Husky Powered in the Brooks Range
SINGLE-TRACK MIND
The black spruce forest flew by my sled in a blur, my face bundled against the frigid arctic wind. We sped uphill, and soon, the forest and the broad upper Koyukuk River valley was behind us. An open valley stretched out ahead, leading to Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska’s Brooks Range, luminescent in the low-angle sunshine.
The landscape was timeless: pure, wild, free. I immediately slipped, entranced, into a reverie of beauty, until a shout cut through the frigid air. “Here’s that overflow ice,” shouted Sean Busby. “Say your prayers.”
The sled tipped over a snowy embankment and slammed onto a large creek of uneven, rippled ice. My powder skis, lashed to the sled, collided with my patellas and I clutched the handlebar. That’s because our four sleds—mine, Katie Lozancich’s, and Mollie and Sean Busby’s—were powered not by gasoline, but by Alaskan huskies with a single-track mind: run as fast as possible.
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