Our guides are your partners in this adventure. They will see to all your needs and ensure that the trip runs smoothly and safely. They are all first-aid trained and know the dogs and north woods well. You will enjoy your trip with us in no small part due to your guides. Their continued excitement at running the trips is one of the reasons our program is successful.

Theo has been running dogs for eight seasons - jumping in head first on an arctic training expedition in Canada. The hook was set, and dog sledding became a focal point.  Theo has led outdoor trips throughout the US and Canada for the past 20 years. She spent 16 years directing programs for Cornell University's Outdoor Education program - one of the largest collegiate outdoor programs in the country.

Minnesota's northwoods has always held a particular fondness, and is now considered home year round. She relishes seeing more moose than traffic lights in a given month. (12 moose, 8 traffic lights last December, but who's counting?)

This year marks her sixth season guiding trips for White Wilderness. She is often the voice on the phone when you call, as she juggles the office details as well as guiding trips. Known for her adventurous spirit and quest for the trail less taken, Theo is equally at home in the backcountry kitchen as on the sled runners. In the off-season, she's a course director and senior instructor for Outward Bound, leading sea kayak and canoe expeditions. Spare time??...wood working, biking, skiing and exploring the next unexplored trail that beckons with her trusty black lab, Emma.

While studying the bag pipes in Glasgow, Scotland, Shawn McCarty suffered the misfortune of losing a peculiar bet at the greyhound track, the result of which will make him the first person to circumnavigate the globe totally under the power of dogs. He crossed from Galway Ireland to Maine in 2000 in a catamaran pulled by a team of 16 yellow labs (the team originally included 4 chocolate labs but they were eaten by sharks before the first day was over). When he arrived in Maine he traded his labs for huskies and headed for the Bearing strait. However it turned out to be rough going. Running dogs is much different than swimming them so progress was slow. Worse yet Shawn had not bought a new compass when he arrived in America, so he was navigating with his old metric compass from Europe, and being unaware of this fairly serious problem he found himself in MN instead of Alaska. He has been working at White Wilderness since 2006 to save money to resupply (the first thing he will buy is a new compass) and continue on. He hopes to complete his circumnavigation by 2010.

Liz Goldsmith is back for her third winter of dogs, frozen nose hair, and fun at White Wilderness! A few years back, Liz escaped the heat and humidity of Cincinnati, Ohio to study Biology at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. As luck would have it, she got a chance to go dog sledding with White Wilderness during a winter field course. After breaking her sled on the final leg of the trip (and don't worry, the sapling she hit has since "disappeared"), she knew she was hooked. On graduation day back in St. Paul, Liz swore she would never endure temperatures above 75 degrees again. In pursuit of this goal, she has spent the past three summers in Alaska studying birds. Returning to White Wilderness in 2007 as a guide, she is known around the kennel for her enthusiastic and theatrical sled talks. Liz hopes to return to Alaska next summer to continue her love of waterfowl, field research, flat places, and fried Spam sandwiches.

 

A native Minnesotan, Doug is our resident handyman, and we’d be sunk without him.  He does much of our building and maintenance work and also finds time to get out on a dogsled, especially if the destination is a local ice fishing spot.  He loves the dogs, people and playing with the array of tools that come with the job at White Wilderness. His good humor and steady patience are appreciated by all.  In the summer Doug is the caretaker at Birch Lake campground, and can often be found out fishing.  He carries on many ole Minnesotan traditions, including a myriad of ways to smoke and preserve fish, make venison sausage and look out…. tell a few bad Sven and Ole jokes.

 

Erik Danielson was born and raised in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, and grew up in a state of uneventful bliss. Little did he know that when he took a summer job outfitting and guiding canoe trips on the Gunflint Trail four years ago, that it would change his life. The allure of the north woods lifestyle was impossible to deny, and he turned his summer job into a winter job. After spending a winter grooming cross country ski trails at a winter resort he was hooked. The last three summers he has spent back on the Gunflint Trail sharing his love and knowledge of canoeing, camping and the area in general with anyone who will listen. He did take a break from living and working up north to spend last winter in the Twin Cities, obtaining his EMT license. For the time being Erik is content working out of doors, and couldn't imagine spending eight waking hours indoors. In his free time he enjoys photography, hiking, fishing, laughing, learning to pick the banjo and unicycling. Knowing that there is always a high demand for banjo pickin' unicyclists, Erik is not worried about the future at all. He looks forward to spending another winter outside doing what he loves. Erik also wants to add that if anyone knows where he can acquire a winter tire/chains for his unicycle, he'd like to know.

Some kids beg to go to Disney World, some beg for a pony; as a kid, Heather Jeske Pharr begged to go winter camping (actually, she begged for a pony, too, but that's a whole other story). For years she pestered her dad to let her go on the yearly trip to the woods outside of Ely. When he finally took her, she was hooked. Together, she and her friend Princess (the family dog), explored frozen swamps, built fires in waist deep snow, bombed down hills that weren't really meant to be tackled on cross country skies, shared frozen snicker bars, and at night, enjoyed howling wolves and homemade chili back at camp with dad.  Back home in Hudson, Wisconsin, Heather constructed elaborate harnesses out of dog leashes and rope, and a very tolerant Princess let herself be led around the yard towing an orange toboggan loaded with snow.

Not much has changed since Heather was a kid. She still prefers frozen swamps to soggy ones, and it's no surprise when she comes home with stories of questionable skiing activities. She still enjoys a bowl of homemade chili and a good howl at night, and there's usually a snicker bar or two in her pocket. As for those homemade harnesses, to save time, Heather now uses the prefabricated ones. But if the need arose, she is confident that she could still whip up a harness using whatever materials she found on hand.

While not a guide, yet, Morgan McClelland helps out in many ways. Including giving the dogs "tune ups" when needed and training the puppies during the summer.

To make your next adventure come true call today! 1-800-701-6238 or e-mail us.