Maybe I got too complacent and was careless, but I thought the hook was well set.

My 8 year old daughter, Kayla, and I started out with two sleds - me with six dogs and her with one, with her one-dog sled hooked behind my six-dog sled tandem style. In my sled was Kayla's best friend Erica - also age 8. We were about one mile into the run. Kayla had fallen off her sled several times and was crying from frustration. She just couldn't keep her balance. I stopped the dogs and set the hook into the packed powder of the trail. I turned back to Kayla's sled to help her and even put my foot on her brake. As I was putting her hat back on her head and wiping away the tears the dogs lunged forward - pulling the hook out and yanking Kayla's sled out from under my foot. Off they went with Erica still in the sled - not something I ever want to repeat. I hollered futilely at the dogs to stop and ran down the trail after them. Before they went out of sight I yelled to Erica to try and tip the sled over and roll out into the snow - she didn't hear me. I knew that there was a bad turn up ahead - downhill and between two pine trees - and I had horrible images of the sled careening around the corner and smashing into the scarred trunks with Erica inside. I felt so helpless.

Someone was definitely watching over us that day. Before they got to the bad turn, the sled tipped over and Erica fell out. When I caught up to her she was crying and holding her wrist. Thank God it was only bruised. I told Erica to go back to where Kayla was and I ran down the trail calling my leader's name - begging her to listen. There was a road crossing about half a mile ahead and I could picture the dogs running out in front of traffic at full speed. I came to a field where I could see the road and the trail on the other side - no sign of the dogs anywhere. At this point I knew it was useless to follow the dogs on foot - they were long gone - and I had two young girls to think about. I turned back to find the girls. By this time I had been running about half a mile in heavy boots and clothing on a trail that was too soft for walking on comfortably. I was exhausted. Thankfully the girls had the presence of mind to follow along behind me and I soon came upon them. I walked them to the road crossing and flagged down a ride.

Once the girls were safely home, I left on foot. My truck - our only vehicle - was parked at the trailhead two miles away and my snowmobile has a broken track. I hitched a ride back to my truck and went to the local snowmobile club to try and find someone to help me find the dogs. Once again, someone was watching over me. I met up with a man who was setting out to do some trail maintenance. He gave me a ride around the trail to where I lost the dogs and we followed their tracks for about five miles before losing the trail. Other snow machines had obliterated any sign of the dogs' passing and there were several forks in the trail where they could have gone. I refused to give up. On our second pass along one stretch of trail that passed within feet of a paved road I noticed the unmistakable tracks of the dogs and sleds. They had left the trail and were on a main road! We passed by a house and were told that the dogs had been seen going by about an hour before. I set off on foot and the snowmobiler went back to the clubhouse to get a truck. There wasn't much snow left on the road and I soon lost the trail again.

To make a long story short, the dogs stopped at a house where a Siberian Husky lived and were caught. By this time the police were involved and temporarily took control of the dogs. A passerby recognized the dogs and brought all seven of them home to us in the back of their minivan. Amazingly, despite making several road crossings and running down at least one paved road and crossing several snowmobile bridges with leg-breaking four-inch gaps uncontrolled, no dog was hurt. Even more amazingly, the only damage to the sleds - despite bouncing off several trees - was some worn out runner plastic and a missing snowhook.

When I learned that the dogs were safe I went home to find them all resting quietly in their houses. I hugged each one and checked them over for injuries.

Robert Bibber
robert@karobsiberians.com