How acts a mushier, when his dog team suddenly run away?
Around Christmas time 2000 Morten and fellow handler Aase Løken headed out in the Denali
woods on one of their countless training runs. Morten ran a team of ten dogs, while Aase
had a six dog team. Somewhere along the trail Morten made a quick stop to reorganize some
of the lines. He secured the sled to a tree with the snow hook. The dogs love to run and
are always eager to get on the move again. They have tremendous power, which the little
tree suddenly couldn´t withstand. The tree cracked, and the team rushed off down the
trail. But without musher Morten on the sled runners!
Immediately he followed the team at sprinting pace, but he had no succes. Ten huskies
didn´t want to loose a run to a Danish musher!
It´s the musher´s worst night mare: To see his team of brilliant dogs rush off and
disappear in the dark wood. All kind of accidents can happen, which mushers often learn
from various experiences. Though a lead dog is competent and clever, it is not able to
foresee dangers when it´s leading the team on his own.
Morten had only one thing to do - wait for Aase who caught up with him shortly after. |
With the six-dog team, they chased the ten-dog team. Now - a six-dog team with two mushers
on the sled is considerably slower than a ten-dog team in front of an empty sled. The two
mushers helped the dogs all they managed, but the lost team was still out of sight. They
kept chasing for about 12 miles, while lots of "worst-case-scenario" thoughts
passed through the musher´s head .
Suddenly lots of small twinkling dots where seen in the light from the mushers head lamps:
The reflections from the eyes of ten dogs looking back along the trail as the chasers
arrived. The lead dog had been in doubt as it passed two crossing trails, and the team
tumbled into some trees and got stuck. Luckily, it happened just before Morten and Aase
arrived, as the dogs had not yet made any damage to each other.
After the inspection the team was declared in good shape without any injuries, and the
musher was extremely delighted of the happy ending of an important musher experience.
The happy outcome was credtited a competent led dog. If it had not ensured that the lines
had been tightened for a long while, the episode might have been much worse.
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