3 Legged Mushing Across the Tundra

Many long-time Tripawders may be familiar with Calpurnia, the world famous three legged musher dog and three year bone cancer survivor.

Today, we’re hoppy to announce that at the spry age of 15 years old, Cali has embarked on a sled dog’s dream: spending winter in Alaska.

Cali sent us this report from the great white north a couple of weeks ago.

Read on to hear about her amazing adventure into the frozen tundra. . .

Dear Tripawds Friends,

Greetings from the Great Frozen North! We have finally made it to Alaska for the winter, and I thought I would take some time to update you.

“We” includes me (Calpurnia), mom, dad, and my pack of 19 other sleddogs. We thought it would be a great adventure to drive the 3500 miles from our home in Colorado to spend the winter in an un-finished cabin in the woods of Alaska so that my team could run on the historical trails that our ancestors have been pulling sleds across for centuries.

So far it has been quite an experience!

I’m not going to lie, that was one loooonnng drive in the car to get here. Seven solid days of 14 hours driving.

The road wasn’t all that great – some stretches were really bumpy from the frost that heaves it up. Sometimes the road was icy and really slippery too.

Us dogs didn’t really like the long days of sitting in the truck bouncing along, but mom and dad said that the scenery was amazing and loved seeing all the vast wilderness out the window.

I did see the caribou crossing the road and thought that was pretty neat, but the rest of it I would have rather sniffed around and explored with my nose than my eyes.

But we are here now, and mom and dad are working to get our yard set up and to figure out the trail system around here.

There is another house dog, Ozzy that I have to share things with. He is a Golden Retriever, 2 years old, and a general pest. He has to chew everything and thinks that the whole world wants to play with him.

Not me – I am determined to teach that pup some manners!

Mom and dad thought that I might like to have a yard to run around in all for myself, so they built a nice fence around a birch tree just for me.

Too bad they didn’t ask first… I would have told them I would rather be in the yard with the pack! The gate isn’t finished yet, so dad strapped a piece of wood across the opening to keep me in figuring I wouldn’t be able to jump over it since I am an old lady.

Well, I got tired of waiting for my chance to explore the trails and decided to set off to see them myself. Dad was running errands and mom was busy working on the big yard kennel and scooping poop, so I just let myself out rather than bothering her about it.


I took a nice long walk in the woods, following trails all around the Alaskan wilderness. I smelled all the other teams that had run past, and looked for moose.

When I got tired, I came home. I saw mom in the yard and knew she had been looking for me. To show her how agile I was feeling, I put on the speed and sprinted away from her.

It was funny to see her scramble and trip on the ice chasing after me. I sort of felt bad about leaving without letting her know, so I waited for her by the door to the cabin.

She gave me a big hug and took me inside. She looks terrible, but I feel great after my run!

Warm kisses and a cold nose,

Love, Calpurnia