How Riley First Found Mushing/Sled Dogs

A couple weeks ago, Hannah told the story of how she first learned about and fell in love with mushing/sled dogs. I (Riley) think that story is pretty well known by this point if you’ve been following Hannah and/or the Uglydogs for awhile now.

But what I don’t think a lot of people know about is how I first discovered mushing, beyond reading about it in books and watching animated movies as a kid. To tell this story, I have to dive into Hannah and I’s personal life a little bit. As you may have guessed, Hannah is the one who first introduced me to the amazing mushing world back when we first became friends a few years ago.

I can’t remember the exact month Hannah and I first met, but we didn’t start being friends until around March of 2020 (just about when COVID started…). We both worked for the same state agency at the time, and we were thrown into working alongside each other for 12 hours everyday for the next few months. Thanks a lot COVID… You set this whole thing in motion (I guess that’s one good thing to come from the terrible times).

Before I go any further, I do tell this story in my podcast I did with Quince after Doty this year. Check it out on Apple Podcasts or Spotify - it’s a very entertaining conversation!

Anyways, Hannah and I were both working the state level response to the COVID pandemic and when you’re stuck in the same room with people for 12 hours everyday, you start getting to know them.

Shhh. She doesn’t know I’m sharing that picture. I was the social media manager getting photos for social media, I wasn’t taking photos of Hannah for no reason lol.

Hannah and I started talking more and I quickly found out about her obsession with sled dogs. She kept talking about this dog named Boo. I’m not kidding you when I say that she was obsessed. She even had a picture or two of him at her desk.

So naturally I began scrolling through Blair and Q’s Twitter feeds, reading all the amazing stories and seeing photos of some of the coolest dogs I’d ever seen.

To be honest, I don’t think my story of finding mushing/sled dogs is much different than many of yours. You had a friend who showed you on social media and you became hooked.

I think what makes my story unique, though, is that I credit Hannah and I’s relationship largely in part to being introduced to mushing, Blair and Q and Meteorology Camp.

To continue the story…

By late March/early April, I was fully hooked. I was following Blair and Q, responding to their Tweets, asking them questions, etc. Well little did anyone know that Hannah and Beth were about to be surprised by getting to host Boo that first Summer of COVID for Meteorology Camp.

When Hannah got the message from Blair, she was obviously overjoyed. She loves Boo. Who doesn’t? Who does Hannah tell almost immediately? ME! Now we were definitely friends at this point, but I wouldn’t say we were super close or at the stage of talking on the phone (outside of potential work calls) regularly.

So you can imagine how surprised I was when she called me on my personal cell completely out of the blue one morning. I remember this vividly: as soon as I answer, her only words were “We’re getting Boo!”

I was like “uhhh what?” I was so confused. Yes, I knew who Boo was, but Hannah getting Boo? That doesn’t make sense at all. Also, I had just fallen asleep after working an overnight shift, so I was a little out of it and confused about why Hannah was even calling me in the first place.

A lot of people know the story about Meteorology Camp, but we’ll share more behind-the-scenes stories about it next week.

But here’s where my story differs from many of you reading this. I had just learned about mushing and sled dogs about a month ago at this point, and now I was getting to meet a real sled dog in person. Kind of surreal to think about. Of course, Boo wasn’t very fond of me, but that’s okay. We eventually became best friends.

That Summer, I spent more and more time outside of work with Hannah, visiting Boo whenever I could too. I’d heard about Doty, and as it started approaching, I couldn’t help but want to go myself after hearing all the amazing stories from Hannah.

I think that being around Boo convinced me even more that I was just as obsessed with mushing and wanted to see it in action (and of course see all the badass doggos).

Hannah and I officially started dating in September of 2020 and I made my way up to Wisconsin with the crew that October for my first sled dog race experience. As many of you who have attended sled dog races know, it was amazing. The dogs, and especially all the people I met, were incredible. It was and still is one of the most amazing weekends I’ve experienced in my life.

I don’t want to bore you with my love story about sled dogs and Hannah too much longer, but I do reflect back often and think about how crazy all of this has been for me. I became friends with this girl at work, she was a little obsessed with this dog I thought had a girl’s name, I became obsessed too and got to meet said dog and attended my first sled dog race within a matter of six months.

And now three years later, I live with two sled dogs and run them in my neighborhood and at dryland events myself. What a crazy ride it’s been!

Anyways, I’ll probably share more stories about my first interactions with Boo down the road, because like I said, he wasn’t fond of me for a LONG time. Stay tuned!

[VIDEO] Who has bigger ears, Boo or Pence?! We measured and the results might surprise you!

Subscribe to The Urban Mushers + to read the rest.