Riding on the back of a sled, hundreds of miles, in any type of weather, may not be on everyone’s bucket list, but for musher Gwenn Bogart, it’s what she lives for.

“On the back of a sled, you get to call the shots,” Bogart said. “After five years I still learn something new every time I go out.”

The road to Wyoming for the musher was unusual. Bogart grew up in Vermont and worked with horses. “I felt like I needed to do something else,” she said.

“When I moved to Alaska I found dogs give back to you emotionally,” Bogart said. “Horses are rewarding, but nothing like a dog.”

Bogart and her husband David met in Alaska where he worked as a pilot for Fed Ex and they married in 2012. She also started mushing in 2012 with a leased and trained dog team.

In 2015 she ran the Iditarod, but had to turn back on the third leg. “It was too cold and I didn’t pack enough food for the extreme temperatures,” Bogart said.

After a few years in Wasilla, Alaska, that area seemed unsafe with several home invasions. It was time to get back to the lower 48. She had been to the Jackson area on vacation, but the housing in the area was unreasonably expensive. When they started looking for a place, a realtor heard of the 35-acre parcel on Big Sandy. It was perfect, affordable, remote and complete with an airstrip that allows them to land their airplane.

She wanted the joy of starting and training her own team. She purchased three male huskies and three female huskies. It wasn’t long before she had two more large litters of puppies and a problem.

A kennel with 22 dogs – six original huskies, 13 pups, two border collies and a wiener dog named Frank – needs a conditional use permit in Sublette County. She applied to the Sublette County Commission and received a permit at the Nov. 21, 2017, meeting.

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