesn't sound all that speedy until you try to run behind them in full snow gear
. It's pretty fast.
We made the first turn in fine fashion and headed down the driveway. At the end of the driveway, there is a dogleg back to the left across the railroad tracks. Gabe and Kelli had already made that turn - so the dogs promptly pulled us across the railroad tracks (this means the rider has to get out and help move the sled).
From there, we began cruising down snowmobile trails through the Hiawatha National Forest.
"Unless you're the lead dog, the view in front never changes!"
I settled down and started to enjoy myself. This is also where I realized that sled dogs don't come with mud flaps
they were kicking up pellets of snow and slush (because of the rain) and I was very glad for my ski goggles.
It was quiet and peaceful on the snowy trail. The dogs don't waste energy barking while they are running
Now, when they stop, particularly if there is another team right in front of you, they DO get noisy. One of the things that you have to watch for is not letting the teams get side by side - sometimes a fight breaks out when that happens. It seems that, within the teams, the dogs get along, but between teams can be an issue - competition, you know.
And in case you are curious, NONE of the dogs seem to have any trouble at all with people. They were as nice and friendly to us as they could be. Teresa fell in love with our lead dog even before we knew he was on our team. He was a Black long haired husky, named "Fireball". It was an accurate name, by the way.
Gabe mushed the entire time while Teresa and I took turns mushing.
That's Gabe, mushing in front of us
Our first bit of "excitement" came while negotiating a rolling stretch of trail in the deep woods. Teresa had been wearing a knit cap with her ski goggles up on her forehead (mushing, you don't get quite as much spray from the dogs).
You start noticing small, funny details: like the dog that really doesn't like the slush and will bounce up in the air (still in harness) anytime your go over a patch of it.
Kelli stopped us so I could take some pictures. Unfortunately, the dogs had gotten snow on the lens and they were kind of iffy.
Gabe Mushing
Gabe in foreground, Teresa in background
Gabe and Kelli, waiting for me to finish with pictures.
Teresa. I could tell you it started snowing heavily, but it actually was the snow and fog on the camera lens.
I recommend Fred and Kelli if you are interested in dog sledding. Here is their web page:
http://www.wildernesstrailoutfitters.com/
Then it was back and change clothes (due to the weather, we got a bit wet), head back East (towards the bridge) until we stopped for the night in a lovely beachfront place called the Breakers.
Two Views from the Breakers
The trip back the next day was interesting. Lake effect snow had come in and covered everything - it was lovely. They apparently scrape the road "by counties", so some areas were relatively clear and others were pretty snowy. We didn't have any trouble, but we drove across a lot of snow. Snow was still falling and (only having been here this season) my 40 mph was evidently too slow for the natives - they kept passing.
The first I knew that there was a problem was her comment "My hat and goggles fell off - I'll get them".
It is amazing how quickly your mind can sometimes work
"NO, I'll grab them - you drive". I bailed out over the side, ran back and grabbed the hat and goggles, then started to run behind the sled to catch up.
At this point, I realized that Teresa had a slight problem (by the way, she was laughing throughout this difficulty) - she had been hanging onto the bar (as the musher is supposed to) but started to step off when she lost her hat and goggles. With the dogs still running, getting back on the runners was tricky to do.
Anyway, she had a tight grip on the bar and was being dragged behind the sled, toes in the snow.
Momentary panic until I managed to catch up and hear her laughing merrily about it
. We got the team stopped, got everything back together and took off.
Like the dog that ends up on one side of the line, then the other, pretty much indiscriminately.
Like the fact that, if a dog in a prior sled left
"evidence of their passing" on the trail, the teams afterwards will slow down (and try to stop) to investigate as you go by.
Like the snow covered trees zipping by at a pretty good pace.
When it came time for me to drive, I came to the conclusion that you don't so much drive the sled as aim it. This is mainly done by shifting your weight from one runner to the other, leaning a lot and occasionally having your passenger shift their weight. The same principle as steering skis applies to sleds as well.
We didn't see any wildlife (not too surprising, there were four sleds in front of us and a LOT of dogs in the area).
Wonderful, wonderful trip.
We got a bit worried when we came to a place where Department of Transportation had closed US 2 (about 20 miles from the bridge) however, the detour led us up and around without any trouble.
However, it was QUITE windy (sustained 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 50). They were only letting passenger cars, vans and empty pickup trucks (without campers) onto the bridge at that point. 18 wheelers, buses and trailers were not being allowed.
This stacked up snowmobilers and tour buses on both sides of the bridge.
It was foggy on both ends, but pretty clear on the bridge. The straits tend to freeze over during the winter, but the ice had started breaking up by this time in March. It was really an impressive view.
Once we got across the bridge, we stopped in Mackinac City for lunch. The place was relatively crowded, until about ¾ of the way through, somebody came in and shouted "They are opening the bridge".
It emptied out quickly then, and the line of buses, trailers and so on started creeping across the bridge.
The rest of the trip home was scenic, snowy and uneventful. It was nice to get home.