Original subtitles

I'm Gordon Buchanan.

I've been filming wildlife for over 30 years,

but my love of the natural world began as a child.

As a ten-year-old,

I read The Call Of The Wild by Jack London,

a book about gold rushers who commanded dog teams

while seeking their fortune in Canada's Yukon.

BARKING

The book ignited in me a lifelong fascination

for these incredible huskies...

Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup!

..bred over centuries to survive the harshest of conditions...

Jeez!

..enabling people to live in and traverse these hostile lands.

How do I get out of this?

Now, almost 40 years later, I'm heading to the Yukon...

Oh, it's exhausting!

..to try and master a team of these powerful,

intelligent dogs to see if I, too, can conquer the trails

that the gold rushers used.

Easy!

Ah!

I'll be self-filming as much as possible.

Lights, camera.

We just need the action.

I'll have just eight days to master the dog team...

I just feel I've got absolutely no control.

..before taking on one of the toughest challenges of my life.

An ancient, treacherous trail of sharp corners, overhanging trees

and dangerous obstacles that would have beaten even

the toughest of gold rushers -

the Burn Run.

The speed that these dogs can move is unbelievable.

What will I learn about the relationship

between people, dogs...

Good boy.

..and our place within the natural world?

Situated in the northwest corner of Canada,

the Yukon is twice the size of the UK,

but with a population of just 45,000 people.

I'm not the first Scotsman to arrive in this unforgiving land,

lured here by the call of the wild.

I was captivated by that book.

The relationship that those people had with those dogs

in this wild part of the world, that was kind of

the life that I wanted to lead.

Now, I've got the opportunity to live that dream,

a dream that's kind of over 40 years old.

And to be here on the brink

of an amazing adventure...

..hurtling through the wilds of the Yukon, being pulled

along by a pack of dogs.

How hard can it be?

Although long gone, the gold rushers established trails

that are still used today

over 100 years later,

where dog teams are an essential means

of transport in the most remote areas.

To have a fighting chance of tackling the Burn Run,

I'll need an experienced team of huskies.

Pierre-Luc Fortin has some of the best.

He's the man I need to meet.

Knock, knock.

Hello. Hey, hey.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Finally!

Why are you leaving your door open? It's freezing! It's not cold.

We're just fine.

Huskies are a tough breed, known for their remarkable strength,

speed and endurance.

Pierre-Luc has 29 loyal and trusted dogs in his care.

He's a gnarly-looking hound.

I'm going to show you your team members.

So, I'm slightly nervous because it feels like a job interview.

I'm the new boy.

The dogs are tied up to prevent fights.

Pierre-Luc has hand-picked his strongest and most experienced

dogs to make up my team.

So, you've got one right there.

That's Hero.

Come on, Hero.

Hero!

I'm trying not to feel rejected at the moment.

So, that's...

..Epic.

Epic.

I feel slightly tense and nervous.

The other huskies joining me on my team are Vicky,

who's also not very interested in me...

She's only got eyes for you at the moment.

..beautiful Lucky...

Super powerful.

She's got quite a strong personality.

So, you don't want to put like a very, very, very

shy male with her.

..Exy...

She's like a fox.

She's really expressive.

..Wookie,

who's also the daughter of blue-eyed Yukon.

Yukon is the alpha and leader of my pack.

He's the strongest and the most intelligent, and the one

I need to win over if I'm to master this team.

He's the king of the yard,

just one rank below me.

Seven dogs and seven

very different personalities.

Well, they say Alaskan huskies is a mix of everything that runs

because during the Gold Rush, they were using dogs

and there was not so many sled dogs around, so they were breeding

whatever they had. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

I only have today to learn everything I need to know

before I head out into the wilderness.

There's only one speed on a dog team.

It's go. Yeah.

If the dogs just did go, without me on it...?

That's the worst case scenario. Right.

You run. The most important part of the sled...

..the brake. Yeah. OK?

And your best friend here -

the mat.

OK, so let's say you're ready to go.

This is when I really start to concentrate.

It's pretty much going to be like that.

And then? Then the brake. OK.

Now, I should not be able to pull you, so... OK.

Keep... Press on the brake.

OK.

So, the commands are very simple. It's hup, hup,

when you want them to go.

And haw is left.

Gee is right.

Haw, gee. Yeah.

Pierre-Luc thinks seven dogs will be too powerful

for my first run.

So, for today, I'll just have five.

SQUEALING

It's quite stressful with all the noise going on.

And then I think I'm just kind of like at the point I'm actually doing

stuff that I've been told, and I'm forgetting.

My mind's gone completely blank.

Oh, God.

It's stressful.

Jesus!

OK. Here we go. Steady, steady.

God Almighty.

Jesus!

Just the power.

He's taking me on a ten mile practice run.

I need to learn quickly how to command the dogs, or mush.

A good musher won't let them run too fast and risk losing control

of the sled.

Oh, my God. No, no, no, no, no.

OK, I'm trying to use the...

Whoa! Oh!

I totally messed up there. I didn't realise that Pierre-Luc

was stopping and my dogs were going full-pelt,

and then it was too late to hit the brake.

Two of them started fighting.

OK, well, try... Don't overlap. Yeah.

No. Not even five minutes out the yard and...

..I've made a fundamental error.

To be honest, I can't say that I'm enjoying this at the moment.

It's too stressful.

Hup, hup! Hup, hup!

Jeez.

I just feel I've got absolutely no control.

The only thing I have is a brake.

The dogs are desperate to run flat out.

They've been bred for this and can run at speeds

of over 30km an hour.

Oh-ho-ho!

Nearly off.

He's going to have to learn very quickly that mushing

is a teamwork.

When there's a problem on the dog team, that's the musher.

BLEEP.

Nearly took my eye out.

There's too many things to think about.

When they take a tight corner, I'm just going to get

decapitated by a tree.

OK. I can hear the other dogs back at the yard,

yowling and howling. So, we're not far away.

Hup! Hup! Hup!

Yes, I've made it...

Good boy. ..in one piece.

More or less.

He lives! Whoa.

But you did great. You didn't really fall, right?

No. A couple of... A couple of wobbles.

It wasn't relaxing one bit.

At no point was I relaxed.

It kind of feels like there's danger all around and mistakes

just waiting to happen.

I'm miles away from having the dogs respond to my commands.

I don't know what I'm doing and it feels like they know it.

I did my best to transfer all the knowledge I know

about my dogs and mushing.

He's now responsible for his dog team and we'll see

how he can handle that.

What am I doing? I'm out camping.

I'm with dogs. It's going to be cold.

It's going to be snowy.

It's not until you get to this point,

just before you head off into a wild place,

that you realise what you really, really need.

One large knife. Doing a bit of chopping.

Monster boots.

One tin of haggis.

I wonder if, kind of back in The Call Of The Wild days,

they would have made do with just one knapsack,

and what would have been in that?

Just the essentials.

You know, this is sort of a lifelong dream that I've had, to come

to this place, to lead a dog team out into the wilderness.

There's a lot to think about and there's a lot to learn.

I'm throwing myself into a situation

that is sort of...

Yeah, potentially dangerous.

I'm heading to the Rose Lake Plateau,

70km southwest of here.

I'll be following a trail first created by the pioneers on their way

to the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s.

OK, so Whitehorse is here.

Starting point is here at Fish Lake. Okey dokey.

Then you go up the hill in the tundra plateau here.

You're going to feel like you're on the moon. Yeah?

Yeah, it's a pretty cool spot there.

Then here there's a big burn.

These sections you want to keep them for when you have built

up your skill levels. Yeah.

So, what makes this run so difficult or so technical?

The trail is actually pretty narrow and there's many sharp turns.

Sometimes it's kind of counterintuitive,

but you need to let the brake go, pick up speed to be able to go

around the corners. So, if I was to try the Burn Run on the first day,

what would happen? How far would I get?

I would be more fearing for you than the dogs.

Just don't go there if you don't feel entirely ready.

Yeah, because that might just become a catastrophe.

I'm easing myself into the journey by starting at Fish Lake.

11km long and almost 40 metres deep.

It's completely frozen over for seven months of the year.

It provides a flat surface with no obstacles, so should get us

off to a good start.

My instinct would be to lead the dogs around the edge,

but the ice is thinnest there,

so I need to take them straight down the middle.

Just setting up my camera rig.

I mean, there's hundreds,

thousands of Scots that have travelled

through the Yukon before me.

Some of them were travellers, explorers,

writers, poets

that have come to the Yukon.

And they recorded that experience with their words.

I think, for me, I kind of want to record it in pictures.

I had five dogs on my taster day

and now I'm going to have seven. Seven.

Yeah. Raring to go.

When you are going on expeditions, you need a certain number of dogs.

And over the years, I've figured out seven is the minimum.

I've come away from where Pierre-Luc is.

I don't want him to see me lacking enthusiasm.

I'm thinking, "God, I'm not ready for this."

Not one bit.

This is not a time to be doubting your abilities.

Not that I've got any abilities at the moment.

I think this is when the learning really begins.

Right, I'd better get going.

Are you guys ready to go?

I'm not sure if I am.

DOGS BARK EXCITEDLY Wheesht, wheesht, wheesht.

It's the point that gets...

Gets a bit crazy.

I find this sort of quite stressful.

It was really peaceful until all of this sort of excitement.

WHINING

All good? Yeah. I wish you good luck.

Hup! Hup! Hup!

Hup! Hup!

Hey, good lad. Going exactly where I want them to go.

Gee.

OK, we're all good. Here we go.

The dogs actually went left, and he probably had to tell them,

"Gee, gee, gee."

And it's working pretty good.

I'm...

I must say, I'm a little surprised.

Huskies are bred to respond to human instruction, but they also

have the intelligence to overrule the musher and act on their own

instinct if the team is in danger.

This relationship between humans and huskies, evolved over centuries,

has allowed people to survive here.

Easy now.

It's flat. There's no obstacles. There's no tight bends.

So, I can just look around, enjoy the scenery.

It's just the raw power of seven dogs pulling this sledge

without any effort whatsoever.

This team could easily pull about 500 kilos between them.

The power comes from their formation.

At the back is Epic and Vicky,

my wheel dogs who help pull the sled

around the corners.

In the middle are my team dogs, Lucky, Hero and Wookie.

They provide the strength.

But Lucky runs alone.

She's so dominant that she won't tolerate another dog beside her.

Up front is Yukon and his apprentice Exy.

As the lead dog and alpha in his hierarchy,

I need Yukon to respond to my command.

Where Yukon goes, the other dogs follow.

This is just wonderful.

Oh, wow.

Life doesn't get better than this.

I mean, this is the way to travel.

The speed that these dogs can move is unbelievable.

Just as I start to build some confidence for the first time,

we leave the relative ease of Fish Lake behind

and begin climbing the steep forested part of the trail...

..where the weather takes a turn for the worse.

Things can change very quickly out here.

The temperature can plummet.

A blizzard can drift in.

Sled dogs have got this ability to squint.

They can squint their eyes to stop the glare from the sun, but also

to stop sort of driving snow going into their eyes.

They switch from using their eyes to see the trail to their nose

to sniff it out.

But heavy snow can quickly make the trails difficult to use.

We still have a long way to go and we're tiring.

Ah, right. OK.

It's a long, old journey. Man.

This is exhausting.

Don't think that you're just along for the ride.

There's a lot of work to be done, especially when you're going uphill.

Hup! Hup! Come on.

Oy, deep snow! Come on.

Come on, guys.

Whoa.

Stick on the track, guys.

Stay on the track.

Hup! Hup!

That's it!

That's more like it.

I don't know. I think, just the more tired I'm getting,

the more mistakes I'm making.

Huskies are bred for endurance and running long distances.

They can cover over 140km a day,

but not with me as a novice musher.

Even Yukon up the front, he's looking over his shoulder

a little bit, wondering when we're going to stop.

The blizzard has passed.

But we're all exhausted.

It's taken most of the day to reach Rose Lake Plateau, and I need to set

up camp before it gets dark.

Your beautiful blue eyes.

Aw!

It was a stressful day.

Did you have a stressful day?

Yeah, I know.

I packed some straw for their beds, but it won't be enough.

So, I'm topping it up using an old mushers' trick.

A little bit of soft spruce needles will

keep the dogs nice and warm.

Their body heat warms the air between the needles, creating

a layer of insulation between them and the snow.

I kind of want them to know that I'm on their side.

If I started just looking after myself, sorting out my tent,

sorting out my bed, eating a big, hearty meal before attending

to them, tomorrow, I can't imagine they're going to work

particularly hard for me.

I mean, this is seriously hardcore. Tonight it will probably drop

down to about -15, -20.

And these dogs can lie out, just on a little bed of straw

and needles, and be perfectly happy.

Right, I'm going to carry

you over the threshold to your new home.

Here you go. Right.

This special princess.

Right.

What do you make of this?

Nice bed, huh?

She's peeing on it!

Maybe that's sort of in the sled dog handbook,

that's a sign of kind of like a dog's approval,

if they actually urinate on the bed that you've just spent a significant

amount of time preparing for them.

That's quite a long pee.

Are you finished?

And preferring not to go in the bed, right.

That's certainly not the sign of approval that I was expecting.

All of this before I've even made my own bed.

Come on, then.

Good lad.

So, Hero is very submissive.

He seems to be scared of everything.

But I think by getting down and actually kind of being smaller

than him, you're less intimidating.

There's this hierarchy,

so he'll be looking at a dog like Yukon, who is very dominant,

very much the boss, the leader.

So, in his mind, he's sort of way

down the pecking order.

It's this hierarchy that allows Alaskan huskies, unlike most other

dog breeds, to function as a team.

I like the fact that he's... You know, he's just a youngster

and he's got a lot to learn,

so I kind of identify with part of that.

I'm certainly not a youngster,

but when it comes to dog sledding,

I've got more to learn than him.

So, we're kind of in the same boat.

We're both novices.

Like many huskies, Hero has been training for this since

he was about nine months old.

He'll be working for the next ten years,

or until he gets too old to enjoy it any more.

Let me scratch that.

Oh, you just put that leg down.

You don't need it. Put it down.

And thank you for liking my bed.

You're the only one so far that's actually lying down.

Good lad.

Even with my modern equipment and clothing,

it's a tough environment.

I can't imagine the hardships the gold rushers would have endured.

Many perished as they rushed here,

often woefully unprepared

for the extreme weather.

Even something as simple as getting some water

at this time of year in the Yukon is not the easiest of tasks.

If you were to watch me doing this out of context and think,

"What animal is this man looking after?"

You might think maybe velociraptor, sabre tooth tiger.

Not just seven dogs.

So, there's two types of meat.

There's ground beef and there is ground chicken.

So, like a normal dog would eat 1,500 calories a day.

A sled dog can easily consume

10,000 calories a day.

That's making me hungry, to be honest.

More wood, I think.

Just give me a kettle, for God's sake.

That's taken a good hour.

Oh! I'm so tempted.

HE MAKES A SLURPING SOUND

Come on, there you go. Turn your nose up at my bed.

And now you're turning your nose up at my dinner.

Hey, jumping Jack. There you go.

Hey, my boy.

There's your food.

That's your dinner. Tuck in.

Yuki, Yuki, Yuki.

Here you go.

The golden rule is to always feed the lead dog first.

But I've made a mistake

and fed Yukon last.

This will not help me in my attempts to win him over.

I've got muscles aching in places that I've forgot I had muscles.

I think I'm kind of getting the hang of certain aspects of it.

I think, um... Yeah, I kind of underestimated

how labour intensive looking after the dogs was,

but, yeah, as long as the dogs are happy, I'm happy.

And the dogs seem blissful. Right.

I've got to get some sleep before it all begins again.

Sled dogs wait for no man.

YIPPING

Oh, I can barely walk.

I didn't quite appreciate how

all-consuming it would be.

There's no downtime.

There's no time to sit about.

This is less appetising today than it seemed last night.

They have to eat three hours before they run,

and the reason is they can't run on a full stomach,

and they need that time to digest.

If you run a dog on a full stomach,

can you imagine that stomach

just full of moisture, full of water and meat,

and that's putting kind of weight on the stomach, and they're running.

And you get the thing called a swung stomach.

The stomach can actually swing round on itself.

And if that happens, it's really bad news.

The dog will...

Yeah, it will die.

I've fed the dogs in the wrong order again.

And someone's in a huff.

The big boss, I forgot to give you yours first.

Listen, I'm sorry. I've just got a lot to think about.

Are you in a mood now?

He's thinking, "Well, what's going on here?

"I'm top dog. I get to eat first.

"So, why is he giving it to these other bozos before I get mine?"

And he's treating me differently.

He's not as friendly, as engaged as he normally is.

That's cos I messed up.

It will not happen again.

Shake on it.

Promise. Promise.

Are we friends again?

Are we friends?

HE LAUGHS Look at him. He's not impressed.

The Yukon is a vast and varied landscape,

moving quickly from barren tundra to thick forested areas.

I'll need to master both if I'm to survive the Burn Run.

So, today I'm tackling a challenging forest trail

as I need to get much better at dodging tree after tree.

I'm kind of feeling a bit nervous, a bit anxious about going out

and exploring because I know that there's risks.

My number one concern, top of the list, is don't lose the dogs.

That is something that really terrifies me -

is being left alone out here without the dogs.

Easy.

Hup! Hup!

Easy now.

Being so close to the ground,

the dogs don't run the risk of hitting branches.

It's entirely up to me to be alert and dodge any trees in my path.

If I don't hit a tree, I think I've done something right.

Loosen up.

The moment that I kind of like feel myself getting tense,

that's when things go wrong.

It's all about being relaxed...

..chilled, zen.

BLEEP.

Hup! Hup! Guys, come on.

Oy, oy.

Right, slow it down. Oh, man. Man, man, man.

Man, man, man!

BLEEP. Oy!

Don't go anywhere.

Jeez, stop!

Tying up the sled to catch my breath,

I get another indication of the power of these dogs.

Come on, guys.

Yukon's bark is so powerful, you can actually feel it

on your hand a metre from his face.

Shush! Calm.

I can actually feel it reverberating in my stomach.

Just give me five minutes.

Two minutes.

One minute.

I might need a break, but the dogs are desperate to go.

And as I walk back to the sled,

Yukon and Exy's sheer power snaps

the gangline.

Yukon!

Yukon! Yukon!

Yukon!

This is my worst nightmare.

Yukon!

I don't think they're going to stop.

I'm just going to keep going.

Yukon! Yukon!

Right. The only hope that I have is

that they go off the trail and get snagged in a tree.

So, Exy and Yukon have got a line between

their collars, so if they go... Please!

If they go somewhere off-trail and one goes

to one side of the tree, the other goes the other.

Oh, God!

BARKING

Thank God.

Yukon.

If that happens, turn around.

This little branch here, they've obviously tried to take the corner

and got snagged on that.

They've put on the brakes.

That could have been a disaster.

These dogs are bred to keep running, but it still left me feeling

that they don't have any respect for my commands.

You could tow a truck with that.

This is the head of the gangline,

so this is just two dogs, just the power of two dogs.

New lines.

Back up, back up, back up.

Yukon!

That's the closest I want to get to losing a dog.

After a running repair,

we go again.

OK. Hup! Hup!

Hup! Hup! In a gentle fashion.

No, no, no, no. Not gentle.

Steady now.

There's not a ten metre stretch that goes by

that I'm not thinking

a mistake is just around the corner.

Just feels a bit of a white knuckle ride.

I think that's it. Every stage of the game, whatever goes wrong,

it's ultimately my error.

I'm losing my confidence, and the day

is going from bad to worse.

I think I've lost it. Everything that I've learned,

I've forgotten.

I have no control over the dogs at all.

I'm failing miserably and losing any of the trust I may have

built up with them.

Easy, easy!

Whoa!

Aye, aye.

As soon as they feel a little bit of give in the sled,

they're like, "Oh, yeah, come on, let's go!"

It doesn't... So, I care about them deeply,

but, really, they don't care about me.

If only these dogs had an off switch.

Right. Easy now! Easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, easy.

Easy, easy, easy. Easy, easy.

Steady!

Ah-h-h!

Today has been a disaster.

The team weren't following my command and I very nearly

lost two dogs.

Tackling the Burn Run feels like a pipe dream right now.

I need to rethink my approach.

I didn't think about the emotional connection with the dogs.

I was viewing them as the engines, and you're just capitalising

on their ability to run.

This is actually about sort of joining a group of friends.

And I'm the outsider. I'm the stranger.

I'm not doing this alone.

It's all about the dogs.

It's all about the relationship with them.

It's not a solo effort.

This is not me doing this.

This is us doing it as a team.

What I have to do is emotionally connect with them.

You're on a journey together.

I'm going to do what I know best

and use my camera to get to know the dogs better.

Hey, you. You're looking suspicious.

You're looking suspicious.

He's a little bit nervous,

very hyper aware of everything that's

going on around him.

He's a beautiful-looking dog.

Really unusual.

It's all about the badger nose.

Lucky! Lucky, Lucky lady!

Lucky lady.

She's amazing in front of the sled.

But, yeah, she's just kind of, like,

engaged, but sort of slightly disengaged.

It's almost as if there's something going on in her mind

that she's not letting you in on.

QUACKING NOISE

You like that noise.

I'm stuck in snow. Help me out.

Vicky, Vicky, Vicky.

Vicky. Good girl.

A bit of a solemn look to her,

but with puppy-ish eyes.

The ultimate poser.

Wookie. That's the one.

Keep looking. Keep looking.

Wookie's a bit of an enigma.

At times, can be really engaged, very friendly,

and then, at other times, very aloof.

She's a very beautiful dog.

I think she knows it.

Now, you. You poser.

For once, she's actually sitting still.

She's kind of full of energy,

even after the most arduous of runs.

She's the kind of dog that takes an hour to cover 100 yards

because everyone will want to stop and speak to her.

And a shy boy.

Hero, Hero!

The big man.

Just exactly as you are.

The strong, silent type.

A steely gaze, Hollywood good looks.

Well, he's quite happy with me taking his photo.

Maybe this is a new start for us both.

Seven dogs doing a similar job,

and they all look completely

different and their personalities are miles apart.

Yeah. They're just... They're adorable.

Not at all what I was expecting.

You know, I think with a lot of working dogs, they're only

interested in the job that they've been bred and trained to do.

And these dogs are so focused when they're in the harness

and ready to go.

But outwith that, they're really...

Yeah, engaging.

They're good people dogs.

This would not be as magical

if it was just seven clones.

They're all unique.

This is a good end to a day I'd like to forget.

It feels like getting to know them better is the way forward,

the way to us becoming a team.

And with the Burn Run looming in just six days,

that connection will be vital.

I've woken early and I'm feeling far more positive now that I've started

to bond with the dogs.

Reading The Call Of The Wild all those years ago,

that was about men dominating these dogs and sort of breaking them

and forcing them to do what they want them to do.

But it's a lot more nuanced than that.

It's a kind of partnership.

The dogs need a fair bit of care and grooming.

It's another way for me to build my relationship with them.

Between the toes,

you've got these long, long hairs.

And when they get too long,

they can get these ice balls stuck

in those hairs. It'd be like having a stone inside your boot.

Maybe I could get a job in a pooch parlour.

Your nails are looking lovely.

I'm going to give Exy a little bit

of a groom. So much fluff.

They've got two types of hair.

So, they've got the guard hairs, which helps kind of shed snow.

But then they've got this insulating layer underneath.

Really soft, wool-like.

And it is so dense, that if you part her coat...

..you can't see the skin.

Last night, I'm thinking maybe it's -15,

but even colder than that, she can sleep out

and be perfectly comfortable.

Yukon occasionally looks at me with a little bit of disdain,

but it is almost impossible

to imagine that Exy here doesn't think

I'm just the best human on the planet right now.

Everyone likes a little bit of love.

Maybe that says more about me.

Today is about proving to the dogs,

most importantly Yukon,

that I have what it takes to be part of this pack.

By the end of the day,

he's going to have a new-found respect for me.

What do you think?

Is that right?

Do you think I'm rubbish?

It's time to find out if all this love and pampering has paid off.

I'm going to try the forest trail again,

the trail that was so unsuccessful yesterday.

The starts I always find difficult, because that's when you've got

the maximum amount of power.

You've got seven well-fed, well-rested dogs wanting to run

and wanting to pull.

It's very much a flying start.

Too much power.

Full weight on the brake, just trying to slow them down.

Gee!

Woo! OK, this is just too much.

Jesus!

Whoa, guys. Whoa!

BLEEP.

A tight corner, off the brake.

Narrow trees, off the brake.

Up the hill.

Little bit of hup! Hup! Hup!

Help you! Hup! Hup!

As they settle into it,

I feel that I settle in.

And that's the point that I can look around

and take it all in.

It's kind of easy to think that we're the only living

things out here.

But during the Gold Rush, there was tens of thousands of people

that flocked into the Yukon,

travelling through this area

in search of gold.

I'm a long way off the skills of those hardy explorers,

but today's run was a lot better than yesterday.

Proof that relationship building is key to our success as a team.

This haggis is going to be ready, ready.

Either cooked to perfection or burnt to a crisp.

Yeah!

Ooh! Yes!

That looks so good!

It is cooked to perfection.

So, it's gone a bit crispy around the outside.

Right. I was going to just have a big mouthful, but...

..lead dog first.

He's giving me a taste of the Yukon.

I'll give him a taste of Scotland.

Scotland's national dish.

Oh, yeah.

Hey? You're a good boy.

Hey?

Good boy.

Are you ready for tomorrow?

Are you going to keep me on the straight and the narrow?

And the bends and the hills.

Your good health, dogs.

As I turn in for the night,

Yukon gives me the ultimate seal of approval

and joins me in my tent.

HE WHISTLES

This is a point that I didn't think I was going to get to with this dog.

Lots of room for improvement, but he seems to have accepted

that I'm actually

not a bad musher.

HE YAWNS

Night, night, big fella.

No snoring.

Now that I've got the hang of the forested areas,

I want to try some new trails.

I'll need to get used to dealing with the unpredictable,

as the Burn Run will be completely new and tough.

But the sun is causing added complications.

You've got this snow layer

that has been melted by the sun

and then refrozen.

So, it's gone from this sort of powdery state to being more icy.

So, it's like an ice layer.

And it's that ice layer that's

really bad for the dogs' feet.

And if you're running on this stuff, I can feel it on my face,

it's just very abrasive.

And if you run the dogs hard, they can get blisters on their feet.

If they get blisters on their feet,

we're not going anywhere.

But to protect them with these changing conditions,

I've got a little bit of additional doggie kit.

I just want to get any bits of clumpy snow off of his feet.

There you go, pal.

One.

Maybe you're not used to these.

It's good for you. It's going to protect your feet.

They feel funny?

I'm super chilled today.

I made that decision this morning, at this point, just to kind

of just chill out.

And I shouldn't be surprised that the dogs are feeling chilled.

We're done.

Hup, hup, hup, hup. Nice and gently, guys.

Nice and gently. Slowly with the booties.

Hey, guys, slow it down.

Bit of a steep one there.

And off the brake.

Hup, hup!

And then back on the brake.

At these times, it's having the confidence to be

a little bit more aggressive with the sled.

Taking a corner,

it's about using the sled tilting.

There you go.

Good example.

I would have definitely pranged there a couple of days ago.

# Snow dogs, snow dogs

# Give me your answer, do

# I'm half crazy all for the love of you

# It won't be a stylish marriage

# I've got a sled, not a carriage

# But I'll look sweet upon my feet

# Behind a sled dog team

# Made of eight

# Seven dogs and one man. #

MUSIC: Daisy Bell by Allyn Ferguson and Dan Ferguson

The more time I spend with the dogs, the calmer I become.

Hey, you. How are you?

They're beginning to accept me as part of the family,

and I'm becoming much more confident on the sled.

Good, guys.

Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup!

The life of the gold rusher that I dreamed of as a child

is becoming a reality.

And I'm happy being out here in the wilderness with the dogs.

What at first felt like a constant list of chores

has found a rhythm.

The dogs and I are looking out for one another.

OK, let's have a look. Your feet are good.

Nice.

You're good.

And I've even gotten the hang of dodging trees.

And a duck!

I'm giving Yukon his place and remembering to feed him first...

..which is helping build our relationship.

WHISTLING Yukon!

Hup! Hup! Hup! Hup! Nice and gently, guys.

The dogs and I are becoming a team.

Everything seems to have clicked into place.

Feeling good. I'm feeling free.

With the Burn Run,

it is one thing after the next.

There's steep slopes, tight turns, up hills,

down hills, blind summits.

But I think I'm up for it.

Good girls and boys.

I'm loving this.

There's a lot to love about it.

Ah, these dogs, this place, everything.

I'm getting it, I'm getting it.

I'm ready for the Burn.

Yes! Yoo!

It's Burn Run day.

Can I take on this treacherous and dangerous run that would have no

doubt bested even the hardiest of gold rushers?

This is the black run of dog sledding.

The first obstacle is just a tight bend,

followed by a steep incline.

It's on a tilt, and it's down and up.

And then another steep slope.

And it's relentless obstacles like that for 10km.

Kind of best not to overthink it.

I might chicken out.

I have to be completely comfortable, to be completely relaxed,

regardless of the terrain.

To have that zen fusion of the sled,

the dogs and the trail.

And we're off.

WHISTLING Hup, hup!

Slow it down, slow it down.

Oh, man, man, man, man, man, man.

Oh, BLEEP. Running, running, running.

Oh! BLEEP!

Don't let that line go slack, and off the brake

to take the corner.

Oh, my God. This is too steep.

Easy, guys.

Easy and fast.

Fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast.

Yes!

That's how you do it in the Yukon.

HE LAUGHS

Oh, it is super, super exciting.

So exhilarating.

I'm going faster than ever,

yet feel in total control.

Gee, gee, gee!

The dogs are reading the trail and I am reading them.

I know when to brake.

I know when to lean.

And Yukon is responding to my calls.

Gee, gee, gee.

Finally, we have become a team...

..and are running as one.

Ah, gee whiz!

That was phenomenal.

Yeehaw!

Jeez, that's freedom.

That's like flying.

Good lad!

That was awesome. That was awesome.

That was just... Ah! Get off me!

Being here and having these dogs, you know, open up this world to me,

I'm just so grateful to them.

You know, I've learnt from them.

They've kind of guided me and they've kind of let me

join their gang.

They've let me be part of their team.

So, this isn't a team of seven dogs.

This is a team of eight.

Seven on four legs.

One on two legs.

Although not all the time.

Hup! Hup! Hup!

Woohoo!

Having read The Call Of The Wild all those years ago,

I began my expedition thinking I had to command the dogs to become

the alpha of their pack.

But this book was from another era,

a time when sled dogs and nature

were seen as something to be conquered.

Something to be dominated.

But these remarkable huskies have taught me that dog sledding

and thriving together in nature is about teamwork, respect and love.

It's clear to me that if we are to have a future on this Earth,

we must listen to what the natural world has to tell us.