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Welcome to Moon Run Kennels, dog dude ranch, and retirement center.
Proud Sponsor of Misha Pedersen
My wife, Bonnie, and I moved to Alaska from Key West, Florida in June of 2003. Why? Well, living in a sub-tropical climate as we did, we always enjoyed cold weather vacations. During one such trip to Montreal, Canada we chanced upon a dog sled ride. We were hooked from the first moment. The next several vacations we came to Alaska and stayed with now friends Mike and Pam Nicols who own and operate Caribou Lodge (click here to see web site) up in the Talkeetna Mountains about fifteen miles east of Talkeetna. Mike kept trails groomed around the lodge so we were able to run his dogs though behind his snow machine. They would have not listened to us if we had tried to give them commands but followed the snow machine around the trails faithfully, even if he stayed well enough ahead so you could not hear the noise. We were MUSHERS! Bonnie and one of Mike's dogs fell in love with each other. Lacy was retired the next year and came to Key West. What a change for a sled dog who had never been been out of the bush. Air conditioning quickly became Lacy's primary drive, that and swimming in the canal. Lacy allegedly ran the Yukon Quest one time. She was a superb wheel dog with a mind of her own, bright and loving. She was our first sled dog. She lived until she was 17 succumbing to a mast cell cancer that could not be cured.
Misha at Sheep Mountain 2011
courtesy of Robbin Simms
In 2001, my wife and I decided we needed to move out of Florida. Bonnie's dog obsession was in full swing by then so we included in our search places with active mushing communities. Turned out no place better to get involved with dog mushing than Alaska, and as luck would have it, this is where we found a job. On our move up to Alaska on the AlCan we stopped in at Frank Turner's kennel, MukTuk. Bonnie had been communicating with him on the internet researching Lacy's history. Muk Tuk was our first introduction to a big racing kennel. We were totally enthralled. I could not imagine a better life than Frank's. And so it started.
We have been involved on the periphery of racing since we have moved to Alaska. Bonnie was a handler for an Iditarod musher and inherited 4 older dogs within a year....Then we found a sled, then, we found a dog trailer, then we became the owners of some more dogs, then we needed a new house with land to house the new dogs. We both worked, at that time, so we were tied to the Anchorage area. We found almost the perfect house in Chugiak on 2.5 acres. It would be perfect but we still have to truck to the dog trails. Through the guy that Bonnie handled for, (Eric Rogers) we became friends with more people who had dogs and more and more mushers who race. We have been at the sport on a recreational basis since 2003. In 2010 we decided to try our hand at some racing, still considering ourselves to be primarily a recreational team.
While we have 22 dogs, many are older and can not run except for a few recreational miles, but with the help of our friends we have put together what Bonnie calls a “smokin recreational team.” Our race experience would be kindly called “limited” but we do our best.
