17 December 2008
Mush, You Husky Scouts. Mush!
Posted by admin under: Outings .
Remember reading Jack London’s “Call of the Wild”? It started me off on a whole Alaska/Yukon Gold Rush kick when I was in sixth grade. I always wanted to stand on a sled pulled by a team of eager Huskies and feel the sub-zero wind on my face. For those of you who are equally entranced by the vision of dog sledding, Pat van den Beemt shares a program available to Maryland area kids and adults.
If you have five big dogs that yearn to put on harnesses and pull sleds, and if you want to teach children and adults what dog sledding is all about, where do you go every weekend?
You go to the Hereford Zone.
Catherine and Eric Benson, who live in Baltimore and own Maryland Sled Dog Adventures, know North County is famous for having snow when it’s raining to the south. It’s also famous for an unpaved trail that stretches from Hunt Valley into Pennsylvania.
Every weekend from September through April, they pack up one Alaskan and four Siberian huskies and head for the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail to offer rides. If the trail is snow-packed, great. If not, the dogs can pull a sled on wheels.
Just last Saturday, they introduced 11 Boy and Girl Scouts from Dundalk to the art of dog sledding.
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“Here they come! Here they come!” the Scouts in the middle group on the trail yelled as the sled carrying 8-year-old Carmen Brune, who wore goggles and a bike helmet, quickly approached. Catherine Benson called “easy” and “whoa” and the dogs came to a stop so another rider could climb aboard.
“It felt really bumpy,” Carmen said. “But it was really cool. The air is really cold on your face.”
After her ride, Maggie Carey, 9, said the dogs ran faster than she had expected. “It was definitely fun,” she said.
People running on the trail didn’t seem too surprised to be passed by a dog sled.
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In addition to the three-hour program, for which Scouts earn a dog-sledding patch, Maryland Sled Dog Adventures offers “Yappy Hour,” a one-hour program during which adults and children get to ride the rig, as well birthday parties and classroom presentations.
And me on the other side of the country. Oh, well. At least I’m closer to Alaska.
- Using Your Noggin While Sledding
- GSUSA: Camp Lakota Snow Adventure
- Girl Scouts Bring Derrick Mason Out of Retirement
- BSA: Mt. Islip Hike
- BSA: Mount Whitney Adventure
