A-M-A-Z-I-N-G just doesn't quite describe this book. Story after story of heroic men and dogs who braved the coldest temperatures on earth -89 to -100 degrees below zero with windchill and white out blizzard conditions. With deep icey cravaces and breaks where water pushed up through the ice - danger lurked at every turn. It was up to the lead dog to keep the entire team safe. The stories are indeed legendary! Here is a description about the blizzards these men experienced from the words of a famous musher named Scotty Allan.
"you don't know whether to pray, curse or cry. You generally do all three together. But after a while the blizzard becomes a hated thing with a personality. You get that back to the wall feeling, and like a man in the heat of battle, you forget to feel afraid. You grow to glory in the fight..." "A blizzard attacks a Musher by causing confusion. His eyelids freeze shut, his face is pounded by snowy blasts every way he turns, and he loses his sense of direction. You can't see, you can't lay hands on it. You can only feel it."
Allan once claimed that nine of ten dogs would turn tail and run in the face of a blizzard. The fearless ones were prized throughout the Seward Peninsula and these brave few could inspire an entire team. These were the leaders the mushers depended upon for their very lives.
Scotty Allan left behind a vivid description of a particular trip mushing during a blizzard. His team was enveloped in "air thick as smoke with whirling snow. Gritty as salt it was, and stinging in like splinters of steel. It baked into my furs and into the coats of my dogs until we were encased in snow crusts solid as ice. The din deafened me. I couldn't hear, couldn't see and couldn't breathe." Every fifteen minutes, Allan stopped his team and crawled up the gang line, putting a hand on each dog to check his condition. The young dogs were whining and trying to bury themselves beneath the snow (to keep warm), but every time Allan reached the front of the team, he found his leader, Baldy, "sturdy and brave as a little polar bear...a small brave bit of life in that vast, storm swept waste...I'd melt the ice away from his face and hug him and then fumble back to the sled. I was so darned proud and happy over that pup I just couldn't find the words to tell him what I thought of him," Allan said.
I read these stories with awe and wonder (and at times tears at the courage of the big and good heart of a dog). During this diptheria outbreak in Nome in 1925, the only dependable mode of travel in such harsh, unrelenting conditions were the dogs and the mushers who spurred them on. Words escape me as I try to describe their brave hearts in the face of certain death, if they let down their guard for just a second or they picked the wrong lead dog they could plunge into an icy death in an instant.
In 1925, planes were on stand by, but these were planes with open cockpits. Stories were told of brave pilots who froze to death in place or engines that would just stop and cut out because they froze up. Because of this the Governor of Alaska would not allow the pilots to try to fly in the serum. He was afraid to lose plane, pilot and life saving serum. There was no other way to get the serum to Nome but by sled dog. And that's what they did, the dogs and brave men saved the entire community.
I have one last story to share. The bit about socialization and problem solving...
I encourage and teach my students everyday that socialziation isn't just about dogs meeting, greeting and playing with other dogs. Socialization is so much more about allowing our dogs to use their five senses. To explore the world around them, to live life...travel and see, hear, smell, taste and touch the world around them. This is what makes a wonderfully social and well behaved dog! I thought this next story explains this concept perfectly and from the words of Leonard Seppala himself. When all was said and done Seppala and his lead dog, Togo (pictured above) traveled over 261 miles during the serum run. Again, amazing!
Seppala was famous for crossing the Norton Sound when frozen. It was very dangerous as the powerful water could push up through the ice at a moments notice, creating fissures that could suck an entire team right down into the icy waters. These fissures would create ice flows and a team could get stuck on an ice floe and be carried out to sea...
Once Seppala was out on the Sound with his lead dog Togo when an northeast gale whipped up. They were flying along at top speed and almost to the shore when Togo heard the crack. He ignored Seppala's command to 'haw'. And just at that point Togo reared up and somersaulted back onto his teammates. Seppala shouted angrily and ran up to Togo to see what was the matter. As he neared, he saw why Togo had stopped. No more than six feet ahead was an open channel of water. They were on an ice floe, drifting out to sea. There was no escape. Togo had saved their lives by disobeying his master.
But now what to do. Seppala curled up with his dogs, conserved his strength and warmth and hoped for a shift in the wind to bring them back to shore.
Several hours later his dogs sensed a change and started to whimper and howl. Togo himself gave a short yelp. The wind was beginning to turn in their favor and was heading back to the shoreline. They drifted 9 more hours until they could finally see the shoreline ahead. When they were about 5 feet from shore, Seppala threw Togo to land. Seppala reported later that, "Togo seemed to understand what he had to do." Once on the other side Togo dug in and tried to pull the ice floe to shore. Unfortunately the line snapped and fell into the water. Seppala was speechless. They had just been given a death sentence. And here's the part I want you to hear...
They say animals have the ability to find solutions to problems, it's called 'adaptive intelligence'. The icy lead separating Togo from Seppala was keeping him from his reward; reuniting with his master and his team. Togo had been born and bred a sled dog and it was part of his instinct (his default) now, like always, to pull. From an early age he had been exposed to an amazing array of daily challenges that had improved his ability to learn and in some cases to problem solve! He had traveled over varied terrain in summer and winter and had spent most of his entire day for the past twelve years watching and working with Seppala as the team traveled out in the gold fields and to towns across Alaska.
As Seppala stood staring in disbelief at Togo, the dog dove into the water, snapped the line into his mouth and stuggled back out onto the shore. Holding the line tighly in his jaws, Togo rolled over the line "until it was twice looped about his shoulders" and began to pull. The floe started to move again and Togo continued to pull until it was close enough for Seppala and his teammates to jump safely across.
Bear with me as I dry my tears and take a moment to gather myself...
This my friends is what I have been talking about. The conversation...the story never has to end...it grows deeper and more meaningful with each passing year of living and working together...man/woman and dog!
I will end here. I highly recommend this beautiful story. You won't regret spending a few hours snuggled up with this one.
As always...Happy Trails! And I do mean trails...blaze a new trail with your dog...grow in communication, trust and understanding and write your story...and then bravely tell it to the world!
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