A Colvill musher contacted Cook County Law Enforcement on Sunday, October 2, reporting possible sabotage of a trail used for training sled dogs in the Trout Lake area of Grand Marais.
Frank Moe told law enforcement that he believed someone had purposely put trees and branches across the trail off the Trout Lake Road. Moe said he was knocked off the all-terrain vehicle he was using to train his dog team. One of his dogs became tangled in more branches and was injured.
In an e-mail to fellow mushers, Moe described the incident in more detail. He explained that on Saturday, while traveling down the trail to Trout Lake Road on his ATV, which was not running as he trained his 17-dog team, he saw a few branches down on the middle of the trail. Moe thought it was odd, since there had been little wind and because the branches had “dropped so conveniently in the middle of the trail.” Moe said he moved the branches and moved on with his team. When he returned the next day, he discovered more branches on the trail. He wrote, “I looked down to move around them and turning a corner there was a large branch propped across the trail, head high, that caught me in the chest, knocking me off.”
Moe said his dogs were “going nuts” and when he got up and to them the team was tangled in “a jumble of branches and trees.” One of his dogs, Etta, had cuts on her head, an injured eye and foot. The trail was too narrow to turn the team and ATV around, so Moe continued down the trail to a turn-around at the top of the hill, carrying his injured dog on the ATV. He said he had to stop to move “40 to 50 more trees and branches” from the trail.
Moe said the dog needed nine staples in her head and has a broken back foot. Her eye is swollen shut. “Luckily no other dogs were injured,” he said, adding that Etta was one of the dogs that pulled kids in the Youth Ski event last winter. “Just a honey. I can’t imagine why someone would want to hurt her or any of our dogs.”
Cook County Law Enforcement declined to comment, other than to confirm that the incident is under investigation. A law enforcement representative said Cook County is working with the U.S. Forest Service. The U.S. Forest Service conservation officer was unavailable for comment.
Mary Manning, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Conservation Officer who covers the east end of the county, said she was not involved in the investigation since it does not involve a state trail or state land. However, as someone who also has sled dogs, Manning said it is very troubling to think that someone would intentionally sabotage a trail.
Anyone with any information about the incident is asked to contact Cook County Law Enforcement at (218) 387-3030.
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