Peninsula mushers see more porcupines while training

"I hate porcupines. I have a bounty on them," said Tim Osmar, of Ninilchik, a 23-time Iditarod veteran and a former Yukon Quest champion.

Osmar frequently uses the sled dog trail system in the North Cohoe Loop area near his summer fish camp home until the snow flies in the Caribou Hills where he lives throughout the winter.

However, this season the sled dog training at the lower elevations has been wrought by run-ins with porcupines.

"It seems to be there's more of them this year," Osmar said. "They're on the trails, on the beach, they're everywhere. Even driving on the roads in the morning, I'm seeing two or three that people have hit overnight."

Osmar explained that dog teams need to run when it is cool, which at this time of year is typically after sunset, but mushers must be wary of waiting too long into the night to start their training runs.

"They're only a problem after dark," he said.

Unlike motorists who can keep moving toward their destination after they hit a porcupine, Osmar said mushers who have a run-in with one of these barbed creatures can find it far more bothersome. He found this out firsthand during a recent late-night training run.

It was about 11 p.m. and he was a few miles into the run when his dogs took a turn in the trail. They were only out of the dim light of his headlamp for a few seconds, but it ended up being enough time for trouble to ensue.

"A porcupine was there," he said. "Three dogs got quilled: my leaders and a swing dog. One of them had them bad; they were in the dog's mouth, face and shoulder."

Osmar couldn't pull the quills out on site. Also, with several young pups in the main team, and his lead dogs incapacitated from their injuries, Osmar had no way of running the team home, so he flagged down a passing car.

"I was able to use their cell phone and call my wife for help," he said. "She brought down dog kennels so we could get them home. I haven't left the cell phone at home while on a training run since then."

Back at his house, Osmar said with the help of family he was able to pull all the quills out of the dogs, but his neighbor -- a fellow musher -- was not so lucky, when his dog team hit a porcupine at night just a few days later.

"I had one get quilled bad. I had to take it to the vet to get them out," said Will Faulkner, a veteran of Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Races.

Another mushing neighbor across the street, Jenni Van Muijen, who runs dogs for Osmar's father Dean, also had a dog find a porcupine in the yard, after the dog accidentally slipped out of its collar. It took numerous quills to the head and inside of the mouth that they were able to remove themselves.

"I stopped counting at 150 quills," she said.

Osmar said knowing so many other mushers have hit porcupines, he is more vigilant than ever when he runs in the dark. Maybe even a little too vigilant, he said.

"I'm even slowing down for dark-colored tufts of grass that look like them."