Robert Forto

mushin down a dream

Mount Susitna, Alaska

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Mount Susitna is often called “The Sleeping Lady” for its resemblance to a recumbent woman. The name is sometimes said to derive from a Dena’ina legend, in which a woman named Susitna belonging to a race of giants vows to sleep until her beloved comes back from battle.

Mount Susitna stands 4,396 feet and is located on the west bank of the Lower Su River. I can recall my favorite dog sledding run this past winter where it was about 3 am with the stars lighting up the sky and we were running down the river with our dog teams and this magnificent mountain was just to my right.

I remember looking up into the crystal clear sky on this New Years Eve night and seeing the big dipper as my team paced down the 45 miles of river and trails from Yentna Station back to the Willow Community Center.

Freshly pressed, hopes and dreams…

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I can’t say how grateful I am for the opportunity to be Freshly Pressed on WordPress.com yesterday.

The post was just a short piece about my first training run of the summer with my sled dog team up in Alaska. I didn’t think much of it when I wrote it. I just wanted to share the experience with my readers.

Read: Mushing Alaska Style: First Training Run of the Summer

I started this blog the day I moved to Alaska in August 2010 and have tried my best to write every day. It is intended to showcase my challenges and struggles at moving from the “big city” of Denver to a town of just 2500 in Willow, Alaska.

I am up here chasing a crazy dream of running the Iditarod and what better place than the mushing capital of the world, right?

Over the last ten months I have learned a lot and tried my best to share my adventures with my readers. I have built a pretty loyal following but I had no idea until I saw how many people were reading my posts yesterday that people really do love Alaska.

There seemed to be a common theme in the comments (as well as people that I talk to) that Alaska and it’s ‘last frontier’ allure embodies the mystique that it deserves. Everyone get’s excited when you talk about Alaska.

Everyday I am amazed when I see a caravan of RVs and tour bus after tour bus packed full of folks visiting this great state. Every one of them are up here looking for that sense of adventure that some will say is lost in the fast paced world ‘Outside’.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my posts and if you are interested, stay along for the ride while I am mushin’ down a dream. I will bet it will be just as fun for you as it is for me and I would love to have you tag along.

See you on the trail! Mush you huskies, gee, haw!

Never forget your dreams…

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“Never Forget Your Dreams”

–Korczak Kiolkowski

It was a decade ago with a dog truck full of a rag-tag team of rescued Siberian Huskies, three kids barely old enough to be in school and a dream that was just begining.

Michele, the kids and I were heading to the Black Hills Race to the Gold sled dog race in Hill City, South Dakota. It was one of our first races and first road trips as a family. I had recently moved to Colorado and shared my passion of dog sledding with all of them. I told them about my Iditarod dreams and they supported my decisions.

As we were driving we saw this sign: “Never Forget Your Dreams” at the Crazy Horse Memorial near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills.

I will never forget–I slammed on the brakes, drove into the parking lot and jumped out of the dog truck with my dog Ineka. Michele snapped the picture, and if you look real close you can see three little kids in the back seat.

Who would have known that a decade later that this sign would become the mantra and driving force for everything that my family and I do.

A lot has changed over the last ten years. And many things have remained the same. I am still mushin’ down the dream but that dream has changed our lives. We have a successful dog training business, and all three kids have worked with us since 2001. An experience that have taught them valuable life lessons and how to be motivated and go-getters! Our oldest son, Kyle is in line to take over Denver Dog Works soon. He is 19 now. Our youngest, Nicole, is almost 14 and wants to go to school to become a veterinarian. Tyler, now 16, is coming up to Alaska with me next week to work in a dog yard with 50 sled dogs for his first “real” job.

Speaking of Alaska. We have bought a place in Willow and this crazy dream has brought us there. The dream that we thought about under this arch a decade ago is much closer to reality with me planning on competing in a few Iditarod qualifiers next season.

Sadly Ineka (the dog in the 2001 photo) passed away in July 2010. His legacy will be with us on the trail every day in that we named our kennel Team Ineka and I will race under that banner. It is amazing how much a dog can teach you over a decade and where he can take you. Ineka did just that.

So when we drove to Hill City and Crazy Horse this past weekend we realized something: No matter how big or how out of reach your dreams may seem never stop reaching for them. The sculptor, Korczak Kiolkowski started this great monument in 1948 and over a half century later it is far from completion. But you know what, the dream is still alive and all of his children are continuing the legacy.

Sounds like a story very similar to mine.

“Dream Big and Dare to Fail”

–Col. Norman Vaughn