Skijoring: A Day of Fun!

Anyone want to go skijoring?

For our third day at Winona Forest on the Tug Hill Plateau in New York, we decided to give our two oldest dogs, Zoe and T-Bone, the day off and head out skijoring with our three youngest dogs, Acadia, Okemo and Sobo. Skijoring is cross country skiing while a dog pulls you. It is an exhilarating and fast growing sport which combines cross country skiing and dog sledding. Originating in Scandanavia and literally meaning "ski driving" in Norwegian, skijoring (sometimes spelled "ski-joring") involves a dog and owner exercising together in partnership while enjoying the outdoors. Skijoring is not simply skiing while your dog runs alongside. It requires that your dog know all basic mushing commands including, gee, haw, line out, on by, and most importantly, whoa and it requires that you be a intermediate or better cross country skiier proficient especially in snow plowing and stopping. To read more about skijoring, you can visit the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures skijoring page and skijoring lessons page.

Eric with Okemo and Sobo practicing his snow plowing

Looking down the trail

Acadia and I skijoring

Okemo and I skijoring down Alice's Ally

For skijoring, the dog(s) wears a traditional dog sledding harness. We like x-back harnesses made by Dogbooties. The dog is connected to the skier by a line with an integrated bungee/shock absorber ranging in length from 7-13 feet. We make our own skijoring (and bikejoring, scootering, and canicross lines). The skier then wears a skijoring belt which the line connects to via a carabiner (we prefer screw gate or "locking" 'biners) and typically a panic snap. For skijoring belts we use our White Pine belts (we also use these belts for walking the dogs and for canicross). Some skijorers prefer "diaper" style belts that have legs loops that offer a lower center of gravity and tend not to ride up. Whatever belt you decide to use, it should be a minimum of 3 inches wide and padded. For more information on where to purchase gear visit the Resources page of the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures website.

Okemo and Sobo demonstrating a nice "line out."

After loading all of the dogs in the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures dog truck, we headed back to the CCC camp trail head at Winona (map of Winona).

We began by setting up the picket lines and dropping and harnessing the sled dogs.

Harnessing Acadia

Putting Acadia's belly band on while Zoe (green jacket) looks on

After dropping and harnessing the dogs, we re-loaded T-Bone and Zoe back into the truck (who immediately began throwing up a ruckus having now realized they were going to be left behind) and headed out onto Bargy. I had our pint sized puppy power, 8 month old Acadia and Eric had wheel dog, Okemo and lead dog, Sobo (aka the big boys). As we skied along, it was clear that the dogs were enjoying themselves immensely, especially Okemo. Indeed, Okemo surprised us with his aptitude for skijoring and his drive to go down the trail (note to self: try this dog out in lead with the team) although "whoa" is not a command that Okemo heeds well. Turning "gee" onto Frank's Fancy (for a list of commonly used dog sledding commands click here), Eric and I wound our way through gorgeous pine and hardwood forests blanketed with snow. Frank's Fancy is a fabulous trail for the dogs since it is winding and twisty with a number of modest hills (this is where snow plowing and stopping ability become very important). As we started down the first hill, Eric got going a little too fast and ended up wiping out in a snow bank. Following Frank's Fancy to Hessel, we turned haw onto wide open Hessel, going on by Bargy we turned "gee" onto Alice's Ally. As we turned onto Alice's, we decided to switch dogs and Eric took Acadia and Sobo while I took Okemo. Now, to date, Okemo has primarily been a wheel dog. At three years old, he's 70 lbs of pulling power with a little puppy mixed in. While he's not a speed demon, he is by far our strongest dog. Apparently, however, we for this particular little skijor excursion someone forgot to tell Okemo that he wasn't a lead dog as he galloped along, pulling hard during the entire 5 mile skijor. One one particularly steep down hill on Alice's, I ended in front of Okemo but managed to slow down enough that he was able to catch up. Following the connector trail (not shown on the map), we moved onto Dog Leg, eventually coming back to Bargy, making a "gee" turn and heading back into the trail head lot.

Acadia pulling hard down the trail

Acadia and I coming down Hessel

Stopped on the trail, Acadia searches for snow gremlins

Eric hamming it up for the camera with Okemo and Sobo

New lead dog? Okemo and I skijoring

After all that skijoring, the dogs and Eric and I were all hungry so while the dogs had a nice chicken snack, Eric and fired up the camp stove and made hot corned beef and swiss sandwiches and heated some yummy lentil soup.

After all of the excitement, we headed back for a late afternoon nap at our accommodations.

"This was so much fun," says Sobo. Can we go again?

Ten Miles on the Tug Hill Plateau

If you are not the lead dog, the view never changes!

Sunday morning Eric and I along with the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures sled dogs headed back to Winona Forest for a long training run from the Wart Road trail head. Click here to check out a map of the trails throughout the forest. This trail head is especially popular with snow mobilers and skiers and less popular with mushers. We love it, however, as it provides easy access to some wonderful trails and lots of "gee/haw" practice. Arriving at approximately 10 am, we were pleased to find very few other vehicles in the lot.

Snowy Wart Road

Harnessing the dogs, we put Acadia and Zoe in lead, T-Bone in team, and Okemo and Sobo in wheel. Shortly after harnessing, Frank and his Alaskans arrived, hooked up and went out.

Blur of motion: Frank and his Alaskans

Shortly after harnessing, I had planned out a nice 10-11 mile run that included a variety of trails ranging from wide open main corridor trails to narrow and twisty woods trails. The plan was to run north on Wart Road to Winona Way.

Heading down Wart Road

As we turned "gee" onto Winona Way, the snow was deep and ungroomed for about .25 mile but quickly opened up to groomed trail.

Deep unbroken snow on Winona Way

As we sped along Winona Way, we passed several groups of skiers. Coming to a couple skiing with an off leash dog, I gave the dogs a hard "on by." Not sure exactly what it was, but just as the leaders tried to take the team on by, T-Bone, in team, dove at the other dog, pulling me and the sled into the skier. Apologies all around and no injuries to dogs or people thankfully. So embarrassing, though, since the dogs know better. Winona Way is a fabulous wooded trail that climbs gently up hill until it intersects with Hawley. Along Hawley, I decided to experiment with the dogs' positions on the team, and put Acadia in single lead with Zoe and T-Bone in team, and Sobo and Okemo in wheel. Turning right onto Hawley, a wide open trail, we sped along. Coming up to Bargy, I gave the dogs an "on by" telling them to cross Bargy and continue on Tucker. For some reason, the dogs refused to "on by" Bargy. Two cross country skiiers got to watch me repeatedly have to plant the snow hook, get off the sled, and show the dogs what I wanted them to do. After about what seemed like 10 trys, the dogs finally got that I wanted them to go "on by" Bargy and through the intersection. Just as we crossed onto Tucker, the skiiers said that the "other musher" said that Alice's wasn't groomed in at that end and that he had turned around. Giving the "come haw" command, the dogs executed a good turn around in the middle of Tucker trail. Approaching Bargy once again, we turned "gee" onto Bargy and headed north. Heading north on Bargy, Acadia took us cleanly "on by" and over North Church road, on by the first entrance for Dog Leg. Turning "gee" at the second entrance to Dog Leg we followed dog leg until it routed us on Alice's Ally. Along Alice's I found a nice place to pull off and snack the dogs and have a cup of tea. Traveling north along Alice's, we came to the intersection of Alice's and Hessel and turned "haw." Just after starting out on Hessel, T-Bone blew off one of his boots which I was able to collect. Stopping the team, I re-booted T-Bone and off we went. At the end of Hessel, Acadia had been in single lead for approximately four miles. Stopping briefly, I once again moved Zoe up into lead with Acadia and off we went heading south on Bargy. Zoe and Acadia easily "on by'd" North Church Road, turning "gee" on Hiscock. Hiscock is another favorite woods trail of ours and we were pleased to find it was nicely groomed (at least along this stretch). Following Hiscock, we turned "haw" onto Winona Way and followed Winona for a short distance to Hawley. From here our plan was to turn "gee" onto Hawley and then "haw" onto Bill's Belly. As we approached Bill's Belly, it was clear that Bill's was not at all groomed in. Since the dogs were tired and not in the mood to break trail, we continued on along Hawley to Wart Road heading back into the trail head.

Heading back into the trail head

Arriving back at the trail head, Eric and I got the dogs squared away and watered and set up the camp stove to make our own lunch of mac and cheese and grilled corned beef and cheese sandwiches. After lunch, we decided to go out for a short skijoring run with Acadia and Okemo of about 3.5 miles. Returning to the truck just as the sun was setting we headed home to watch the Super Bowl and eat pizza. Yum.

Our First Dog Sledding Run at Tug Hill

Arriving at the historic CCC camp, after the drive up to New York, we were excited to get out on the trails in Winona Forest for our first run on snow of the season. We dropped (musher jargon for letting the dogs out of the truck so they can potty and be harnessed) the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures sled dogs and set up for a late afternoon run. The parking lot had two other dog trucks in it when we arrived but all in all, it was very quiet.

Sled dogs hanging on the picket line at the CCC camp

Heading out, we did an approximately 5.5 mile run. In lead, we hooked up our youngest dog (8 month old), Acadia, and our oldest dog (9 year old) and best leader, Zoe. Behind the leaders, we put T-Bone. When running on snow, T-Bone must be booted (for information on where we purchase our gear, visit our resources page) because his long fluffy foot fur is prone to ice balls. Behind T-Bone, in wheel we put our "power dogs" 4 year old Siberian, Sobo and hardworking 3 year old, "big white dog," Okemo.

T-Bone modeling his dog booties

Wheel dog: Okemo

The team

Setting out, we started out from the trail head on Pussycat Trail, crossed Route 90, turned "haw" on Bargy, made a "gee" on Frank's Fancy and headed down one of my favorite trails. Why is Frank's one of my favorite trails? It's a lovely little jaunt through mixed pine and hardwood forest with some nice twists and turns that really tend to excite the dogs. About half way down Frank's Fancy, Frank Caldwell and his team of eight Alaskans caught up to us. Given the narrow trail and our pup, Acadia, being in heat, Frank's dogs did not want go smoothly "on by." As the dogs balled up, Frank got off his sled to untangle them and then began to demonstrate what I am calling the human snow hook maneuver as his dogs began to drag him down the trail. As most mushers know, many dogs fell the "whoa" command is purely advisory in nature and it's really the brakes (drag, claw and snow hook) that mushers use to stop their teams.

Stop signs mean nothing to sled dogs...this is why we have snow hooks

In his haste to untangle the dogs, Frank had forgotten to deploy the ever important snow hook. After all of this excitement, the dogs were raring to go and off we went. At Hessel, we turned "haw," crossing Bargy and turning "gee" onto Alice's Ally. As we made the "gee" onto Alice's, we were beginning to lose light and I urged the dogs to pick up the speed. Alice's, like Frank's Fancy, is yet another winding, twisty forested trail which the dogs love. We followed Alice's to the connector trail that connects Alice's to Dog Leg and around we went on Dog Leg back to Bargy where we went "gee," and headed back to the trail head and the truck, arriving just as the sun was setting.

Upright on the runners, Frank Caldwell

The intersection of Alice's Ally and Hessel

Feeding and walking the dogs, we headed back to Pulaski with just enough time to meet up with Frank and Regina at Stefano's for some yummy Italian food.

Training Trip to the Tug Hill Plateau

Dog Sledding at Tug Hill

As many of you know, Eric and I along with the Maryland Sled Dog Adventures sled dogs frequently travel with our dogs. This past weekend, we embarked on our first dog sledding adventure of the year by spending four days in the Tug Hill region of New York.

When most people think of New York, they think of Manhattan. The single most outstanding feature of the Tug Hill region, however, is its undeveloped state. While there are some small scattered villages along the outer edges of the region, the core is heavily forested and relatively unpopulated. Because of its location just east of Lake Ontario, the Tug Hill Plateau frequently gets hit with heavy lake effect snowstorms. Most agree that Tug Hill gets the most snow east of Aspen, averaging 200-300 inches of snow per year. In winter, the prevailing westerly winds move cold area over the warmer waters of Lake Ontario producing massive lake effect snow falls. Nestled smack dab in the middle of the Tug Hill Plateau is one of our favorite dog sledding areas, Winona Forest. Winona Forest is a mushers dream with over 70 miles of nicely groomed multi use trails. For a map of the trails throughout Winona Forest click here. The forest is used for skiing, snowmobiling, ATVing, hiking, snow shoeing, and, obviously, mushing.

Snowshoer with dog

Arising bright and early, Eric and I loaded the dog team into the dog truck and hit the road. One of the best things about Tug Hill is it's relatively easy access via Interstate I-81. Leaving our house at approximately 7:30 am, we arrived in Pulaski, New York at approximately 1:30 pm. After stowing our gear at our accommodations, we phoned our friends and fellow mushers, Frank and Regina Caldwell, who live in Winona Forest and headed out to the trails.