Oh the Places they would Go

Yesterday I posted a few pictures of our famous Voyageur dogs, Ambri and Jasper. They were half Husky and half Samoyed and both weighed close to 100 pounds. The brother and sister duo loved to run and if we let both of them off of their leash or out of their kennel at the same time then they would take off running as fast and as far as they could.

We would always send out a search party to look for them. Sometimes our neighbors would call us with reports on their whereabouts. “I just saw them at the landing.” “They were headed toward Trail’s End.” “I saw them in the rapids.” One time a neighbor reported Jasper had scared her half to death. She was in her cabin, head beneath the sink when low and behold a big black animal bumped up against her. She thought it was a bear but quickly realized it was just Jasper.

When I would go across the river to clean it was customary to bring one of the dogs with. If I brought Ambri over then someone could let Jasper off of the leash once I was gone. He didn’t like to swim across the river but if we left Ambri behind she would soon be across the river after having had swam across to join us.

Ambri didn’t like to be left behind. One time I was going for a quick paddle onto Gull Lake and I didn’t want to have her in the canoe. She proceeded to follow me along the shoreline and when I turned directions she got into the water and started pursuing me. She swam as fast as she could to join me.

She did the same to one of our crew members who took her with on a canoe trip. He was going out fishing in the evening and had left her at the island only to see her swimming after his canoe a little later.

The best times the dogs had were pulling us on our cross-country skis. The power those two had when they wanted to run was amazing. I usually only skied behind them on a flat surface like a lake but Mike was daring enough to have them pull him on the ski trails. I would follow behind and I remember one time his ski tracks went straight up a steep hill without having to herringbone his way up. It turned out the dogs had been in pursuit of a deer and on the other side of the hill I found Mike with a broken pole and luckily no broken bones.

There were plenty more adventures but that’s enough sharing for one day.