Husky News

If all this snow made you think Pembroke was going to the dogs, well, this week you were right.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Victor Hutter, a musher from Kincardine, Ontario took his dog sled team for a run through the city core.

Mr. Hutter was in the area visiting friends who live on Cotnam’s Island in Laurentian Valley.

Mr. Hutter, now retired, began dog sledding about 30 years ago when he was living in Deep River and working for what was then called Ontario Hydro.

“I love dogs and love being out in the wilderness with the dogs,” he said. “It’s so quiet and so serene. It’s wonderful. I love getting out into nature. I do wilderness canoeing and tripping and I needed something to do in the winter.”

He said he learned mushing basically through osmosis.

“You meet other mushers and you start to pick up more and more. When I started there weren’t a lot of books to help you out,” he said.

He maintains a kennel of seven dogs that he has obtained from animal shelters and from other mushers that were leaving the sport. His team features three pure Siberian Huskies with the rest being slightly smaller Alaskan Huskies.

He has a good mix of younger and older dogs.

When he gets a new dog, he said it takes a while to determine if they have the right attributes such as the right temperament and lots of energy.

“If they work out you have a dog for life. If they don’t, I adopt them out to smaller teams,” he said.

Training with the team begins in September with shorter runs of a few kilometres using a sled on wheels. The distance the team travels is ramped up throughout the fall.

From the early distances of three or four kilometres, soon the team is traveling eight, 10, 20, 40 and 60 kilometres. Depending, obviously on weather, he can begin snow sledding in November.

He said he particularly enjoys long distance recreational trips that can last for several days and traverse hundreds to thousands of kilometres.

“I love packing the sled up with winter gear, enough for four or five days, and heading out on a route of 400 to 600 kilometres. If I can I’ll drive out and cache some supplies halfway along. You’re camping in the snow. It’s a great experience,” he said.

He does some solo tripping but also has gone on trips with other mushers. He recently took a 450- km trip from Cochrane to James Bay with two other people.

Wilderness trips are quite different than the urban jaunts he has been taking through Pembroke over the past few days.

On Tuesday, he traveled from Cotnam’s Island to Riverside Park, following tightly along the edge of the Ottawa River. He attempted to come back through town but there just wasn’t enough snow and he made his way back to the river.

Wednesday’s snowstorm did give him a nice coating of snow to cruise on and so he and the team traveled through downtown Pembroke. The sight certainly caused more than one person to do a double take.

On Monday, after helping his daughter return to school in Ottawa, he took the team for a run by Parliament Hill.

Source: The Daily Observer