Timber Tales     Week 03

I have never pulled the dog truck. Not that I wouldn't do it—I mean, I just love that truck, taking us everywhere, always trucking up and down the mountainsides while I get to lie inside, looking out at all the amazing sights. But, still, it's big, with the dog boxes on top and the big trailer being pulled behind it.

Anyway, we didn't actually pull it. Paul was just talking about it. We were having a break from driving, all outside on the stake out. Dan and Paul take the two long stake-out chains. They attach an end of each stake-out chain somewhere on the truck and then they run the stake-out chain out from the truck to something they can tie on to—trees, light poles, fences, parked shipping containers... the other day, they even tied us off to an old train!? Didn't look like the train could go anywhere though—I checked: there were no tracks ahead. Trains are not as easy as Polar Huskies... we go anywhere, track or no track. The dog truck goes most places too, though it can definitely get stuck if the snow gets really deep, for example.

We had stopped at this huge lake surrounded by enormous mountains. We were still in Canada, because we had not gone through the border crossing yet—well, so Lightning tells me. I was asleep and though I have a hard time believing I would miss anything, sometimes in the rumble I guess I do drift off. But I had told Lightning about my trick with counting border patrol people to know when we are in Alaska—and she is really sharp! Sweet too. And pretty.

After we had eaten and had some really delicious water that Mike brought us (I really like him, he always rubs me so nicely), we were just kind of hanging out for a while. I was checking around for animals and stuff. I could hear my whiskers crackle. I heard Paul say to Mike that it was -39 F (-39.4 C). I guess they think that is pretty cold. Then Paul pulled out one of the main lines that we use to pull the sled along with some harnesses and said with a grin, "Maybe we should go for it—I am sure we just hook this up to the front end of the truck and the Polar Husky gang can pull us out if need be!" I think we could, too! But next he said we were going to stop for the night. It was just our middle-of-the-day-driving-break, so that was a bit surprising. They talked about that it was supposed to turn into a snow storm pretty quickly, and Paul did not want to start driving up and over this last grand pass where there is no help to get, if the snow was really coming down. Sounded smart to me.

That's why I love traveling with Paul—he takes good care of all of us. Always seems to know what the weather is going to do, what is around the next corner and ... well, actually, I myself have had to help him a couple of times on that, I admit, with Polar Bears and stuff. But he always listens. We are a good team, I think!

Sure enough, that night the snow was really coming down outside of the dog boxes where we were parked. Not that big of a deal though. The next morning, the truck just trucked right through it all, snow flying everywhere. Especially when these even bigger trucks would come flying by us, going the other direction. It was the only other vehicles we would see—and there were not that many, but it was kind of wild. If I had my mouth open, I could taste it. Everything just turned white, upside-down. Couldn't see a thing through my door. A couple of times, I thought I could smell and, sure enough, right when we could barely see again, there were big buffalo bisons standing on the road. Almost as big as polar bears. Actually, the bison is probably taller. Not sure, I have not had as close a look at the bison as I have on a polar bear. The bison do, at times, stand right next to the truck in the ditch, but I am always inside my box up on the truck so I can't really compare. I do bark, of course.

Besides from bison (47 total), I also barked at three white tail deer, six mule deer, 78 elk, six caribou, eight moose, one coyote, one wolf, and even a lynx! Oh, and I talked (thought I better not bark) to those nice border patrol people when they looked in my door. We are in Alaska now!! Rumor has it we are going flying tomorrow. I love flying.