Sally Manikian
Sally grew up in a household with a menagerie of animals and humans, but absolutely no dogs. Dogs were a complete mystery and almost-fear, until she met her first sled dog in 2007, when on a whim she accepted a position as a guide for a sled dog tour company. She connected immediately with the drive and personalities of the dogs she worked with. Her first retired pet sled dog, Quid, taught her just how much sled dogs love winter, and love adventure.
It wasn't until 2011 when she was able to build her own kennel, having spent 4 years learning from tours, sprint mushers, and small mid-distance mushers. So desperately ready to start her own team, she picked up her first four dogs from a friend before she even had a dog box on the truck to transport them in or a bucket to use to feed them.
Why mushing? Why this insane high-commitment lifestyle? At first, it was about a love of winter and winter travel. Long races, and the work and training to prepare for them, are partly about competition and sharing the trail with other teams, but also about winter wilderness and adventure. Watching the sun rise from the heart of the wilderness, after running through the night. Hours that pass with the swish of the runners as the only sound. Taking fast turns and crossing challenging terrain. The crystal clear sky of winter. Sharing the landscape with so many critters, grouse up in the trees, coyotes slipping across the trail, healthy (non aggressive) moose fading into the forest. Finding beauty and grace in the ease of risk. Mushing everything about the love of winter, amplified by a team of dogs that, also, love winter. There are some things you only see from the back of a dogsled.
There is a learning, investment, and patient building of strength that underlies that love of winter. How to bring out the best in every dog? How to train a team of individual personalities to not only work together, but be competitive on the trail, a team fully prepared to take on any obstacle? An early mentor said that mushing is a constant place of learning. 15 years into the sport, it’s still always important to keep your ears open and your mouth shut when around skilled mushers. Over the years, when asked about race goals, it is easy to pick out a larger or longer or bigger goal. Underlying all of this, though, is the constant goal of cultivating a team of athletes that is tough, motivated, and well conditioned for the races we sign up for.
Sally has extensive backcountry experience through almost a decade of natural resource management, most recently as a field program manager for the Appalachian Mountain Club, where an average workday took her from a computer to a off-grid construction project to a chainsaw to a composting outhouse to a helicopter and to everything in-between. During her time working for the Randolph Mountain Club as a winter caretaker, she developed her true passion and humble respect for the winter landscape and winter travel. Sally is deeply connected to her community in the Androscoggin Valley and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Having a full-time desk job, the precious hours spent with the dogs is a reconnection to the wildness and wilderness of previous life.
Home is the mountains of northern New Hampshire, where she lives with her developmentally disabled brother and sister, and serves as their guardian and caregiver. There’s a fantastic support team that help contribute to the family, including caregivers, and a support team of Brianna and Chuck who help with almost everything else. Sally and the dogs spend the fall and winter training in Upton Maine, where we have a training camp.
Sally’s day job is working for The Conservation Fund, in NH and VT.