The BulleTin • Friday, FeBruary 26, 2021 B9
Selina Witt drives her dog sled team across the snow at Wanoga Sno-park Wednesday.
Dogs
Continued from B1
Mardesich brought six of
her 15 dogs out to ride, and
she tries to get out as much as
possible, which is about three
times a week, four with a bit of
luck. She has done less train-
ing with the dogs on the sled
because of the lower snowfall
this year.
“Because the weather has
been poor this season, the ma-
jority of our training has been
with the ATV,” Mardesich
said.
The process of getting ready
for dog-sledding is an exten-
sive one. First comes getting
the sled situated near the trail,
followed by taking the dogs
out of their kennels and at-
taching them to a metal wire
secured to the car, which
keeps the snow-loving dogs
in place while the setup con-
tinues.
The huskies anxiously stand
by to be harnessed and begin
their run. The dogs are not
shy about voicing their impa-
tience with their mushers.
One by one, the dogs are
harnessed up and moved to
the sled. Hollering and beg-
ging to pull on the anchored
sled, the excitement swells un-
til finally, the anchor is pulled
out of the ground and the sled
starts to move.
The barking stops and all
that can be heard is the sound
of the sled gliding along the
snow, reaching speeds up to
10 to 12 mph, depending on
how many dogs are pulling.
“Then it is heavenly,” Witt
said.
Fire
restrictions
Fire danger is currently
listed as Moderate in the De-
schutes National Forest. Fire
danger is listed as Low in the
Ochoco and Willamette Na-
tional Forests.
Industrial Fire Precaution
Level is currently at Level
1 for the Deschutes and
Ochoco national forests
and the Prineville District
— Bureau of Land Manage-
ment.
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photos
Sled dogs howl with excitement as mushers hook up their teams.
If you do not have a small
army of dogs, skijoring only
requires one dog. Skijoring is
a combination of cross-coun-
try skiing and dog mushing
where a skier is harnessed and
rigged to a dog that pulls the
skier through the snow. An-
other important difference
between dog-sledding and
skijoring is that the sleds have
breaks and can be controlled a
little easier.
Skijoring is not just lim-
ited to dogs. Those who pre-
fer horsepower to pawpower
can harness their skis up to a
horse.
“My entire life I have driven
horses and ponies in carriages
and buggies. You can’t re-
ally do that during the snow,”
Susan Sapp said. “I had stum-
bled upon putting on skis to
ride with the horse. I had seen
it but never tried it.”
Growing up on the coast,
there were few snow-sport
options to choose from. After
moving to Bend seven years
ago, Sapp found a sport that
combined her love of horse
riding and activities that fit
her new hometown.
“Not a skier, not a snow-
boarder, not a winter sport-er,”
she said. “But I always had
horses. This is my delving in
the land of driving on snow
with my horses.”
But, pulling a horse is not
the same as a dog Sapp found.
After all, they do not measure
a vehicle’s towing power in
dog power.
“The horse that I started
with weighs 1,500 pounds and
is stubborn. Having all that
power pulling on your skis
was difficult to control,” Sapp
said. “I started using my pony,
which has made things better.”
e e
2021
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