DOG SLEDDING VACATIONS

MAHOOSUC GUIDE SERVICE Newry, Maine United States www.mahoosuc.com
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Overview

Polly and Kevin are full time, professional Master Maine Guides with over 50 years of guiding experience between them. Polly started mushing in 1979 and Kevin in 1982. They have experience guiding anything from caribou hunts in the Yukon to technical climbs of Denali in Alaska, to driving a dog team across the sea ice of Hudson Bay. The fact that all trips are owner guided ensures participants the highest level of safety and comfort. Polly and her dog team were featured in the Walt Disney classic movie “Never Cry Wolf” in 1981. Kevin organized and led the relocation of the last Canadian Eskimo dogs from Antarctica for the British Antarctica Survey in 1994 that returned the dogs to the Inuit of Hudson Bay.

Native Canadian Cultural Dog Sledding Trips
The best way to see and experience the north is to be guided by its indigenous people. Mahoosuc pioneered northern trips with Native guides two decades ago. Mahoosuc offers dogsled and canoe trips in northern Canada with Cree and Inuit guides (and Polly or Kevin of course!). If you are interested in more than just a superficial experience with native culture, travel with Mahoosuc. You will leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the culture by living and traveling with a Native family from the area who grew up in Eeyouistchee (Cree: the bush) or Nuna (Inuuktitut: the land). The last generation of Native subsistence hunters, who are the keepers of traditional knowledge, is passing on. There will not be another chance.

Mahoosuc Guide Service is committed to working with Natives to develop cultural tourism and encourage guiding as a viable career. In addition to consulting with various villages on tourism development, Mahoosuc has been instrumental in such initiatives as returning the last Eskimo huskies from Antarctica to the Inuit of Hudson Bay and facilitating a guides exchange with Cree who want to start their own guiding and outfitting businesses.

Yukon Huskies
Mahoosuc has been raising and training their family bloodline of Yukon huskies for 30 years. Originally from the Old Crow area of the Yukon, these huskies are large long-legged freighting dogs. In terms of temperament, they tend to be calm and steady, making it easy for beginners to work with them. They are very friendly and well socialized animals.

Mahoosuc prides themselves on having well behaved and well trained dog teams. All of their dogs were bred, raised and trained by them. Mahoosuc provides the highest possible quality of life for their family of dogs. For example, during their summer vacation, they are “free range” huskies turned out into large one acre pens to play. Also, unlike many mushers, they don’t farm out retired sled dogs. Instead, they move into the house with them – Mahoosuc is committed to caring for them from birth to the end of the trail.

Dogsledding in Maine
Weekend Overnight Trips
Weekend overnight trips are an introduction to winter travel by cross country ski, snowshoe and dog team. No experience is necessary and they provide all the specialized winter clothing and equipment. After some instruction, participants ski or mush into base camp. Accommodations are white canvas wall tents with fir bough floors, equipped with a wood stove to remove the survival aspects of winter travel. Camping with the huskies you are able to witness first hand their ancestral link to wolves as they howl to communicate with each other.

Northwoods Trips
Mahoosuc refers to their four to six day trips as their northwoods trips. The increased length of the trip and a smaller group size enables them to all travel by dog team. The additional husky power makes it easier to reach more pristine remote wilderness areas of Maine’s northwoods. These trips are popular with people who want more time working with the huskies. They will take a layover day mid-trip to explore by ski or snowshoe and cover various winter ecology topics.

Dogsledding with Native People of Canada
Through travels in the north, Mahoosuc Guide Service has met and become friends with several Cree and Inuit families. They employ local Native guides on all Canadian trips. If you are interested in more than just a superficial look at Native culture, travel with Mahoosuc. You will leave with a deeper understanding and appreciation for the culture by living and traveling with Native guides from the area who grew up in eeyoustis (the bush) or nuna (the tundra).

Mahoosuc Guide Service is committed to working with Natives to develop cultural tourism and encourage guiding as a viable career. In addition to consulting with various villages on tourism development, they have been instrumental, in such initiatives as returning the last Eskimo huskies from Antarctica to the Inuit of Hudson Bay and facilitating a guides exchange with Cree who want to start their own guiding/outfitting business.

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