What a Way to Make Headlines!

Well, “All’s well that ends well.”, so they say. But Friday’s birthday present ride didn’t go quite as planned. I was giving a ride to a woman and her friend as a birthday gift from one to the other. She’d always wanted to ride a dogsled even at 76 years of age. So that’s what we were doing and everthing was delightful. Until a twisted harness forced me to stop and tie off to Milepost One while I straightened it out.

Then just as I was about to pull the release; the dogs took a mighty leap forward and snapped the anchoring line, taking off without me and dumping my passengers in the drifts to boot. That left me to follow on foot, praying for a tangle. After being assured by my passengers that they’d be ok, I headed down the trail.

While hurrying along I called the Sheriff’s office to see if help was available. They sent officers ahead to the next road crossing to try and intercept the team. When I got word they had them in sight but didn’t know how to stop them I began relaying instructions via the dispatcher.

Just then the only snowmachine we’d seen all day roared up behind me. I flagged him down and begged a ride to catch up to my team. We whisked off through three small road crossings before sighting the officers puzzling over what to do now that they had this “tiger by the tail”.

I dismounted thanking the stranger for his help and joined the officers in untangling the fifteen frantic “pups”. As we worked through the pack who should come along but the news crew from the Brainerd Dispatch!! They clicked off photos as fast as their cameras would go peppering us with questions the entire time.

After nearly 20 minutes we got straightened out and turned around. Bidding my thanks to everyone I headed back toward the snowbank where I’d left my passengers. At the last road crossing there were the cameras again, along with the police deploying the fire and rescue track vehicle to pick up the women.

I followed at the dogs’ pace until I caught sight of the rescuers tending to a woman on the ground! They’d walked back about half a mile until the one complained of weakness and dizziness and laid down in the snow.

Ambulances were on the scene to transport her to the hospital for care. We feared a broken leg or worse. Arriving at the parking lot I wondered how I’d manage to get the team safely back in the trailer. Again a good Samaritan was there! He willingly stood on the brake while I unhooked the dogs. Then he commenced his hike.

After hurriedly packing up dogs and equipment I rushed to the hospital hoping to see about my passenger… but that’s another story.

You can read the Brainerd Dispatch story for yourself. :