Michigan probably isn’t on many people’s lists when they think of dogsledding locales. Alaska undoubtedly comes to mind first, if for no other reason than the famous Iditarod race or Jack London’s book,
Call of the Wild. Minnesota, too, might come to mind, as the North Shore region has bountiful locations and myriad teams and races. Meanwhile, Michigan’s winter identity centers more on skiing, snowmobiling or even ice fishing.
Ed and Tasha Stielstra set out to change that when a decade ago they left behind jobs in Duluth, Minn., to become full-time mushers in the eastern Upper Peninsula.
"I was a teacher and Ed a production supervisor at a foundry," Tasha Stielstra says. "Most people thought we were crazy--and I'm sure my mom cried and lost a week of sleep--but we went into this with a plan and everyone knew we were already into the dogs."
So after some meticulous research, they found just the right place off a dirt road eight miles north of McMillan, and built a couple of off-the-grid cabins and a large kennel for the dogs. Knowing that racing alone wouldn’t pay the bills, during their second winter in McMillan they opened
Nature’s Kennel--named for Ed’s first dog, Nature--to the public for both daily and overnight sled dog adventures.
Through careful planning and by offering an enjoyable product, the kennel today is a thriving operation.
"Everybody thinks of snowmobiling in the winter time, skiing, but other than that (dogsledding) is something that all ages can enjoy," Tasha Stielstra says. "I’ve had 80-year-olds drive their own team. It’s on the borderline of a silent sport. So if you don’t want to own a snowmobile and go tearing through the woods, it’s something different."
Both Stielstras are experienced mushers. Since his inaugural
Iditarod run in 2004, Ed, 42, has competed in the sport’s premier race six times, and he plans to again this year. In 2006, Tasha, 37, and her team of dogs finished sixth at
La Grande Odyssee in France. Both have led winning teams closer to home at the U.P. 200 race that begins and ends in Marquette.
When you arrive at Nature’s Kennel, it takes only seconds to know the dogs are the heart of the business. Every direction you look, you see row upon row of homes for about 160 dogs. Some have habitants settled on hay inside their houses, others offer a Snoopy image of the dog standing on the roof. Almost all of them are barking, but it soon turns into white noise like the sound of crashing waves you barely notice at the beach.
Soon, sleds surge as the nearby year-old dogs watch and offer a final salute while guides and visitors begin another adventure. The kennel begins to settle back into the peaceful solitude of a northern winter with flakes falling through the northern forests.
You can tell just by spending a few hours around the place how happy everyone is to be there. Owners, employees, guests and dogs alike all seem to be having the time of their lives doing what Tasha Stielstra calls "a truly unique Michigan experience."
"I think it’s just unique enough," she says. "It’s on a lot of people’s bucket lists. It’s great pictures, it’s great excitement, it’s something for the whole family to enjoy. It’s kind of the mystique of working with animals and being out in the woods."
That mystique is something that makes working at Nature’s Kennel an attractive idea for many as well.
Each year, a new group arrives at McMillan for a year of adventure in the U.P. Most have four-year college degrees, including an employee this year who graduated from Cal Poly.
James Riedel, a 33-year-old from Maryland, near Washington, D.C, left behind a seven-year career in the telecom industry to work with the dogs.
Riedel had been dog sledding just three times before signing on with Nature’s Kennel, but he knew it was something he wanted to do.
He says, "I get to run dogs as a job. I get to get up and see happy faces and wagging tails, as compared to grumpy Mondays."
As you might expect, keeping the dogs is the biggest expense. Tasha Stielstra estimates it costs about $1,000 a year per dog, and that’s before you add in all the other overhead expenses related to running the business. The dogs must eat high-quality food, including beef. A sponsorship from Royal Canin, however, helps with putting high-quality dog food in the stomachs of athletes who might run 20 to 30 miles a day for up to six days a week.
A pair of 20-something sisters, Alicia and Liliana LaValle, went on a half-day excursion the day I visited the kennel. They were given a chance to meet the dogs and help prepare their team. Then they were guided along the trails for a 10-mile trip that lasted about three hours.
One of the things you notice, as they undoubtedly did, is just how fast the sled seems to move, and how much it slides around as the dogs cut through the curves with little knowledge of what is going on in the sled behind them while the rider fights forces trying to tip the sled on its side.
When they arrived back, they visited with a litter of puppies that were a little more than a week old at the time.
Sitting at a table near a warm wood stove with hot cocoa and cookies in front of them, the sisters took a moment to talk about their day.
"We knew we wanted to do something fun over the holiday," says Alicia LaValle, of Ann Arbor. "She was living in Ireland; I was living in Argentina. It’s been a long time that we haven’t seen each other. So then we were going to go cross country skiing or something, but there’s no snow in the Lower Peninsula. So I said ‘dog sledding?’ and as soon as I said it we were sold."
Asked the most exciting part, the sisters thought a moment before Liliana exclaims: "I was getting pulled by a dog on a sled!"
"I think it’s the best way to do anything in the winter," she adds.
As more and more people discover that, it won’t be long before people think of Michigan--and of Nature’s Kennel--when they think of dog sledding.
Kurt Mensching is an award-winning freelance writer and photographer who resides in Marquette and enjoys playing in the snow with his German Shepherd Dog, Donner.
Photos by Shawn Malone.