I know I mentioned that I was going to share my wisdom on polar bears this week, but there have been a couple of developments in the world of sled dogs that I would rather share. I’ll save polar bears for another time.

I have a new roommate! He is a native of Nunavut, tall, broad and handsome, and even though he is only 11 his hair is almost completely white! When he gets really excited he dances around the kitchen and makes sounds that I have decided sound just like a wookie. Meet Toko…


This obviously isn't my picture, he just arrived and I can guarantee there is no green grass or bushes here, this time of year or any other for that matter! I didn't have a picture of Toko to post so on a whim I googled "Toko sled dog" and found a blog post that Siu-Ling's mom wrote about Toko! http://homepage.mac.com/puggiq/V12N2/V12,N2RetiredSledDog.html

Toko is a retired sled dog from my roommate’s team. He was once the biggest and most dominant male on the team, but in 2009 he threw in the towel at the age of nine, quite literally by his own decision. Siu-Ling was on a two month voyage from Iqaluit to Pond Inlet (three quarters of the length of Baffin Island), and one morning after camping outside of Clyde River, Toko just got up and started to walk into town while they were getting ready to head out. Siu-Ling had to chase him into town and leave him with a friend. She flew him home once she returned to Iqaluit herself. Since then he has been living in Ottawa with Siu-Ling’s parents, and just returned to Iqaluit last week until Siu-Ling can fine a more permanent home for him. He is lovely, such a big sook. Siu-Ling can’t get over the transformation in him from being a big tough sled dog to a house-trained, playful sook!

I just love the family dynamics with the dogs. Toko is the father of four of Siu-Ling’s current sled dogs, including Tua, who is the mother of Giller and Gigi, who is the mother of the two puppies, Bo and Shubert (who are not very puppy like anymore – they are huge!). That makes Toko the great-grandfather of the team! Surprisingly though, he isn’t really interested in the team; he didn’t even want to get out of the truck when Siu-Ling took him down for a visit. I think he was probably afraid that she was going to chain him back up with the working dogs – he clearly has no interest in giving up his new-found cushy lifestyle as a house dog.

That is my first exciting sled dog news. The other, even more exciting sled dog news is I finally got to go sledding over the weekend! Siu-Ling’s regular sledding partner wasn’t able to go out on Sunday, so she asked me if I wanted to go – I was nodding my head vigorously before she even finished asking me. We headed out shortly after lunch on Sunday. There is so much energy while you are getting the dogs ready to go out; it is also the time when fights or other issues are most likely to occur. It’s very exciting, but also somewhat stressful.

The initial take off requires a lot of discipline, and it is clear that the dogs respect Siu-Ling. Once we finally got them all harnessed up and ready to go, things happened quickly. I was already on the sled and Siu-Ling basically hopped on and off we went. The first few moments were so thrilling! It was one of those moments when you can feel a big goofy grin on your face that you couldn’t erase if you wanted to. Things move fastest at the beginning and then over time the dogs get into a rhythm and the pace slows down. Unlike western arctic (Alaskan) huskies, Nunavut huskies have been breed for endurance in place of speed. They are thick and strong with big wide heads on their shoulders.

We passed a couple of other teams on our way through Sylvia Grinnell Provincial Park, which I hiked extensively in the summer. Then we passed over the Sylvia Grinnell River, where I did all of my fishing last summer. It was exciting for me to be on the other side of the river on fresh unexplored turf, though to be honest everything kind of looks the same under a blanket of snow and ice. It was a beautiful, albeit cold day and we passed several stunning views of inner Frobisher Bay - the pictures just don’t do it justice.

Lewis is the lead sled dog. After spending a few hours out on the trails I gained a new respect for big, goofy, stinky Lewis. I didn’t realize how much of the team’s direction is determined through voice commands. Siu-Ling would yell out a command to go left or right (“woi” to go right, and unfortunately I can’t remember the command for left!), and Lewis would veer in that direction, not always on the first try, but he would get there eventually. Siu-Ling lost a seal skin mitten during a mishap where Tua’s line wrapped around her leg during a kerfuffle (wow, kerfuffle is an actual word – I didn’t get spell checked!), and she was dragged alongside the sled just screaming. I was really worried that her leg would be injured, but once we got the sled stopped (which isn’t always easy) and the line untangled, she was fine – dogs can be so dramatic! So Siu-Ling lost her mitten and decided to go back for it. I was expecting a big wide turn, but was amazed how tightly she could turn the team, the sled barely moved from one spot until we were pointed in the opposite direction!

For the most part you are just sitting or kneeling on the sled, so it can get cold. To warm up a little and make things a little easier on the dogs, Siu-Ling encourages people to run up hills when they come along. I did my best, but it is difficult to go from a sitting position with poor circulation and cold muscles, to running up hill in snow wearing clunky winter boots fast enough to keep up with the sled (which to be truthful isn’t going very fast at this point). Just getting on and off the moving sled was difficult enough for me and at one point I stepped off the sled only to fall face first into a snow bank! It was a soft landing, so I was fine, but then I had to run extra fast to catch up. I didn’t try that again, so my feet got pretty cold. I wish I had remembered by boot warmers!

I was delightfully tired and not so delightfully cold when we returned back to the dog yard. Altogether it was an amazing experience, one that I am so thankful to have had before I get any bigger! I don’t think that would have been an option for me in another month, so the timing was perfect. Now I will be able to tell my baby that we went dog sledding when they were only -5 months old!