Stories From the North: Episode 2 - Great Lead Dogs, Part One

    It's high time I share another mushing story with you. I wrote this some time ago, but never got around to publishing it for you, so here it is!

    One afternoon, I was able to get Bill talking about his best lead dog ever - a once in a lifetime dog named Palley. He has a picture of the dog (or drawing, rather) in his home. It was Palley who led him to his win of the 1987 Yukon Quest and Bill has not been able to duplicate him since. Also, like the great race horse Secretariat, Palley's offspring were not great leaders like he was.
    Here's a few special things Palley would do:
    Back in those days you pulled of the trail to camp, then continued forward to rejoin the trail when you were done - so you'd basically make a cresent shaped detour in the deep snow. As you can imagine, the dogs weren't fond of getting up from their nice beds and breaking through deep snow to the trail.
    But Palley was a helpful dog. Once he figured it out, he would jump off the trail to make a camp on command and, if you gave him some tree branches, he'd make himself a bed!
    When it was time to go, Bill could walk up the trail and call him, which would make Palley jump up and drag the sleepy team to the trail, bringing the sled right by Bill - who could hop on as it went by!

    Up next, an amazing story about Aaron's leader Mojo...