Mush!

When Clayton Perry starts hooking his sled dogs into their harnesses, they know it’s time to run.

By the time the musher from Power clipped the last animal onto the line for a fall training run in Seeley Lake on Sunday, the dogs were straining against the straps and leaving claw marks in the soft, damp mud of the road. Perry climbed on top of the four-wheeler he was using in place of a sled, untied the rope holding the team in place and shot down the road on a 16-mile training run.

Perry is a member of the Montana Mountain Mushers, a statewide sled dog group, and the training rides in Seeley Lake happen every year when the group holds its fall meeting there.

Roy Etnire of Seeley Lake, one of the organizers of the event, said the mornings this summer and fall were unusually cold in the area – good for training.

“I’ve been doing 16-mile runs since August, and that’s the earliest in the year I’ve ever been able to go out,” he said.

This early in training, Etnire said, he will keep his dogs running at a pace of about 12 miles per hour, letting some of the youngest animals get used to what it feels like to run in a group.

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