He's agreed to join us for a few days BEFORE the Iditarod start and then come back later when he finishes the race! (Wow- Yeah, I know! Pretty cool that he is being that generous with us! ) Thanks to CynCyn37 who made the initial contact with Hugh & invited him to our forum!
Welcome To The Forum Hugh!
If you aren't familiar with Hugh, here is a summary from his website;
Hugh Neff grew up in Evanston, IL., a suburb of Chicago. After wandering around the United States for
a few years he discovered Alaska and the world of dog mushing. The true start to the world of dawgs started
though with Maverick, a yellow Labrador that taught him more about life than any human could. "If one
animal could contain so much love and energy, what about ten or twenty?"
Hugh started working for sprint musher Bill Mitchell, who along with Curtis Erhart and a few local mushers in Fairbanks provided limitless training and the opportunity to feed and clean up for over 200 dogs on a daily basis. A few years later Hugh would be an apprentice to Curtis’ legendary father, Lester, in the native Athabascan village of Tanana on
the Yukon River. Lester taught Hugh about life in the Alaskan bush as well as passing along dog wisdom.
From there it was on to Nenana where Jerry Riley, Ray Fox and other assorted locals caught a glimpse of the
vision. During this time Hugh met Rich Doran who was building a cabin at Murphy Dome. Rich’s support
helped to build the foundation of the Laughing Eyes Kennel.
Hugh then went on to work for and train with Ramy Brooks, Gareth Wright and Paddy Santucci in Minto and Manley Hot Springs. It was here that Hugh first started with village races. Next Hugh moved on to Coldfoot and worked at
the “Northern-Most Truck Stop” and trained in the Brooks Range for the next two years. There's nothing quite like traveling by dog team in the remote Brooks Range and he hopes to be able to return there often. This northern
training ground helped Hugh and the pooches develop into long-distance racing.
Hugh’s first Yukon Quest in 2000 was with only ten dogs to start the race, but they battled through and ended up finishing in 13th place, earning the "Challenge of the North Award". In the summer of 2003 Hugh and Tamra met while Hugh was working at the Yukon River bridge on the Dalton Highway and Tamra was touring the north by army jeeps. Within a year Hugh had moved to Skagway with the dogs to do summer tours and Tamra had moved to Whitehorse, Yukon (an hour north of Skagway) to work for Gartner Lee. That summer they found their home at Annie Lake and began to set up the kennel. That fall the dogs and Hugh moved to their new winter home and began training in the Wheaton River valley.
For more info visit Hugh's website at;
http://www.laughingeyeskennel.com
and His Blog at;
http://www.laughingeyeskennel.blogspot.com