Gnashing of teeth, howls of wild, and yaps of anticipation echo against the black cliffs and white ice of Tahoe’s Squaw Valley. A leather-skinned, blue-eyed musher releases the sled’s brake. The dogs leap forward, suddenly silenced by their own pink-tongued panting, noses piercing the crisp air. The skid scrapes through the snow as the musher peers at a fast-approaching curve. Like a puppeteer holding strings with his voice, he need only speak in a near whisper, “Haw.” The canine leaders, 30 feet away, bank left, drawing the line of beast and man behind. “Their hearing is incredible,” said Brian Maas, musher and owner of Wilderness Adventures Sled Dog Tours. He put me in his sled and took me on that ride. We talked along the way. “This is the oldest mode of transportation that there is. They can trace it back like 3,000 years in Russia.” Back then, it was transportation. Maas does it for business and pleasure, carrying smiling resort tourists through the scenery by eight-dog power. He hand-builds thin wood sleds and employs five drivers. The business is booked for weeks on end. Families pay up to $300 for a 45-minute ride—testament to the popularity of ancient transport-turned-sport-turnedtourism. But now, mushing may be facing its greatest challenge yet, and our area with a centurylong history of dog driving is feeling the heat. This weekend, March 2, was supposed to be a revival of our mushing heritage with the first Jack London Commemorative Sled Dog OPINION
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FEATURE STORY
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ARTS&CULTURE
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ART OF THE STATE
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Derby in Truckee. It was cancelled. To know why, we look to the sky and beneath our feet. “It’s kind of critical to have snow,” said Preston Springston, of the Sierra Nevada Dog Drivers association. According to the International Sled Dog Racing Association, it’s a nation-wide trend that some fear could erase our heritage as we watch. “This country was founded on people who worked with their animals, the gold rush, the dog teams, that type of person that resides in the west coast, families that traveled across the country and grow our own food, that sustainable living and working with animals is part of our life and important to our culture,” says Kathy Miyoshi, past president of the Sierra Nevada Dog Drivers association. She didn’t want to think about the possibility of dog mushing fading into history as a result of climate change and other factors. But when she did begin to think about it, she began to cry.
“DOG D A Y S OF WINTER” C O N T I N U E D
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FEBRUARY 28, 2013
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