Snowfall marks start of sledding season

PONDERAY - For world-class athletes, these two are entirely approachable.  Gregarious, even.

Don't be surprised if Liam wraps you up in a big hug and wedges his nose into your armpit in greeting.  Dakota will snuggle in close, make eye contact and beg for you to rub her belly.

Athletic achievement and the fame that followed it haven't spoiled Dakota, who ran as one of the lead dogs on a team that won the Iditarod - an event that involves spending 10 days or more of sub-zero temperatures in a dog sled race across 1,150 miles of the most extreme terrain Alaska has to offer. 

After the snow that blew in Friday and Saturday, these dogs are ready to help turn mere mortals into real mushers as part of a recreational sledding program going on throughout the winter at the Ponderay Garden Center. (see sidebar)

True North Expeditions owners Dan and Gina Phillips spent the last couple of Saturdays holding meet-and-greet sessions with a team of dogs at the center.  As the animals bounded out of the kennel trailer that brought them to the site, you could almost see the disappointment as they sniffed around for snow and found only bare ground.  This weekend is different, as fresh mounds of white herald the beginning of sledding season.

"We've been training by having the dogs pull us on ATVs," Dan Phillips said.  "They've been doing that for two months now, so we we're all ready for snow."

According to the couple, the Alaskan Huskies knew a storm was on the way before the weather service was forecasting it for the weekend.

"The dogs can feel it in the air," Dan said.  "When you watch them, they act like a bunch of skiers who are hanging out with their buddies, getting the itch for that first snow.  They know it's coming and they get excited about going to work."

Pulling hard over extended periods of time is something the Huskies are bred to do. 

Most people have a mental image of sled dogs as looking like the big Alaskan Malamutes - animals that can weigh up to 95 pounds and look well suited to the task.  The more compact Huskies often tilt the scales at less than half that weight and look to be little more than lean muscle wrapped around a frame of will power.

"It's always one of the first things people say: 'I thought they would be bigger,'" Phillips said. "But one of these dogs does the work of five trail dogs.  And when you need to cover some distance, you want a marathon runner, not a linebacker."

The Huskies are prized for a strong work ethic that might qualify them as canine workaholics.  In a race like the Iditarod, a team can haul a sled at speeds of up to 20 mph all day long for days on end.

The four dogs at the back of the line do most of the heavy pulling, Phillips explained, and take pride in their role as the brawn that moves things along.  Up front you'll find the brains of the operation - the lead dogs like Dakota and Liam who have developed a strong bond with the mushers and listen for the verbal cues that keep the sled on track.

"And some dogs just want to run in the middle," said Phillips.  "They're kind of like the employee who just wants to come to work, put in their time and go home at the end of the day."

Dan Phillips fell in love with the Huskies after training sled dogs for a recreational business in Aspen and later going to work for a veteran Iditarod racer in Colorado.  The first job put him in touch with stars who came to the resort town to try out sledding - names like Kevin Costner, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.  The second position introduced him to a different breed of star as he trained more than 3,000 miles per season with dogs bound for the grueling Alaskan Iditarod.

"After working with those dogs at that level, there was no way I could go back," he said. 

Dan and Gina moved from Colorado to Bonners Ferry, where he was raised, with nine Huskies in tow.  After two winter seasons of training for other racers, they have managed to trade their way into a kennel of what they describe as "25 of the top racing dogs in the world."

Their business, True North Expeditions, books outdoor vacation packages for a mostly affluent clientele, including whitewater rafting, adventure ski packages and backcountry sled excursions.  To make dog sledding more accessible to the average person, the couple partnered with Ponderay Garden Center this winter to offer a series of recreational rides and classes for those who want to see what if feels like to fly across the snow behind a team of dogs.

"It's something that attracts a wide array of people, from dog lovers to adrenaline junkies who just want to go fast," Dan said.  "Whether it's because they watched the movie 'Iron Will' as a kid or they hooked the family dog up to their sled and tried to get it to pull them along, I think it's a childhood fantasy."

Sandpoint is centrally located between races in Montana, Washington and Canada, he added, which could lead to developing a dog sledding culture in this region.

"That could definitely happen here," Phillips predicted.  "It's got everything people are looking for and the sport is getting more and more popular because it's a great way to get up into the mountains.

"Two or three dogs can take you a long way on a sled and, up here, we've got the places where you can go and do that."

For more information on the Phillips family and their Alaskan Huskies, visit: www.truenorthexpeditions.com