{"id":803149,"date":"2020-01-16T17:31:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T00:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377458"},"modified":"2020-01-17T16:43:03","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T23:43:03","slug":"breckenridge-dog-sled-guide-ready-to-race-his-pack-at-250-mile-wyoming-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/breckenridge-dog-sled-guide-ready-to-race-his-pack-at-250-mile-wyoming-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Breckenridge dog-sled guide ready to race his pack at 250-mile Wyoming event"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dog-sledding guide Tim Thiessen brings his huskies around Thursday, Jan. 16, at Good Times Adventures in Breckenridge.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Six snowy miles up Tiger Road, seemingly closer to Keystone than Breckenridge, a cacophony of Siberian husky howls fill the air. At the foot of Mount Guyot, Good Times Adventures is a dog-sledding and snowmobiling oasis deep in the woods.<\/p>\n

If you hop on a snowmobile from the main building and ride up the hill \u2014 right about to where Good Times staff boils pots of chow for their herds of huskies \u2014 you\u2019ll find Tim Thiessen readying for yet another cold winter day as a dog-sled guide. It was about 18 years ago when the Denver native \u201cfell into a cool job and got hooked\u201d as an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n

Growing up in the city of Denver, Thiessen dreamed of living in the mountains while he cared for his family\u2019s mutt rescues from the pound, Sparky and Toby. These days, Thiessen\u2019s Alaskan husky mixes Bullet and Pyro are his lead dogs when the longtime sled guide competes in dog-sledding competitions, such as next month\u2019s seven-stage, 250-mile journey from Jackson, Wyoming, into Idaho and back to Teton County, Wyoming. The race is formally the 25th-annual Pedigree Stage Stop Race, probably the biggest dog-sled race in the lower 48.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the iconic Iditarod up in Alaska, but for the Leadville resident Thiessen and the 14 dogs he\u2019ll bring with him, this is a race to live for.<\/p>\n

Thiessen and his \u201ckids\u201d do just that at their remote, off-the-grid home, which is a two-mile snowmobile from the nearest road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the competitive side, I get to spend so many days with my kids and my best friends on the trail,\u201d Thiessen said. \u201cAnd when I say \u2018my kids,\u2019 (I mean) my dogs. They are my best friends, and I want to see them have fun. That\u2019s the main goal of running them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having raised labs before getting into the sled-dog life, Thiessen said the dogs love running the sled as much as labs like playing fetch. They live for it. Even if it means 17 of them sleeping with Thiessen inside his trailer, as they did between a pair of stages somewhere in the vastness of Wyoming last year, when they competed in the Pedigree Stage Stop Race for the first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be noisy. Sometimes they\u2019ll eat your pillow while you\u2019re sleeping,\u201d Thiessen said with a laugh. \u201cBut each dog has their own box, their own area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m pushing,\u201d Thiessen added, \u201cI\u2019m helping them out. I\u2019m one of the dogs. I\u2019m the alpha dog, but I\u2019m one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over his years working as a dog-sledding guide, Thiessen gradually got into having a pack of his own. Then his close Leadville friend and fellow musher, Austin Forney, encouraged him to take part in the Pedigree Stage Stop. This year, the championship purse is $165,000. A year after finishing 20th of 25 mushers, Thiessen isn\u2019t expecting to challenge for that purse. In an event like this, when you and your dogs are climbing hill after hill, weathering snowstorm after snowstorm or grinding through unexpected variables \u2014 such as last year\u2019s heat \u2014 merely finishing the odyssey is a victory.<\/p>\n

This year, Bullet and Pyro will push the team to be a little faster. Thiessen said Bullet is an almost 80% German shorthair pointer, a pooch Thiessen describes as a sprint-racing dog that he\u2019s pushing in terms of distance.<\/p>\n

Bullet, like the rest of Thiessen\u2019s dogs, has Alaskan husky blood. Thiessen said those qualities of a Siberian husky mixed with a hound produce dogs that are less stubborn than Siberians. Because of their innate nature to please, it\u2019s no trouble for Thiessen to get home to Leadville from a day out at Good Times and train them on area trails, such as around Turquoise Lake.<\/p>\n

When they\u2019re training or racing at their best, Thiessen said the dogs can move the sled at a clip of about 15 mph. For a journey like the Pedigree, anything over 18 mph is too fast. The dogs won\u2019t have the endurance. Monitoring his speed with a GPS \u2014 one of the key tools he\u2019s able to have with him in the sled, including a hatchet, a sleeping bag, a first-aid kit and two extra dogs \u2014 Thiessen balances the care for his dogs while also letting them fulfill their biological yearning to run and run and run some more.<\/p>\n

Once in Wyoming, Thiessen hopes his training regiment of running mountainous hills above 10,000 feet help him in the race. With many mushers and their dogs coming down from lower-elevation locales, like the Yukon, Thiessen said he thinks his dogs benefit from running at altitude.<\/p>\n

All that training aside, after last year\u2019s race \u2014 which at times trudged over mud and dirt \u2014 Thiessen is ready to serve as the \u201calpha dog\u201d at the start line Jan. 31 in Jackson Hole.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s there, will the alpha dog have butterflies?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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