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Touring Dates for the 2010/2011 season are being booked.Please contact us for information! Tours are booking well so please check with us so we have plenty of time to book you in a time of your choosing.
KENNEL UPDATE July 31...the road into Eagle is still closed although the road between Dawson and Tok has been reopened. The Chinook (King) Salmon run has come in weak but after last year and not even getting to fish for kings because of the disaster from the Yukon River break-up we are enjoying ever bite that goes into our mouths. The dogs are enjoying the scraps. Because of our lifestyle we try to utilize every bit of fish that we take from the river. We strip and can the meat. The dogs get the heads, backbones and other scraps of meat which is cooked up with rice. The guts are put in a barrel and added to the garden the next spring. The eggs are sometimes dried for treats for the dogs or added to the barrel. Funny thing is that the dogs hate to eat raw eggs and most pick them out if they get cooked and put into their food dish but once it is dried they will take your fingers off if you are not careul as they try to get at their snacks. July 26, 2010…has found Eagle still cut off because of heavy rains. Road repairs had reopened the Tok to Dawson section of road and the section into Eagle was about to reopen when more heavy rain fell onto the already saturated ground and there was a repeat performance of road washouts and land slides. In the beginning sections of road coming into Eagle still had a single lane but this last deluge wiped out the whole trail…not even a 4 wheeler could have skirted around. But hopefully the rains will stop and the road work get the road open enough to allow locals to travel and get supplies. The dogs, on the other hand, do not know about all the hassles and tho they do not like the constant rain they are having a fun summer. Today Triton found a porcupine and wound up with a few quills in his nose. Luckily I was able to keep the other dogs moving with me so that they did not join in his fun. We were able to hold him and pull the quills with pliers. Today the sun is out and the smoker is smoking heavy as I am trying
to take advantage of the sun and heat to speed up the strips that
have taken days and days to dry. We have been lucky to have not
lost any with all the constant rain. Keeping a smoke and heat going
inside the smoker gets a little hard but it kept the strips drying…just
very slowly. Sure taste good! Winter tours will get to enjoy the
strip snacks that we put in their sleds for munching as they travel. July...Hum, interesting summer so far…where to start…Warmth came early to our area and the gardens got a good head start and then things cooled down a bit and the plants stood waiting. Then they took off and began to grow and now so much cloudy, wet weather has them growing slowly. Eagle was able to breath easy when the Yukon gave us a very mild breakup this year and then the normal high water did not appear to come. June began to edge by and July loomed ahead with the Chinook (King) salmon run coming in late, which put the early arrival of kings starting in the 2nd week of July. Wayne and I got busy and got the fish wheel off the bank, ready to float and launched it in a new fishing hole. We were pretty hyped at how things went. We were not yet ready for large catches so the first day the 2 fish were a welcome treat. Then the second day we saw how good our spot was when we had 15 beautiful fish waiting to put me to work. The dogs have loved it all as they get to run free and chase the boat along the bank to the fish wheel site where they play around while we work. In the winter all you have to do is touch a dog sled to get the yard to explode and in the summer it is touch the 4 wheeler. Then all X@#$X broke loose in the sky and the rains poured and poured. The 40-Mile River at the Taylor Highway Bridge rose 24 feet in 24 hours. We are talking straight up, not along the edge. The water almost covered the bridge. The 40-Mile rise caused the Yukon to come up 5 feet in 24 hours. Debris was heavy and all fishing stopped. The 40-Mile is slowly going down but the Yukon has only gone up and is at high bank level because of continued rains here and all along the upper Yukon. We will have to wait for it to go down at least 2 feet before we can reset the wheel and even then it will not be a good set until the water goes down another 2 to 3 feet. Many miles of the Taylor Highway are washed out or covered with landslides, which makes the road impassable. They are saying it could be months before it is opened. We are hoping that is not the case for locals and that once construction gets so far they will allow locals through for needed supplies, doctor and dental appointments, as the summer is when we can take care of things and get the many tons of supplies we need in for the winter for us and the dogs. The local economy in Eagle and Chicken has ground to a halt and it is going to be hard for the people who depend on the tourism for their yearly income. Thirty or more people were stranded for days in between wash outs
and waited for the road crews to get some kind of temporary trail
in so they could pass. The really sad thing is that a summer local,
the border agent, Chuck was traveling out a small distance ahead
of another vehicle. He made it around one bend and the following
car was cut off by a landslide and had to return to Eagle, barely
making it over now washed out sections. We can only guess but the
assumption is that Chuck was watching in his rearview mirror at
the landslide or to see if the young gentleman made it safely around
the bend and appears to have driven straight off the road in a bend
near where Wayne ran his snow machine over a few years ago. There
was no indication of swerving or braking. The vehicle was washed
downstream and when rescue crews went down found the seat belt undone.
Chuck even wore his belt in town so it appears he tried to get out
and did but was not able to get out of the floodwaters. Searchers
are still hoping to find his body. June 29, 2010 is another wet one. Which has been good for the ground and gardens. The Chinook Salmon are headed this way but the run is still not as strong as we would like to see it. We are beginning to work on the fish wheel getting it ready to put in the water. The dogs have been having a great summer. Our 4 legged visitors have disappeared and we hope that we have seen the last of them. I am getting tired of peaking around the outhouse door before I step out of it. June 7, 2010 is a dripping one. After really hot, dry weather produced a lot of thunderstorms; which, produced fires the rain was welcome. Our latest visitor still comes to visit but so far is staying out of trouble. The dogs are enjoying their runs along the beach. May 23 has had the dogs very excited with 2 unusual visitors into the dog yard. On at least 5 visits that Wayne and I witnessed a lone white wolf came calling. This has had us pondering the question of is it safe to allow the beautiful animal such close proximity to the dogs? There are many stories about such visits and some have bad endings but many have interesting and wonderful endings. Ours was a good ending. The wolf meandered about showing no aggression towards the dogs or us. He has not visited in the past 3 days. Neither Wayne nor I thought to grab the camera in our excitement at getting to watch him. Now last night and today is a different story! This bear has no problem allowing us all the time we need to practically pose him for shots. As long as he stays to the trails we are going to enjoy him. 
May 10th has spring trying to leaf out. The snow is gone. The river went out nicely with little fanfare this year and had everyone breathing easier. Grass is beginning to green up and many trees have small leaves trying to pop out to full size. The garden is planted in the raised beds and will be transfered to the main ground in a few weeks after, hopefully, the last frost has happened. The dogs are enjoying their time. We have been working, continueing to cut trail that was destroyed in last years flood and each day a group of dogs gets to run with us to the river. They enjoy the freedom of play after their winters work. March 28, 2010 has arrived with dripping eaves. It has been such a wonderful mushing season that it is going to be hard to see it go. Tours went well and everyone was happy with the experiences they had. On the fun side, I took a 5 dog team into Eagle and won the 15 mile Flying Eagle Dog Sled Race and then Wayne ran the Percy Jr race, a 105 mile race, and came in first with a group of really happy dogs. Nate, our guide, placed second with a team of young dogs. They have headed home today and will be here sometime late tomorrow. Feb 24, 2010 has turned out to be a really nice month. We have had a couple of small cold snaps but the temps have for the most part felt like March. Trails are very nice and daylight is getting longer. The dogs are at their prime shape and are enjoying the time spent out on the trails with the clients...especially when the clients bring their whole team into the cabin at nights. Feb 4, 2010 has come in a little chilly (minus 45) but for the most part this winter has been extremely nice. And this cold snap appears to be short lived according to the baramoter. The trails are in excellant shape as we now have plenty of snow. The clients are very happy with the dogs, trails and travel conditions. Jan 17. 2010 has us with 3 days of light snow that has given us enough to groom our trail here at the homestead and have it nice. To watch the snow fall is always a beautiful sight. We are well into our tour season and things are going smoothly. The dogs are in great shape and enjoying their outings.
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Run your own sled dog team of Alaskan Huskies through the Alaska, Yukon Wilderness. We specialize in extreme, hard-core wilderness travel using highly trained Alaskan huskies. This area of Alaska is one of the most remote locations left on earth. Because a true wilderness experience becomes tainted with a large group or "party," we limit our tours to one or two clients plus your guide. (Except on special request for a larger group, by you.) You can customize your tour to your own personal physical abilities and expectations which can include day trips and simple overnight adventures in a tent camp or an original miner/trapline cabin dating back to the early part of the century or you can experience a full-blown expedition as long as you want, mushing into country inhabited only by God's creations, including caribou and wolves. Along with the experience of riding the runners behind the dogs,
you can spend time hiking, skiing, ski joring, snow boarding, aurora
watching, (on clear nights the northern lights often grace the sky),
or just kicking back in a relaxed, remote location. VIEW AN 8 MINUTE VIDEO: Sierra Club member Mickey Murch made this video in Feb 2007 while on a Sierra Club Tour with us. The clip is called Metabolic Transportation and is on vimeo. To watch the video, once the page pulls up, click the starting arrow on the window. VIEW A YOUTUBE VIDEO OF A 2008 EXTREME TRIP! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAqWKDkDJBI View a video of some advanced mushing with direction from guide, Matt Emslie: Sometimes mushing can get difficult and exhilarating as this video of Louise directing her team and working her sled around a narrow ledge of ice on an exploratory trip into the headwaters of Eagle Creek. Once the page opens up, click on the starting arrow on the window. View 3 clips from the 2009 Herchal Island Expedition. These clips are from areas that are within our normal routes and might be something that you would like to experience. We customize our trips and routing to what you want to experience and the difficulty level that we feel is best suited to your abilities. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhYc3yKS9P8&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVo6jWtr2Es&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF5QChCgX2s&feature=related MEDIA ARTICLES: New York Times Travel Magazine "The Great White Way" by Alix Browne in the November 20, 2005 issue. http://travel.nytimes.com//185789 http://query.nytimes.comUSA TODAY Travel>>Destinations "Dog Sledding Keeps Gliding Along, Snow or No Snow" by Laura Bly February 14, 2008 Australian Financial Review, The Sophisticated Traveler Jan 2006 MUSHING The Magazine of Dog-Powered Adventure July/Augush 2008 "Bush Alaska Expeditions" by Anita C. Strindberg CONTACT: For
more information and/or questions e-mail us at bushalaskaex@starband.net
or bush_alaska_expeditions@hotmail.com ask for our brochure
or write us at: Bush Alaska Expeditions, P O Box 161, Eagle,
AK 99738. No incoming phone calls due to the remote location
but there is Internet access via satellite. Phone calls can
be arranged via computer and satellite.
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