Kona and Jimmy's First Hike at Hatcher Peak

This May a strange dog walked up to our house. It was a beautiful Husky and when i opened the door it walked right into the living room. After inquisitively inspecting the interior layout it promptly made itself at home. At that instant we were on our way to dinner so, although amused, we ushered it out as we left. Later that evening a woman up the street came by and asked if it was our dog. It apparently had done the same thing at her house, about a block away. Maree had already fallen in love with it and wanted to keep it, but the woman took it to the pound to see if anyone would show up to claim it.

Hatcher Pass down below. We made it up this far before Jimmy realized he had forgotten something and had to run back down to the car.

A week passed, and in the end Maree brought the dog home. We named her Kona since we found her just after getting back from a vacation to Hawaii. In the first month the dog ran away three times, all without warning in the middle of the day.The first time she was found by someone in a few hours, the second time she was found by someone after about 4 days. The last time she ran away i was out in the yard with her, and she was gone for almost two weeks. I assumed someone else had found her. Then we got a call from her original owners. The dog hadn't run away, it had simply gone home.

Jimmy poses on the summit. Hatcher Peak is possibly the easiest mountain to climb in this part of Alaska but it's got a great view on top.

In a strange twist of circumstance the owners told us we could keep the dog because they were being transferred to Mississippi for military training. Mississippi is no place for a husky born near the Arctic. They had been planning on giving her away. So we ended up keeping the dog afterall. Finding her original owners answered a lot of questions we had about her.

Kona, the new dog. I usually have no idea what is going on in her head.

Kona stalks Jimmy, considers a drop attack.

The dog was conceived on the trail somewhere in the winter wilderness near the town of Eagle, where it's owners raised dog sled teams. Eagle is a remote town on the Yukon River near the Canadian border East of Fairbanks. She was an accidental pregnancy during a trail ride. The dogs were raised as haul dogs. They run on sled teams that work to carry supplies as opposed to racing.

It's a fun ridgewalk on the back side of Hatcher Peak. You can take it for as long as you want.

The other side of the ridge. Here Kona took off down the mountain for a while.

The owners told us she ran away every two weeks but since that last time she hasn't done so. We try to take for for two walks a day. I find that if dogs run away they typically aren't getting enough exercise or are neglected.

We had the dog about 6 weeks before my friend Jimmy came up to visit. Trying to find somewhere to go that wasn't locked in snow or rainy in July after our record winter was a little difficult. That day i decided on a little loop hike i like to do occasionalyl that tops off at Hatcher Peak and then circles around the valley behind it.

This was the first time i had taken Kona hiking and i didn't know what to expect. I was a little worried she might just take off into the wilderness and never be seen again because she seems half wild most of the time anyway. Things worked out well except for one instance where she nearly threw herself over the side of cliff while chasing a Ptarmigan.

In the end she did great, although she is definitely unpredictable. I think the most amazing part of it is thinking that a dog could live six years of it's life, and then make a decision to go out and find new people to live with, who better suited it's needs. Maybe i'm reading more into than i should, but i think the fact that she no longer runs away says at least something.