WINCHESTER BAY -- An immense sandscape reaches for the blue sky at the Umpqua Dunes. As intrepid souls churn sand and power all-terrain vehicles to the top of the rolling dunes, a strange sight appears on the horizon. 

Several four-wheeled carts with bundled-up drivers at the helm roll quietly toward a parking lot. 

No high-pitched roar accompanies these dune riders, only occasional shouts of "Les' go!" directed toward the packs of dogs pulling each cart through the sand. 

Just another leisurely stroll with the family pet? Not quite. 

It's a workout session for the Oregon Dune Mushers, who are training their dog teams for a three-day, 72-mile endurance run over dunes from North Bend to Florence. 

As many as two dozen teams from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana are taking part in the event this weekend. 

The mail run, as the race is called, hearkens back to pioneer days, when horse-drawn stagecoaches traveled the coastline, delivering passengers and mail. 

When the sand is this soft and the dunes this high, the dog teams have to be at their best. 

"It's always easier on the low stuff. But in the mail run, you have to go over a lot of hills," said Beverly Meyers as she tended to her four Alaskan malamutes after their six-mile run. "I prefer the higher dunes." 

Meyers, of Coos Bay, is secretary for the Oregon Dune Mushers. She has been mushing for 20 years. Her four-dog team is classified as a "miniteam," but there's nothing mini about Nick, Stormy, Shadow and Soaker. Each of her malamutes weighs about 80 pounds. 

"They're small as the breed goes," she said. "But they're fast and still have the power." 

Both the miniteams and the larger advanced teams, which have five or more dogs, participate in the mail run. 


Training to win 
Mushing is a way of life for Meyers and her husband, Sonny. Beverly is a landscaper, Sonny a myrtlewood craftsman, but both live for their dogs. And because they live within minutes of Horsfall Beach, they often go there to run the team. 

"The dogs will be real quiet, then when we come over the North Bend bridge, they'll get real excited and jump up from the truck bed," said Sonny Meyers. "(Running) is in their blood." 

While running and pulling come naturally to these animals, training is necessary, Meyers said. 

"From the time they're pups, you have them drag a tire," he said. "Eventually, you get them going out with an experienced team." 

Huskies and malamutes love to run in packs, Beverly Meyers said. Nick was the lead dog on a recent Saturday, but Meyers said she likes to rotate the dogs so they all can learn to lead. 

"If someone has a brain freeze, I say 'All right, you're outta there!' " 

Running on the dunes offers its own set of challenges, for both the mushers and the dogs, said Bob Young, who on this day accompanied the group on an ATV. 

"Just like with any person, it's two steps forward, one step back," said Young, who estimated it takes twice as much effort to run in sand as in snow. 

Mushers run from the fall until late spring, when the sand becomes too hot for the dogs, said Sonny Meyers. 

Young recalled with pride how the dogs proved a better match for tough conditions than machines on one occasion. He said during one run, three dog teams came upon a man struggling to free his ATV from the muck. The mushers offered to help and were greeted with skepticism. 

"The guy with the ATV said it couldn't be done," said Young. The mushers gave it a shot by daisy-chaining the dog teams together. "When we jerked him out of there, he just watched and his jaw dropped." 

Diane Fisher, a Coos Bay resident who brought her team of seven Siberian huskies for the day's run, also knows a thing or two about dog power. One of Fisher's light-eyed, thick-haired huskies is among the mushing elite. 

Modest Koyuk, age 11, competed in the 1993 Iditarod, the 1,100-mile trek through desolate Alaskan tundra that separates the warriors from the rest. 

"Yeah, these guys are built for speed," Fisher said. 

There's always something to learn, especially when making the transition from snow or hard roads to sand, according to Beverly Meyers. 

Most local mushers "cross train," on different surfaces, she said. The Meyers run in the snow at Diamond Lake. 

"Many people train on logging roads," she said. "We encourage people to train on sand so they're ready." 

One of the mushers practicing on the dunes was Wayne Ellis of Salem. He and his wife, Lorene, own a kennel and have 13 dogs. Wayne, clad in a warm hat and army fatigues, was driving a five-dog team. 

"They're all Siberian huskies. Is there any other kind?" quipped Lorene Ellis. 

Many of the Ellis' dogs are shown as well as run. Two are international champions, said Wayne Ellis. One of the huskies, Nikki, was raised in Florida, where she first learned to pull a skateboard. 

Ellis said he's still brushing up on his dune-driving skills. 

"I've got snow time and dirt time. I need to get some sand time."