Hi, I am  Fred Powers  owner and operator of Wilderness Trail Outfitters, Myself along with the crew below are your hosts and guides for your wilderness dogsledding adventure into some of the most pristine areas in the Hiawatha National Forest and other locations in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Here is some of my Story:
 

Years ago I chose to forgo the modern living, grid system electricity, running water if need be, the 8:00 to 5 work day, the hustle and bustle of everything that goes with it, and move to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in hopes of carving out a living as a subsistence type of life-style, growing my own foods, canning everything including venison, living off the grid, finding work of sorts if need be, but above everything staying away from the modern type of living.

My experiences range from being brought up in a electrical contracting business and helping with building places, doing chores on a hobby farm driving tractors, planting fields to putting up hay to feeding Hereford cows to working as a chef in a fast food restaurant, managing hunting and fishing ranches, driving heavy equipment, digging ditches, hunting/trapping for a living. Little did I know that all this would become unsurmisable with carving out a way of life here in the Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

So I bought 20 vacant acres in the Hiawatha National Forest, cut down the trees, dug 6 ponds for fish for food, flattened out a ridge, found a mobile home and moved it on to the flattened out ridge, eventually put an addition on. My home and hot water is heated with wood, my power system is a solar panel on the roof, my refrigerator and some of the lights are powered by propane gas, and the rest of the lights are 12 volt. The solar panel produces 12 volts, which runs to a charge controller and then goes to a battery bank to charge it so there is power to run the computer and water pump. There is a back up generator but that is to expensive to produce electricity and besides why did I move here.

Eventually, a friend of mine needed a wrecker driver in a very bad winter. One of the calls I went on ended up at a fellas house who not only needed his car towed in, but he had 100 Alaskan Huskies and was selling pups. Well I thought this was the way to get around the forest. Snowmobiles break down I learned and when you’re by yourself most of the time its then called walking home. So I left with his car hooked to the wrecker and 4 – 6 week old Alaskan Husky pups in the cab. Which was my introduction to dogsledding. I had 2 black labs that knew how to pull and they knew direction commands so it was just a matter of time before the pups could go in harness. Little did I realize what was about to happen, like falling in love with that breed of dog, the Alaskan Husky, it did not take long to see that they thought different, all their thoughts, movements wrapped around pack (family) and I absolutely loved it and them. Before long they had grown and it was time for the harnesses. In love with the wilderness and wanting to travel through it wherever and whenever I could by dogs soon captivated me in every way-fashion and form, my new found friends had grown to a pack of 22 the first year, along with this huge food bill.

So reality was setting in and needing to make some money to feed these Olympic class athletes came the idea of sharing this wonderful adventure with as many folks as I could and thus Wilderness Trail Outfitters was born. Now 20 years later and 50 to 100 beautiful Alaskan Huskies at hand we have blossomed into what you now read. I still do not have electricity and still live the life-style I came here for and still want to share this entire experience with as many-a-folks as I can, so please scroll down and meet the wonderful folks that I have been blessed with to work with and then we can all go to the family page and meet all my kids (dogs) the stars of this operation.

Thank you for gazing across my pages and I hope to see you on my trails.

Fred

 Picture below is Jean holding one of the newborn pups named "Erp" his father is Wyatt. Together, Jean and I take care of all these wonderful kids (dogs). From taking care of puppies to managing the daily operations to answering the phone you'll find Jean there filling in wherever I can't be.

Picture below is my daughter Bobbie Jo who has helped out handling and guiding since I have been in business, she knows all the kids and has tackled numerous problems associated with operating a kennel of this type.

The picture below is Rick and Geri Minard

Rick and Geri Minard are excellent in dog care and dog behavior. Rick has a long line of expertise in training Iditarod dogs. Jerry is a mid-distance racer. Both are accomplished race mushers. We welcome both of them to our team here at Wilderness Trail Outfitters.

Brandon is standing on the sled giving the class to this group of boy scouts. Brandon has been helping me for 8 years, he is extremely knowledgeable of the dogs here and a very accomplished guide with hundreds of guided trips under his belt I am sure he will make your dogsled adventure a memorable one.
 

The pictures below are of Bruce, Jolene, Brucey and Tyler they are a family who have become part of my family here at Wilderness Trail Outfitters. They started  helping here about 3 years ago, and have become an important part of kennel management as well as handling and guiding. I am sure they also will make your dogsled adventure memorable.

We all look forward to taking you on your wilderness dogsled adventure.

When I am old....
I will wear old clothes....
and my old cap over my white hair....
and I will spend my social security checks on wine and my dogs.

I will sit in my house on my well-worn chair and listen to my dogs breathing.
I will sneak out in the middle of a cold winters night and take my dogs for a run, if my old bones will allow...

When people come to call, I will smile and nod as I show them my dogs...
and talk of them and about them....
....the ones so beloved of the past
and the ones so beloved of today....

I will still work hard cleaning after them,
mopping and feeding them and
whispering their names in a soft loving way...
as I bough my lips to their ears, while gently scratching their soft furry heads.

I will wear the gleaming sweat on my throat,
like a jewel and I will be an embarrassment to all...
especially my family...
who have not yet found the peace in being free
to have dogs as their best friends.....

These friends who always wait, at any hour, for my footfall...
and eagerly jump to their feet out of a sound sleep,
to greet me as if I was a long lost best friend, even though I had just been with them 2 hours before.

With warm eyes full of adoring love and hope that I will always stay,
I'll hug their big strong necks...
I'll kiss their dear sweet heads...
and whisper in their very special company..
how much I love them.

I look in the mirror... and see I am getting old....
this is the kind of person I am...and have always been...and am happy to be.
Loving dogs is easy,
they are part of me and I am part of them.

Please except me for who I am.
My dogs appreciate my presence in their lives....
they love my presence in their lives and I love being their...
When I am old this will be important to me...
you will understand when you are old....
if you have dogs to love and be your best friends.

 

I would like to say to all of you that we are not a fancy place,  just a mobile home at the southern location and a small log cabin in the northern location, along with tent-dog camps in various locations throughout the Upper Peninsula. We are all mushers and it requires alot of time training/running/conditioning teams to get them in shape, brush up on obedience, which I believe sets us out and apart from other places.

Discipline with the dogs is a necessity, road crossings can be dangerous if the dogs are barking so we do not allow it - I would like to say we do not have dog fights but they do occasionally happen and things can become hectic and very ugly, very quickly, at that time, if you do NOT like to see dogs disciplined then this is not the place for you, safety comes from well trained - disciplined dogs, your safety as a novice musher depends on a good trail dog. Our dogs are all workable and friendly and gosh they love to run. 

I have been active in breeding, training, and running sled dogs for many years. All of us here at Wilderness Trail Outfitters are knowledgeable and experienced dog handlers who can insure your safety and comfort on the tour--while at the same time making your dogsledding experience an awesome adventure.

My mission is to continue having the best time of my life and share it with as many people as I can. Thank You Lord.

What we have here are 50 to 100 beautiful kids that LOVE to run.  Some are race dogs and some have been trained for touring but all can travel speeds up to 24 mph. These dogs have been specially trained as trail dogs, and will run all day at speeds around 4-9 mph. They are well disciplined, and despite appearances, some are shy… some are big(65 lbs) and some are small(35 lbs).  But for certain all are spunky… and all LOVE to run.

We train the kids for long distance and endurance. Each one being able to run some 30 to 70 miles per day, depending on the snow conditions. We work them all 5 out of every 7 days.

I have spent most of my life in the forest; hunting, trapping, logging, fishing and more fishing and then dog sledding and then more fishing and then more dog sledding. In other words it is hard to find time to work. Though guiding is my job (somebody has to do it). Some years ago I decided to start sharing this awesome experience with other people, traveling with dog teams through this beautiful wilderness area called the Hiawatha National Forest.                  

Our goal is for our kids and us to have a good time each and every day that we are out, and if we are having a good time today, then you are going to have the most awesome experience that you could imagine!!

  So lets all go  over to the Family page and be introduced to our family.