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I'm planning my next guys trip out to the NFCT, we've never been and I just found your videos. Very helpful, thank you! Looking forward to watching the rest and learning more.

nice 400 miles left for me

Jumped around on the video but will be back to watch it entirely… but I’m sure it’ll be beneficial to have malamutes as wheel dogs, smaller malamutes/bigger huskies as team dogs and husky/huskies as lead dogs. Depending on how many dogs you would ever run at once obviously

Malamute more dangerous just because size; they can playfully paw at a small creature and injure it.

This is the best comparison I’ve seen. Thank you, Sir! (I know a “husky” that is likely an Alaskan Malamute, so this was very interesting indeed.) Writing from the fair state of Mushachusetts. 😉

Beautiful doggies!

How did u get get started in wheel chair mushing?

The point about small animals and in particular our OWN animals is spot on. My Mally will kill pigeons almost weekly even at 11 years old but my pet birds inside the house are OFF LIMITS and he knows. Same as our cats, the Mally cuddles with our two indoor cats but tries desperately to eat the neighbour's outdoor cat 😂

Good comparison! I have a two year old mix that looks like a Malamute, but his mom is a Husky and the dad is a Belgian Shepherd/ Malamute cross. He has attributes of all, he is 80 lbs, stocky, light colored with long fur and a bushy plume of tail.

This is so at every job the Dogs do.. The Dogs of Our Ancestors Only on eBay

I could watch Bandit run all day!!!

That sounds hard on the runners😱 Wishing you more snow soon!

Loved your video! I’m going dog sledding in Vail Co today and I was just doing some research. Your video is very intriguing.

Our dog season has a few similarities. I had the same weather problem. It cost us a month of sledding. I also have a "rut" problem. Heavy equipment broke the roads I sled. Wrapping your handle bar with babiche (raw deer hide) will solve your hand sliding problem. On my channel, I show how I made babiche and also how I re-web part of my sled. You could buy leather laces, soak them, wrap them around you handles, let them dry and spray varnish them. My dogs turn my sled in most instances. But my gangline is shorter than yours (I think.) Thanks for the video.

Ridge Runnin Rat 1981

Hello again Bob. Nice video. I have replied to others, perhaps you recognize that white husky face. That was Alex, my first of eight Siberians over the years. You speak of DNA "in their bones" and sled pulling being instinctive. Let me share a story. I once acquired a seven year old male pet Siberian who had been abandoned and ended up with me. Had never even had a harness on. The first time I hitched him into a team, he looked up at me with an expression on his face that just said "Dad, I know what to do - let's go". Dante quickly became my lead until age fourteen. I'm convinced that dog was absolutely born to be a sled dog. Mushertom in CT.

It's nice to see dogs get so excited when they see their harnesses and the sled. I often wonder myself why do dogs like us so much?

Going to be heading out for a moonlight run with my team in a few hours 🌕🦮🦮🦮🦮🛷🏃‍♂

Great feed back for this kind of trip. One clarification, Snubbing is a term used when you are poling down river, you snub with your pole holding you back from advancing to fast, this allows you to pick and choose your direction and avoidance of rocks etc. For up stream travel and you are out of the boat using a line this is called Tracking, one tracks the canoe up stream and when lining down stream its called Lining. So your upstream travel is called Tracking.

Great info. I have had Malamutes for over 30 years but thought we should “downsize” to a husky to try something different. I have always tried to put my dogs in lots of different situations to keep them socialized. The biggest difference between mals and huskies that I have noticed is in their reaction to other dogs. All my mals were super friendly but if another dog showed any aggression, look out! They really enjoyed a good scrap! On the other hand, I have never heard my male husky even growl, despite being harassed by some pretty nasty dogs. He just puts up with it and hopes the love will eventually come! By far the happiest, friendliest, most confident dog we have ever had.

good video. realy good idea

My first real season on the sled (same as yours) but up in Aberdeen, Scotland I found using rope lashed around the handles worked fine but starts to untangle about an hour into running (team of 4) Lashing with leather would be a good idea Love the videos enjoy the snow

Nice video! Thanks! I have a sled like yours...rounded handle bar. I think I mentioned in a video last year that I put leather on it to keep my hands in place. I'm a short, small woman and dont have the issues so much as you! So, on the other end, front of the sled, where the line line comes under the bar, do you have issues with that sharp edge cutting into the line? I noticed mine is starting to break the fibers fraying it. I'm going to try stitching a piece of rawhide around it to create a smooth surface for the line to slide on. Keep up the videos! Thanks!

We’ve had the weakest snowfall in probably a decade out here in the NW Montana Rockies, really tough to get to use the sled. I just picked up a fat tire bike to get my pups running through whatever “Winter” comes our way in the future. Great to see you’re getting some snowfall, Happy New Year, and good mushing to you and your family Bob!

Glad to see you back and glad you’re feeling healed up! I’m also running my 2-dog team in a similar manner and loving it. They run with my mentor’s touring team but are getting the hang of running as a pair. Any thoughts on keeping them moving more consistently/developing that discipline? I want to make sure they know what I want, but also trying to reduce my verbal feedback as I know it’s not great to chatter at them constantly. Hope the snow gives you more opportunities!

Hey, another great video. Yes the weather has been strange. Here in central CT I still had lawn grass growing and needing to be mowed in mid-December! As you approached each of those gates I got nervous about the possibility of the dogs trying to go on opposite side of the steel posts!. Obviously they know better. More on the knees... many years ago I had a cartilage repair in mid-mushing season. A week post-op I was back on the sled. Did not share that info with my orthopedic surgeon! Best regards and hopes for a good winter, Mushertom.

They keep veering to the right. Must have caught a scent of something that ran along the trail on that side? You must be beside yourself with joy after this storm!? Just heading back to RI after a powder session at Berk. East. Was epic... I bet the next video will be a little more white!! Lol. Happy New Year, Baystate Backcountry!

Love your videos. Am out of mushing but ran four to six dog teams of Siberians in CT, RI, MA & NY for about twenty years. That looks like a great trail. Used a GMC Safari with registration MUSHR-T for transport. Dogs in three crates inside and sled on top. Miss mushing immensely but severely arthritic knees preclude such activity now. Mushertom from Ct.

DOGS are also the only ones (or more correctly just wolves as ALL dogs are basically still just wolves and they share their amazing intelligence that is the result of higher and higher sociability of some species as infinitely more complex organisms that operate not only on basic chemical reactions and only few even have a brain and even among these the species with vast social interaction level have access to higher intelligence that surpasss basic "solitary" hunt hide and breed or whatever like a lizard-brained cats) anything that common people divide into "breeds" has been present not only in common ancestors of modern wolves(left literally too few and hunted and starved and left without land almost into extinction to even properly scientifically observe and study) and "dogs" that lived with homo sapiens (and not only as the term human can be applied to many other hominins) for TENS of THOUSANDS of years and only after agrarian revolution that pushed people more into reducing to primitive lizard-like caring only about its own ass rather than properly supporting life as a member of society that protected it more from dangers of nature and also reduced our only ever friend companion and even divided for 50 millions of years of own evolution paths still similarly high intelligence species that unlike many other animals or even mammals both took unique paths of complex social bonds that required far more brainpower unlike muscle and speed driven crap like bears or shitt*n of of all of different feline species. notice the difference even domesticated or (in the last several millenia) inbred for stupidest selfish reasons "dogs" biologically still amazingly smart wolves and arctic or mexican are all still the same canis lupus(grey wolf) they were so smart and were parts of our families and communities for tens of thousands of years and only recently got reduced into stupid "pet"level in these disfunctional "modern life"(even though we certainly should have worled more on social part before monkey brained tools or "technologies" that are so inefficient its hillariously bad) where it seems almost everyone instead of continuing of being uniquely social responsible and moral consept species retarded back into stopping developing on the basic primitive lizard brain selfish existing while exploiting every benefit of society and those idiots too stupid to realise that they are just being parasites that just devolve inito primitive horny lazy and etc and then those get to breed-_-when all they do is basically lying like twitch streamers and "influencers" by doing nothing and only working on 1% and then complaying when they ignore it in favour of dumb horny (seemingly the only part of brain in use) anime series and other crap being irresponsible and deceiving other people and not being self-aware is nothing new in animal world . and fyi cats is only capable of shitting for you its because his brain isnt complex enough as it relies solely on muscle and didnt have to manage social interactions and the way some idiots call dogs "stupid" when they casually understand human speech--_--.

Did she ever have pups

What a wonderful comparison, I have had malamutes my entire adult life and your description is spot on. We are also from Massachusetts. I wish I came across your channel sooner. I have always wanted to go out on a sled dog excursion.

I liked your video. What I like is that your own practical experience match what one would expect based on both Mushing Science and Breed History. Do not get me wrong I like Mals, but its their history is clear, and well explained in books. They are effectively the first designer dog breed in History. They were bred by Eve Seeley by mixing different arctic dogs, to get what she thought a sleddog was supposed to look like... thinks got worse after the war when the breed was close to extinction, stud book reopened and a lot of randome dogs admitted (the Mloot were a bit of everything). Yet Mald look like waht you see in Holliwood movies (many Mloot were from film industry even) hence even now people stopping you for photoes. Huskies on the other hands (racing bloodlines and Seppala -showline have evolved a bit away from the optimum for racing) are the real deal. They are an ancient breed selected originally by native people in Chukotka, probably more than 9000 years ago... and they were truly optimised to do their job by the Chukci. They came to the alaskan racing circuit at the time of the gold rush effectively prebred to win, and that is what Seppala did. His great credit being 'believing' they could win when others called them 'siberian rats' or called him 'the small man with his small dogs' (he was short)... We now know 25KG is about the ideal weight for a running sleddogs and Huskies were selected to be economical. Frugal eaters that can put in the miles on less calories, mean less wasted weight on your sled for food for the dogs... which for natives tribes in the arctoc was key to survival... Notably chukci did not only use their dogs for running... they worked as blankets for elerly and kids, they were selected to also love the inside and to love to snuggle with humans... Notably if I am not wrong Huskies are a breed defined as 'good with kids', I do not think its the same for Mals.

Last comment a year ago. I just adopted a husky and am building a three wheel sled, plan on doing all this

Hi- this looks like great fun! My 100lb Akita/PB mix would benefit greatly from the excercise so were gonna give it a go when it cools off a bit. We are in Wilbraham. I have begun scouting for good locations to train. I have also contacted the snow machine club in Western MA and they welcome dog sports on their trails! Cool people. Really enjoying your vids! Happy Trails!

Really cool channel. Nice to meet you Keri.

What does the bike look like?

Love this. Original and unique. 😁

Nice to see you were able to get out with the dogs on a cool morning. You have a nice variety of trails to ride on. Are you on a regular mountain bike?

Awesome turning skills!

Thanks Bob, looking forward to the follow up videos!

Two questions: What was your AT trail name? Have you seen the movie "Maine"?

Awesome historical and rare footage. Thank you for sharing.

Sadly, many dog owners forget that the vast majority of dogs were bred for some sort of job, typically in coordination with a human, and that we have shared this special work-companionship bond with them for thousands of years. In dog history terms, it is a fairly recent development for dogs to be an "urban accessory" and just sit on the couch all day and get two 15-minute walks around the block. And then people are surprised that their dogs don't listen or get destructive. So many people tell me they're surprised that my dog listens and behaves so well "especially for a husky" 🙄 and my answer is always "Yes, it's because I do stuff with her that caters to her nature and builds a bond between us." Like you said, being out on an adventure together, braving the weather and overcoming trail obstacles together gives them a whole other level of respect for you and really makes you a team. I hope the word spreads and more people go out and do something active together with their dogs - we owe them that.

All you've said, and don't forget "A tired husky is i good husky". Mushertom in CT.

Bob, will MA get a winter this year? Whats your prediction? So suck of these weak winters. Any tine we get snow, it melts within two days. I am actusllh in RI but am frequently in MA.

Great to see you and the dogs are getting out on trail! This is the same method to the training I do and it’s nice to see this idea put out there and reinforced.

Well done. My teams would have acted differently in a few of the situations you showed! Interesting thoughts about the useless chatter. I sing-song talk to my dogs all the time. I feel it boosts speed/moral and gives confidence to the leaders. The dogs will actually turn around to look at me if I am quiet too long. It's as if they want to see if I fell off. I know what you are saying about the malamutes. Sometimes, with a larger team, you are only one bark away from a mutiny at any given time.

My favorite dogs!!!

Best common sense straight forward channel for running dogs. Thank you!

I find it funny that when I lived in SoCal I was able to run my dogs every other day . Of course is was always bike/scooter, but we could go out every month except august ( July sometimes). I moved to the Midwest northern mich and I’ve used the sled once and bike separately the rest of the time. It’s just crazy. The one week it was cool enough to go easily we had the smoke haze. What I’d like to ask you is, could you do an episode on how to run the lines on the sled. I was trying to figure out from this video, but I really can’t tell where they’re running to which stantion and type of knots please. I’m new to the sled and if I ever have to rerun it or even if it’s correct now I don’t know