People start speaking to me as soon as my accent gives me away as a foreigner – ‘I just love your accent’ is a frequent comment. Although for some reason a few people have thought I'm Australian. Not the first time a member of my family has been taken for Australian but I can’t see why. Not that I mind, the Aussies are good people and I’m quite happy to be taken for one of them. Got the chance at today’s local paper and it mentioned Saturday’s winds and dust…’dust and sand almost resembled a desert sandstorm with gusts up to 30mph. Due to high pressure in the northwest of the state causing rotating winds’. So it was bad enough to report on!
As everywhere is closed until 10 o'clock I took my time over breakfast before going for a little walk then back to my room and waiting impatiently until 11 o’clock when I could phone Mary Shields. Free local calls by the way, which helped. She was engaged for half an hour then the ansaphone was on but she returned my call quickly. Having spoken to Mary I planned my route over to her, right through the middle of
I thought to look at some museums before heading off but everything was closed including the equivalent of the Tourist Information Office, which was only open Tuesdays and Saturdays. No good to me! So I wound up back in my room taking advantage of the time to bring my diary up to date. Once that was done and I’d had another coffee at the Diner it was time to leave.
I managed ok, took all the right turnings until I found myself going up a dirt road for a couple of miles, at which point I decided I must be lost and turned back. I nearly stopped a car going at a fair lick in the opposite direction but wasn’t quick-thinking enough. I stopped and asked a woodcutter for directions and it turned out I was only about 1000 yards short – I hadn’t quite gone far enough. The hotel had told me it would be signposted so I was looking got a bigish business-type sign. As it turned out it was a normal house sign ‘Tails of the Trail’. This was where she lived. Turn off, down a short dirt track and park in front of the garage. Amazingly I was on time.
Below to the left is the large dog-yard and to the right is her log cabin. She greeted me warmly and after a few minutes we discovered hers was the car I’d passed and just missed asking directions from – she’d wondered who’d been driving so slowly!
Together we fetched some knucklebones for the dogs and took them down to the yard. She asked if I would be ok to go into the yard, I could get mucked up and was I nervous of dogs ? I wasn’t in the least bit nervous and I came prepared in old clothes. They are beautiful, big, waggly, bouncy dogs; full of joy and intelligence, each with its own distinct and delightful personality. She introduced me to each of them where they were chained individually on a long leash to a kennel. They are kept this way as boisterous play can sometimes turn deadly. Then she let them off their chains and they bounded around the large enclosure enjoying some mad catch-me-if-you-can game. As well as letting them stretch their legs it allows them to establish a pecking order amongst themselves. There is a dominant dog, which I couldn’t spot and had to have pointed out to me. This is not necessarily the lead dog. Mary, however, is the top dog in their eyes; she needs them to see her this way so she can control them on the trail.
Each came up to say hello, jumping onto the roof of the nearest kennel to have its ears rubbed or whatever. They are all related to each other in some way and are not purebreds but are large, friendly, wonderful animals. Once Mary had chained them up again, not necessarily in the same places as she said each had to learn to socialise with the others, we fed them, gave each its knucklebone and she topped up their water.
The dogs obviously adore her and she them.
After rinsing bone residue off our hands in a trough she took me into her home, a beautifully appointed log cabin. The stove and bathroom are the central hub with the kitchen, bed, living and dining areas around the outside. Large windows give plenty of light and open onto a porch at the back overlooking a forested valley. We washed up properly and Mary made tea from an astonishing variety in her cupboards that we took out onto the porch. We sat outside admiring the view, drinking tea and munching trail mix while she told me about the dogs, sledding, the Iditerod and sundry other chitchat.
Mary has a knack of making you feel right at home. As I sit and listen to this lovely lady talking about the pleasures and problems of running dogs in these peaceful surroundings I relax completely. She is so natural and welcoming and I know from others who have seen her, whether in small or large groups, she is always as friendly as she is with me. Occasionally we digress and talk about other things but we always come back to her dogs. She loves them and she loves the life, and it’s easy to see why.
On the slope we are level with the treetops that are close to the cabin and see the birds clearly; also the red squirrels who chatter angrily at us as though to say ‘go away, this is our place, and leave the nuts behind you’. At one point her voice trails off and her gaze fixes behind me, ‘there’s a snow hare’ she says quietly. It takes me a while but then I spot the white legs and once I place the white ear tips I can see it, so still, merging with the background. Eventually it moves and I can appreciate how large it is. Later I spot a fox with its russet / brown coat and extremely large, white-tipped tail running across the far end of the clearing.
Alaskans have told me it's a shame I've come here between seasons, missing the beauty of the winter snows and the green glory of summer. Looking out from Mary's cabin at the misty hills and hazy green just clouding the trees as the buds begin to show; enjoying the birdsong and watching the animals we spot among the trees I have to disagree. This is a wonderful time to be in this wonderful country.
No visit to
I got back to the hotel and felt very flat and low. I’d been excited all afternoon and now was anticlimax. I went for yet another Mexican meal and went to bed.
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