Squid Acres mushers Paige Drobny and Cody Strathe

Squid Acres is home to Cody Strathe, Paige Drobny and sixty Alaskan Huskies.  The couple has been building their kennel and developing their line of dogs for roughly eight years.  Squid Acres Kennel wasn’t originally founded with the idea of racing, but instead to explore the wilderness and beautiful places of Alaska by dog team.  Cody and Paige have found expeditions by dog team to be an invaluable way to bond with their dogs and train for races.  When the snow falls and the rivers freeze, the couple takes to the north, WAY north with their dogs.

Cody Strathe

When it comes to breeding and raising sled dogs, Cody thinks there’s nothing more exciting than watching goofy little pups grow into racing sled dogs.  When asked what he likes best about running sled dogs Cody replied, “Time alone with my best furry friends in the wildest places in Alaska.”  He became involved in running dogs when he traveled and camped by dog team with friends.  

Cody Strathe is in for a distance double of 1,000-mile sled dog races for 2016.  He’ll make his first run to Nome in Iditarod XLIV a couple of short weeks after completing the 2016 Yukon Quest.  Cody won’t be the only Squid Acres musher to make the distance double, Paige is also signed up for both the Quest and Iditarod.  This is an amazing feat for their kennel.  Cody says, “It’s very exciting to be out there with all my favorites.. my wife and my dogs.”   He believes that they’ll be the first married couple to run both races (Iditarod and Quest) in the same season.

Paige says she got into mushing thanks to a sled Cody built her for Christmas.  When asked to comment on what she loves most about running dogs, Paige said, “Being with my best dog companions and the quiet exploration that we get to do together.”

Paige Drobny

Drobny has finished Iditarod three times since 2013.  Her first finish was in 34th place, then in 2014 she moved up to 25th place and 27th in 2015.  Her best time for Iditarod is 10 days, 4 hours, and 42 minutes.  She’s finished the Yukon Quest as a rookie in 2012 in 14th place and received the Quest Sportsmanship Award.  

Once Paige and Cody decided to race, they have found their lives have become even more focused on the dogs.  Paige considers this as a very good thing.  From the racing page of the Squid Acres website, “Races allow us to set goals and then focus on the dogs to reach those goals.  The 24/7 attention the dogs require to reach those goals, enriches all of our lives.”  

Aside from mushing, Paige does biological research through her own company, Spearfish Research.  Keeping busy isn’t a problem for Cody either.  Besides running dogs and archeology projects, Strathe, under the name of Dog Paddle Designs, builds custom dog sleds, wooden boats and paddles.