Impressive!
You cannot call Karen's
Siberians "Slowberians" as the breed has been nicknamed in
racing circles. I recently spent a couple days out at North Wapiti
and went for two runs with the A team. And I was blown away by the
workability and work ethic of the North Wapiti dogs.
Days start early for Karen,
up at 4:30am with Mark who is off to work at 5:00am. Between 6 and
6:30 she feeds and waters the A team and
the puppies. At 9:00am (or a wee bit later, if she is entertaining
chatty guests) she pulls out her records and her "team
board" and writes up a list of dogs in order for the team for
that day. By 9:30 she is out in the yard, hooking up. This involves
getting out the 14 harnesses she will use that day, filling up water
jugs, grabbing any other gear she might need for her trip, and then
off to the dog yard where she hooks up 14 dogs worth of gang line to
the ATV. The dogs are screaming and bouncing around on the end of
their chains howling in anticipation….. "Is it me? Do I get
to go? Pick me!!! Pick me!!!" they all seem to be yelling in
unison. She selects the dogs of the day according to the order on
the team board and brings each dog to the drop chains to be
harnessed. On this particular morning Karen casually said to me
"you might want to bring some money for lunch!!!"
Once the dogs are all
harnessed they get hooked up according to that order on the board. I
found I actually had to really haul those dogs back far enough to
clip on their tug lines as they really lean into their harnesses.
For the most part Karen's team is quite calm at this point. I think
my 6-dog team makes more noise and fuss hooking up than the 14 of
hers did. Some of them roll around on the ground like they are
getting in a good back scratch while they wait!!
With little fuss and an
"alright" from Karen, we are off, through the dog yard,
past the puppy pens and onto the trails. And my education began.
Karen does not use the throttle to assist the dogs. With her and I
on a 600lb ATV those dogs pulled us up hills and down hills and
rarely did Karen get off, walking beside the machine to assist them.
If the dogs slack off she drops a gear and if you look down the line
you can see the dogs IMMEDIATELY get down to business. And quite
often the "slacker" gets a firm telling off from the dog
beside it.
At one point we had to make
a very sharp left hand turn coming off one trail, around a fence and
onto another trail, almost doing a complete about turn in the
process. It was quite something to watch this team swing wide to the
left around the fence and go again, keeping a 14 dog line tight. I
do an about turn on the trails myself, but always my line accordions
and goes slack as the dogs almost snap the rig around. Her line
stayed tight. She made small use of the throttle here to get the
machine around, then off the throttle as we trucked up the long
hill.
We made our way up to the
highway and onto what she calls ditches, but look more like long
grassy banks to me. It was quite fun to hear the honks and see the
waves as people drove past us. I can only imagine what went through
their minds. Mile after mile clicked by, with Karen monitoring the
team, and quietly keeping me entertained with stories of dead
porcupines, flipped ATV's, flying squirrels (which desiccated
remains are fixed to the barbwire fence and I quote " it may be
a flying squirrel, but obviously he wasn't very good at it!" )
I should also mention that as I have come to know Karen, I find she
tends to minimize her adventures in the telling! She warns me when
the going gets rough (oh my aching muscles from hanging on for dear
life) and eventually we make our way to the now famous Perryvale
Cemetery! I notice that Karen now parks the team well past the gate
to the graveyard!
Outside the fence |
Past the gate |
A quick pause to water the
dogs and we are off again, down the main road into Perryvale. A lost
driver pulls us over to ask for directions and once she is comforted
that she is no longer lost she looks at us in astonishment and says
"OH!!! Beautiful dogs!!!!"
Our next stop is the little
town of Perryvale! I never in a month of Sundays imagined I'd ever
get to go to town to pick up the mail by dog team! A quick snack
(why I needed lunch money) and some more stories and we are off
again.
Perryvale |
Town visit via dog team |
Coming out of Perryvale we
did some more road riding, and then back into the trails for a real
workout. I kept peeking over Karen's shoulder to check our speed,
can those dogs work!
On the move
I'll mention the "Pork
Chop" incident here, although it actually occurred on the
second run we did. Pork Chop is the neighbor's dog. Pork Chop seems
to lie in wait for anything it can chase down the roads and through
the fields. He doesn't care if you are a car, a truck or a dog team,
the chase and harassment is on. I had quite a start when I saw him
making a sprinting bee-line for Karen's team, imagining the upcoming
tangle and fight, wondering what she would do. Karen didn't do
anything except yell at him. This pain in the butt hit the team
going full belt and actually ran between her leaders and her point
or swing dogs right through the lines. What did those Siberians do?
NOTHING!! Hardly twitched an ear at him. Although he followed us for
ages, barking and running at the team they completely ignored him. I
can only imagine the amount of training it took for Karen to get her
team to ignore this idiot dog. I was blown away.
It only gets better! Back
to running trails now.
The particular route that
Karen took to go back to the dog yard has a long flat (but not
necessarily level) section of a mile or so. Again peeking over her
shoulder, seeing that the dogs had already clocked over 21 miles, I
watched the speed creep up. For a steady mile these dogs pulled at
20 mph (32 kilometers per hour for us Canadians) in third then
fourth gear, loping down the trail. From behind them it watching
their movement looked like gentle waves rolling backwards, dogs
running in unison, easily and steady. 20 mph. For over a mile. After
running 20 + miles of hills and uneven ground, pulling the two of
us, on the ATV.
Slowberians? I think
NOT!!!!
IMPRESSIVE!!!!!!
On a final note, I went to
North Wapiti to pick up my long awaited puppy. I came home with North
Wapiti's Electra, a.k.a. Ellie.
Kara and daughter, Ellie |
Ellie |
Thank you Karen!!
Gwen Ross
|