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The Alaskan Malamute Club of America (AMCA) has established
working titles for sledding, backpacking and weight pull.
Deercreek Ridge Trail
There are basic titles:
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Working Pack Dog (WPD)
40 miles of backpacking
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Working Team Dog (WTD)
40 miles of sledding
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Working Lead Dog (WLD)
40 miles as lead dog
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Working Weight Pull
Dog (WWPD) 8 times the dog’s weight
And excellent titles:
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Working Pack Dog
Excellent (WPDX) 120 miles of backpacking
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Working Team Dog
Excellent (WTDX)
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Working Lead Dog
Excellent (WLDX)
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Working Weight Pull Dog Excellent (WWPDX) 16 times their
weight
Working our dogs is an
integral part of enjoying the Alaskan Malamute breed. We
travel up to the Trinity Alps in Weaverville, California and
hike in the Trinity National Forest every June starting in
1990. These dogs pack our supplies including their food up
the Stuart Fork Trail into Morris Meadow where we establish
a “Base Camp” north of the meadow and plan day hikes for the
following days. Many fellow Malamute owners have joined us
in the trek up the mountain and enjoyed the fresh air,
spectacular views, and time backpacking with their Malamutes
as well as watching the deer visiting our campsite in the
evening hours. The owners comment to me how well the dogs
handle such rough terrain and wake up every morning ready to
start the day when we are sore and stiff. You appreciate
the strength and stamina of this breed.
Stuart Fork Trailhead (2003)
Clean and ready to go!!!
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Stuart Fork
Trailhead starts at ~ 2,500ft and increases to 5,500
ft at Emerald Lake and approximately 6,500 ft
elevation at Sapphire. This area was once an active
gold mining area and you can still see the remains
of the heavy cables, spikes and other gold mining
equipment lying around at Emerald Lake. The miners
built a crude dam and you can see that they cut out
large square blocks of granite to create what today
is Emerald Lake. The water comes down from the snow
melt Alps and sustains book trout, ground squirrels,
red headed wood peckers, mountain blue jays,
butterflies such as Monarch and Swallowtails, and
various other critters. There are deer and bear as
well as rattlesnakes and other non poisonous
varieties of snakes. The river runs past various
rustic campsites and eventually feeds into Claire
Engle Lake which many visitors and locals use for
recreational purposes.
Most years we
can hike the trail up to Sapphire but in 2006 we
experienced a heavy winter (2005) and the trail was
obliterated by fallen timber and snow. That year
was especially hard to backpack and the dogs were
very cautions traversing the terrain. We
experienced many delays and had great difficulty
crossing the rivers. They might be labeled “creeks”
on the topographical map but when you are up to your
hips in ice water you realize the harshness of this
environment. |
Trail up to Morris
Meadow. Below is Stuart Fork River. |
Morris Meadow is well
known for its beautiful park like setting. There are giant
Ponderosa pines, Quaking Aspen, Alders, and brush that line
the outer edges of the meadow. The middle part of the
meadow has elephant lilies and other march like plants along
with you garden variety racer snakes, frogs, dragon flies,
deer, bear, butterflies etc. This meadow has in the
background the Alps covered with snow and if you stand still
you can hear the water falling over the granite ledges to
the valley floor below. On the east side of the meadow you
see vertical terrain and there is a trail (Deer Creek Trail)
that goes vertical from 4,400ft to 5,900 ft to the top of
the ridge and the view is well worth the challenging 14 or
so switchbacks. This trail is best taken in the early
morning when the granite is still cool from the night
before. If you choose to backpack through Morris Meadow be
prepared to see numerous deer bounding out from bushes and
keep a firm grip on your dog’s leash. I have been known to
invent the term “Ground Skiing” and you can hear me yell at
the dogs to slow down as I slide over the wet ground. When
you turn east and hike up the Deer Creek trail you encounter
a tree lined trail with numerous creeks and campsite along
the trail. If you continue to travel eastward and climb up
over another ridge into Granite Basin and out through Swift
Creek Trail.
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Deer Creek Bridge. Stuart Fork Trail on the way up to Morris Meadow.
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Morris Meadow. Snow capped Alps in the background. |
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Sawtooth Ridge borders the east side of Emerald Lake. |
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Chase resting at top of Deer Creek trail.
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Butterfly sunning itself at Base Camp (Morris Meadow). |
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Morris Meadow looking north (2005) |
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Campsite at south end of Morris |
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Stuart Fork River. Trail winds around the river at the trailhead. |
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Campsite at south end of Morris Meadow. Good swimming hole. |
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End of the hike (2003). Notice we are somber and the dogs are dirty but happy. |
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We also use the area for winter snow
sledding. We snow sled on the Pacific Crest Trail and that
provides us with a perfect winter wonderland view. We rent a
cabin over the holidays and snow sled during the days and
enjoy each others company in the evening eating and playing
board games etc.
Weight Pull:
We also do weight pull if our dog loves
to do that activity:
Photo #22
Ch. Onak’s Yukon Chief, C.D., WPD,
WWPDX, WPDX
Phot #23
Ch. Onak’s Too Tough To Handle, WPD,
WWPD, T.T. AKA Tristan
Photo #24
Tristan digging in and pulling the
weight. |
