Last year before Christmas my friends Cate and Carl came to run dogs. I rode my little sled and Cate went with Milo and daddy. Carl went with his dad. We went to Chipmunk lake. We ate hot dogs cooked on sticks over a fire. We ran around on the lake. On the way home …
Colby was one of the greats. He traveled 4 John Beargrease Dog Sled Marathons with me and countless training and camping miles.
Theo has been running dogs for over 20 years – jumping in head first on an arctic training expedition in Canada for her first dogsledding experience. The hook was set, and dog sledding became a focal point. Theo has led outdoor trips throughout the US and Canada for most of her career. She spent many years directing programs for Cornell University’s Outdoor Education program – one of the largest collegiate outdoor programs in the country, followed by a tenure at the Voyageur Outward Bound School.
Minnesota’s north woods have always held a particular fondness and are now considered home year-round. What started as a one-winter sabbatical turned into a winter lifestyle. 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. Spare time??…planting ambitious gardens, biking, skiing, and exploring the next unexplored trail that beckons with her exuberant black lab mutt, Stella.
Kahsha grew up in the woods, just a few miles away from White Wilderness. Once she mastered the basics of standing and holding on, the next logical step was to do both… on the back of a dog sled. As a kid, most of her summers were spent deep in the Quetico Provincial Park, both on personal canoe trips and guided trips with her parents. By her teens, she became a co-guide with them. Living in the bush, so far off the beaten path, her only way to get home was to dogsled or ski four miles. She became an avid dogsledder, as many children of mushers do. She got involved with the White Wilderness kennel at the age of 15 and continued through high school. Kahsha has stories from the past 20 years of calling the woods around White Wilderness home.
When not working with dogs or tending to her reptile collection, she is a law enforcement officer for Yosemite National Park.
Taylor is stoked to call the small town of Ely, MN home. A native of the Twin Cites, Taylor first got involved with sled dogs through handling for a sprint racing kennel in Wyoming. They caught the fever and can’t get enough of working with sled dogs. What is it? Learning to coach the potential in each dog can be addictive and super fun. Off the runners, Taylor is equally passionate about fishing.
She is 20 now! She still does a great job guiding when home from college. Having grown up with dogs, she is a natural. She wishes her dad would update this picture but it is just too cute. His two best girls together, Morgan and Taulpin.
Old man, lost in the woods, and loving every minute of it.
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. Since 2005, Heather’s delightful smile, resourcefulness, and pocket full of chocolates have insured that her trips are personalized and memorable journeys with fun-loving huskies.
In 2017 Heather was made the Countess of Dogs and Trails with Logs by the King of the Winter Carnival.
As the youngest member of the White Wilderness staff, Paige is the resident adrenaline junky (pony tail included). When the waves of Lake Superior turn to ice and are no longer surfable in a kayak, he jumps onto the back of a dogsled to feed his need for an adventure. Paige is just the kind of guy you want leading you across the trails and frozen lakes of the northwoods.
When he isn’t planted on the runners of a sled, Paige can be found flying across lakes on his snowboard behind a kite, or on less windy days, hard at work crafting custom canoe paddles, beaver mitts, and knives.