Too Stupid to Be Scared

For the recreational musher it usually starts with one dog. To exercise this high-energy dog you use a bike or a scooter, and in the winter there is skijoring (if you are adept on a set of skis, which I am not) and if the dog is strong, (my first was) and you don’t weigh too much you use a dog sled. But I say Sleddogs are like Lays Potato Chips, “you can’t stop at one”. Once your team grows past 2, you start looking at some sort of wheeled rig to exercise it with. For a while this works well, it is usually easy to transport, and for 4-6 dogs it gets you merrily down the trail without too many mishaps. When the numbers get to 6, you start having spectacular adventures, usually involving an inadequate braking system, not enough weight, and by the time you have a few good crashes under your belt, by the time you have been dragged on your face, or worn out your shoes trying desperately to add drag to stop the team, you start thinking about other means of wheeled vehicles to train up a dog team. Enter the ATV! Suddenly things change as now you have good stopping power, lots of weight, and you can get off your machine, lock the brake and deal with a multitude of training issues.
This is the third season I’ve used an ATV. I fought against stepping up to an ATV, didn’t want to lose the non-motorized trails I used. I was still running a cart with 6 dogs and didn’t want to think I could be needing more weight, better brakes, but eventually I decided I really had to stop with the death wish and get with the program. I have to confess that using an ATV has changed how I train up my dogs. I feel empowered to deal with any training issue at the moment it happens. And I have confidence to tackle obstacles and situations that I would never have dreamed of with a cart. This season one of the things I wanted to learn was how to do water crossings. Not giant puddle type water crossings, but river crossings.
Today I had a 6 mile run on the agenda. I wasn’t intending to cross the creek to turn the dogs around but when we got to the creek, and it didn’t look too deep, and there was a nice turn around spot on the OTHER side and the banks down and up from the creek only about 2-3 meters long….. and steep, very steep, with lots of rock and water run off grooves, but probably doable, with an ATV. As I went down the bank and into the water I briefly thought ‘that is going to be a challenge to come back up’ and then all I could focus on was the fact that my team was headed down stream rather than across. Not wanting to get wet I stayed on the machine and called the haw (go left) and thankfully my leaders turned and headed back towards the other side and up the other steep bank. A couple of weeks ago I tried a milder river crossing and wound up getting my gangline caught up around my front axle, so I was paying close attention to not letting any slack in the line to get caught up under the ATV.

(fellow musher decides to turn around before going down into the creek. Doesn't look so bad anymore from my perspective having come down it... FOOL!!!)



Team got turned around and I started to head back. Piece of cake I thought. The dogs took the creek properly this time, crossing smartly, and pulling the machine through easily. They started up the very steep bank digging in hard, and I dropped the gears and gave them a little throttle to assist.

That’s when things went wrong, badly wrong. We hit the run off groove and then the front end bounced up on a boulder and it surprised me, so instead of keeping my weight forward on the machine I jerked backwards and on that angle the machine started to come back over. It all happened in a couple of seconds, the machine started to roll over backwards, I became hung up on the milk crate that I use to carry gear and water, and as I smacked down hard on my back in the mud I thought ‘oh, no, I’ve flipped my machine!’ All sorts of thoughts skittered through my head in a flash, as time seemed to slow way down as I watched the machine teetering straight up in the air above me, but my mind was going a million miles an hour.

‘I’m about to get hugged by the ATV and it’s gonna hurt!’

‘I wonder if all the fluids in the machine are going to drain out all over me’

‘Geeeesh I think my head is in the stainless steel food dish’

‘I think the dogs are holding this’

“Come on guys!!” I called out.

‘I wonder if I can get my foot up to kick the seat hard and get it back down’

'Oh no, what if I hit the dogs when it lands'

Fortunately one of the other mushers ran back, grabbed it and pulled it back down on 4 wheels again. That’s when I started to laugh, and as I picked up the contents of the crate and reattached it to the ATV I thought I had been too stupid to even be scared. My friends later told me that they were terrified when they saw the machine flip straight upright and on the steep down hill it was only the dogs that kept me from being embraced by the ATV. My 6 dogs had dug in, and were holding it while it teetered precariously on its back, with me underneath.
Tonight I owe a huge thanks to those dogs, and especially to my wheel dogs, Jovo and Stryder. Boys, I owe you a steak!