Canine Fun for Everyone

SEELEY LAKE - Montana Mountain Mushers (MMM) held their Canine Fun Days this past weekend, Sept. 24 and 25 at the West Side Bypass Trailhead north of Seeley Lake. Around 10 experienced mushers from the club ran their dogs and worked with other novice mushers and skijorers.

Kristina Prichard from Helena, Mont. came for the event to "get some expertise." Seeley Lake musher Rob Loveman worked with her and her dog Blu. They had Blu pulling her on her mountain bike by the end of Saturday morning.

Peter Dech, also from Helena, is a newcomer to MMM. He joined to get more exposure to races, learn from other mushers and to get his three dogs around other dogs. He said his dogs had a hard time when they met other sled teams on the trail. The run-ins often ended in a tangle. This was the second Canine Fun Day he's participated in and he said his dogs are much calmer than they were last year.

Seeley Lake 12-year-old Seppa Francis went out for a ride with musher Jenny Roddewig, formerly Greger, from Bozeman. Roddewig has come to the Canine Fun Days for the last several years because she enjoys getting together with the other mushers and riding the "wonderful trails" in the area.

Francis loves the sport of mushing. When she was five-years-old she would ride with Cindy Gallea and remembers falling a sleep in the sled. She rode with Roddewig behind Roddewig's team on a 4-wheeler, to watch and learn.

Francis said she learned that Roddewig stopped and gave her dogs breaks on the trail and would offer them water "so the dogs don't get exhausted," said Francis. "It turned out to be a lot more than learning."

Roberta Reiley, handler and musher, said it was a time for the public to meet some of the mushers from Montana and learn more about the sport and the dogs. Everyone had a good time getting out with the dogs and reconnecting again before the race season starts.