Wildland Racing Kennel

Turkey Time! 🦃🔥

The crew was losing their minds this morning when a freezer-burnt turkey hit the chopping block. One swing of the axe, a few chunks later, and 14 happy sled dogs were enjoying a frozen summer feast. ❄️🐕

A huge thank-you to the amazing folks in our community who reach out with donations like this. What might be headed for the bin becomes fuel for the team, helping keep these athletes happy, healthy, and ready for the trails ahead.

Nothing goes to waste around here when there's a kennel full of hungry dogs waiting! 🪓🐾🔥

People always ask what the humans of Wildland do when there’s no snow and the dogs aren’t running.

Apparently the answer is:
go live in the middle of nowhere and willingly get attacked by every weather condition known to mankind 😂

Tomorrow morning Jenn and I head out for our second rotation of the season as backcountry park operators for BC Parks, and these photos are from the first one.

People picture this job as cozy mornings drinking coffee beside a lake while softly appreciating nature.

Reality is more like:
getting hailed on in May
wearing winter gloves beside open water
arguing with generators
hauling fuel and supplies across rough lakes
fixing random things that absolutely should not be broken
and wondering if hypothermia builds character 😬

This first rotation alone we had sun, fog, rain, snow, hail, wind, calm water, rough water, and one day where it somehow managed to do ALL of them.

We also had to evacuate a paddler during the first rotation, which turned into hiking over 5 miles in and 5 miles back out helping bring someone to safety.

So between the dogs and the backcountry apparently our hobby is just being cold and tired in remote places 🤷😂

Most of our days are spent hauling supplies by boat, fixing docks and campsites, checking cabins, maintaining trails, cleaning storm damage, cutting firewood, hauling garbage, helping visitors, and trying to solve problems with the exact wrong tools for the job.

Out here there’s no “call maintenance.”

If something breaks, congratulations you’re maintenance.
If the boat acts weird, you’re now a marine mechanic.
If weather rolls in, you simply suffer professionally until it passes.

Honestly though, we love it.

Long days.
Remote places.
Beautiful views.
Terrible weather.
Questionable life choices.

Basically dog mushing… just without the sleds for a few months 🌧️🏔️🚤🔥

Also huge credit to Tyler (Jenn’s brother) for feeding and taking care of the Wildland crew while we’re off pretending to be wilderness experts

Alphie wasn’t even scheduled for bikejoring today… and apparently that was the greatest injustice this kennel has ever seen 😂

People really be calling our crew “weak tour dogs” and this dunce had a complete emotional breakdown because he DIDN’T get to pull.

Are you kidding me 💀

Screaming like we cancelled Christmas.
Spinning circles.
Bouncing off the line.
Trying to throw himself onto teams he wasn’t even hooked to.

Then buddy got so committed to the protest he literally started dragging his dog house behind him and half destroyed it trying to leave the yard 🤦🏼😂

Yeah… super weak dogs.
So weak they lose their minds over missing ONE training run.

Nobody told these dogs they were supposed to be lazy. They wake up every morning ready to file workplace complaints if they don’t get enough miles in 😂

Half our job isn’t making dogs run.
It’s convincing 14 insane huskies that they cannot ALL go every single time.

Hey, it’s us at Wildland 👋🐺

For anyone wondering what mushers do when winter ends…

Apparently we immediately create more work for ourselves.

This winter setup actually worked great — dogs hauled, races happened, tours ran, and somehow we survived living out of trailers and organized chaos.

Then we looked at it and said, “you know what would be fun? Taking it all apart?”

Why?

Because we’ve got 10 more four-legged crew members joining the team this summer, and they unfortunately expect things like space, housing, and basic accommodations when we’re on the road. 😂

So the trailer setup that got us through this winter? Gone. We need every inch of that space now.

Cue us spending the afternoon moving giant dog boxes with heavy equipment and pretending we had a fully thought-out plan the entire time.

And the other day, when we weren’t rebuilding everything we own, we snuck out to catch northern pike minnows to stock the dog food freezer.

They’re non-game fish, there’s no limit on them, and the dogs treat them like a five-star meal.

This is pretty much our offseason:
build stuff, tear stuff apart, catch questionable amounts of fish, and somehow end up with more dogs.

Wouldn’t trade it for anything. 🐺🔥

During spring clean I found this old sheet from when I first started working for Grant Beck, putting U-drive teams together.

It’s wild looking at it now.

Racer’s name is on there… and I remember exactly what I thought back then. He was super young, a pain in my ass, and honestly not a dog I wanted to run.

Now he’s the dog I cherish every single run with.

Funny how that works.

And what really hits is I can still tell you something about almost every dog on this sheet… every name brings something back. Personalities, quirks, the way they moved in a team.

Minus “brown dog”… no clue who that was 😂

We went back to Grant’s this year during Underdog and saw some of those same names again. Some of that old crew are officially the old dogs now… and some aren’t there anymore, moved on to other kennels.

That’s just how this world works.

Dogs grow up. Teams change. Lines move around.

But those early days… those dogs… they stick with you.

And looking at this now, it’s not just a lineup sheet. It’s a piece of where it all started

Oh Racer…
We all miss the snow.
Miss the runs, the miles, the sound of a team moving.

But slower days mean something too.
More time to sit, more time to breathe…
more time for this.

You leaning in like you’ve got nowhere else to be,
soaking up every second of it.

The trails will come back.
The miles will come back.

But these moments…
this is the good stuff too

25 dogs found dead.
And the system that should’ve protected them didn’t.

And yeah this is the kind of s**t that makes us angry.

We don’t know every detail yet about what happened at the kennel known as Walkers Wild Rides in Alaska.
But from what’s coming out

People knew.
Concerns were raised.
Mushers and community members were trying to step in and help.

And they were turned away.
By the people that are supposed to protect them.

Told they couldn’t go onto the property.
Told it was being handled.

Meanwhile 25 dogs end up dead.

Let that sit.

Those dogs are the victims here.
No question.

But what makes this worse is knowing this didn’t have to happen.

Because the reality is
most mushers take incredible care of their dogs.

These dogs aren’t just owned.
They’re trained, fed, conditioned, and cared for every single day.
They live to run, and in the right hands they live better lives than most house pets.

And when something goes wrong in a yard
this community shows up.

Dogs get fed.
Dogs get moved.
Dogs get rehomed.

There are rescues.
There are resources.
There are people who would’ve stepped in without hesitation.

And from what’s being said
they tried to.

And instead of help being allowed in
the system stepped in and shut it down.

That’s what doesn’t sit right.

Yes the people responsible for those dogs carry the weight of this.
100%.

But it’s hard not to look at this and feel like
the system didn’t just fail these dogs
it actively prevented them from getting the help that could’ve saved them.

That’s where the anger comes from.

Not knowing every fact yet
but knowing enough to see something broke along the way.

There’s an investigation now.
More will come out.

And it should.

Because this can’t just get handled quietly or brushed off.

This needs to be looked at properly
and not just from within.

Because this isn’t just about one situation.

It’s about what happens the next time
and whether help is allowed in or pushed away again.

We don’t have every detail yet.
But we know this

It never should’ve gotten to this point.

Wildland Racing 🐺🔥