Silver’s Story

Silver was the beginning of Wild and Free Mushing. A 70-pound monster with more power than your average sled dog. Silver was my first sled dog and turned out to be one of my best. He came from Kurt Wold, who I have gotten most of my original dogs from. Silver was always the main leader of the team and the dog that everyone else looked up to. He was a natural leader and was the driving force of the ground-breaking trips to the White Mountains in the beginning of our mushing life. He learned everything he knows from a dog named Brent that I acquired to help train both me and the young dogs like Silver.

Silver and his trail-breaking skills were the main reason we won the 2006 Quest 300, our very first race. He has also finished the Copper Basin 300, Gin Gin 200, Kobuk 440 and the Yukon Quest 1000. He is always excited to go and a crack “Gee Haw” leader. I can go anywhere I want to with him in the lead. He is one of the main reasons I was able to go north and establish my camp in the Arctic. Silver has helped train other leaders to break trail and just keep going! I had 100% confidence he could get us out of just about anything when he was in lead. In 2010, we had a very challenging Yukon Quest while dropping down in dog numbers early in the race. Silver once again showed his amazing leadership skills and led the team for the entire 1,000 miles of the race.

In 2011, Silver was the hero once again in the Yukon Quest when he led both our team and Hans Gatt’s team (who was tied to us) over American Summit during an extreme winter storm. He went on to lead Wild and Free to a 4th place finish in just his 5th race. Because of Silver’s involvement in many rescue missions over the years, in 2011 the Yukon Quest created an award in Silver’s name called The Silver Legacy Award. The award will be given to future dogs that show amazing feats of bravery on the trail. 

Spring of 2020 Silver left us, and it has been one of the biggest losses ever for us personally. However, we have kids, grandkids, and great grandkids and we know Silver will forever live on through them as well as us.