Hello everyone! My name is Jocelyn Brown and I am one of Charlotte’s handlers. This is my first season mushing with Charlotte and it has been a great one so far! We have had a lot of fun and I’ve made a lot of new friends.
A little bit about me…Well, first off I race BMX and have since I was 5 years old (which makes this upcoming summer my 12th season). I love racing and wouldn’t quit unless I physically had to. My brother Brandon is the one who got me into it and he races professionally now. I enjoy being outside a lot more than just sitting on the couch watching TV (regardless the season, though summer is ironically my favorite). Winter is kind of growing on me though. I am junior at the Brainerd High School, but am enrolled in what they call Post Secondary Enrollment Option (PSEO) at Central Lakes College (CLC) here in Brainerd. My goal there is that by the time I am ready to graduate, I will have fulfilled the requirements of an Associates in Arts (AA) Degree. And technically, I will be a college graduate before I am a high school graduate since the semester ends 2 weeks before the high school does. At BHS I am a part of the early morning Jazz Band and Symphonic band. I play the Alto Saxophone in Jazz and the Bassoon in Symphonic. I love playing both instruments and hope to get a music scholarship on the Bassoon to help with the costs of college.
Now I’m sure your wondering how I got involved in helping Charlotte with Wolf Moon Kennel. Well, during the summer of 2010 I happened to be walking down my road with one of my friends and walked by Charlotte’s house (which is at the end of my road about 1.2 miles away). As we were walking by, one of her dogs that are just a pet (Bob is his name) came running down the driveway to greet us and welcome us in. (Like I mentioned before that I race BMX, well I would often ride my bike down the road and you could never get by Charlotte’s house without having a dog bark at you, and I was about to now find out why.) As my friend and I stood there petting this friendly dog, its owner (Charlotte) walked up to greet us as well. Since we had drawn such attention to her one dog, she invited us to meet the rest of them. While introducing us to the dogs, she told us many stories about her time up in Alaska and all of the cool things that she has done. After we had met all the dogs, it had gotten pretty late that night and was time for my friend and I to head home.
A few months later during deer hunting season, another friend of mine had mentioned to me that they had some deer carcases that they wanted to get rid of and wondered if “that lady with the dogs” that I knew would be interested. Wondering the same thing myself, I stopped by her house that night and she was thrilled to see me as she wanted to ask me if I was interested in learning how to mush dogs and run with her this winter. Immediately I said yes! It sounded like a lot of fun, and what a great new thing to learn.
As the season went on I slowly began to learn more and more about the art of dog mushing and soon became great friends with Charlotte. I’ll never regret saying yes to such a wonderful opportunity!