JACKSON — Snake River Ranch sits at the base of the Tetons, near Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. He receives many proposals from people wishing to use their land for this or that.

Six years ago, Call of the Wyld presented a proposal that owner Abby Tarver said was a little crazy at the time. Tarver was a newbie in the dog sledding business, cold calling everyone in Jackson Hole to try her new business.

“We didn’t even know they were right outside the gate of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort,” Tarver told Cowboy State Daily. “I was like, ‘Give me any piece of land and I’ll live in a wall tent with my dogs.'”

Of course, that would never be enough. Snake River Ranch couldn’t let Tarver live in a tent with his dogs. But he was quite intrigued by Tarver’s offer to try his luck at dog sledding. So she allowed him to rent one of the small ranches she had for her employees.

Now, six years later, Call of the Wyld is an established dog sledding tour company that offers an epic experience. Her popular TikTok channel has over 61,000 subscribers and 3.3 million likes.

It typically sells out every season and is a great Wyoming tourism success story, but it’s also a story that’s had a bit of a long and winding road and an uncertain future from the start.

Electra, the lifeline

Like many young people, Tarver wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do with her life. She looked for purpose here, there and everywhere, but nothing she tried seemed quite right. Although it made for a nice post on Facebook with his friends going “ooh” and “ahh”.

But inside, she didn’t really feel like herself. It was empty and hollow.

“I was working for this company called Back Roads and I was in the middle of southern Utah in July,” she said. “And I think I was going a little crazy with the heat.”

When she came across a snowy documentary called “The Great Alone,” she watched. It was famous Iditarod musher Lance Mackey, who won the 1,000-mile endurance race from Anchorage to Nome four times.

The documentary captivated her, so much so that she quit her job.

“I drove all the way to Jackson and showed up at this guy’s house and begged him to give me a job,” Tarver said. “And that’s how I started at Continental Divide Dog Sled Adventures at Togwotee Mountain Lodge.”

Once dog sledding season ended, Tarver did what many Jackson Hole guides do. She headed for Alaska.

“They told me I didn’t need a car to go there, so I flew up there, then lived in an employee village far from the city,” recalls Tarver. “I was very isolated. And it definitely wasn’t the best environment for me.

It was during this difficult period that she acquired her first sled dog, Electra. The dog turned out to be a lifesaver.

“I had actually experienced that kind of depression,” Tarver said. “I was having a bit of a hard time mentally. And so, when my manager Becky offered me Electra, I don’t know, it was just kind of like destiny.

Sled dogs are not good pets

Sled dogs are known for their energetic personalities. In fact, they are so energetic that Tarver would never recommend having one as a pet.

They are wild, nasty and destructive, Tarver readily admits.

“She was an absolute nightmare as a pet,” she said of Electra. “She destroyed everything. And I lied to my parents. I told them she was house trained so I could go home and stay with them for a little while. But she certainly wasn’t.

People told Tarver that she should rehome Electra because the dog was so difficult to control, but here’s the problem for Tarver: Electra had needs that couldn’t be ignored.

And that was exactly what Tarver needed at that moment to get on the right path – his path – in life.

“She kind of forced me to have a goal,” Tarver said. “She kept pulling me towards a bigger goal. I knew before I got her that I really wanted to have my own (dogsled) team, but she was the catalyst for it all.

It was around this time that Tarver met her future husband, Michael Tarver.

The first thing she made sure her new boyfriend knew was that she fully intended to one day own a team of sled dogs for Electra.

To his surprise, Michael wasn’t against the idea at all. In fact, he encouraged Tarver to jump right in.

So that’s exactly what they did. The following winter, the couple purchased 17 other sled dogs.

“Talk about everything,” Tarver said. “We spent practically our last penny on this team.”

Do or die moment

Eighteen sled dogs is a lot of puppy food, and if one sled dog is demanding, 17 others are relentless when it comes to pulling and running.

Once the Tarvers had all these dogs, they knew they were on a timeline. They needed to get their business going right off the bat, in just one season, and they needed a dog sled tour to get them going.

Abby sent letters, she made cold calls and at first she didn’t get anything. Not even a single response.

She kept trying and eventually joined Snake River Ranch. He was his only taker, and it was a godsend.

But she realizes now that it was also a huge leap of faith, both for them and for the ranch.

“They didn’t know if we were going to make it,” Abby said. “Like, all they had was my word. And we didn’t know if they would want to continue working with us after the first season. What if we did all this work and they just said it wasn’t the case anymore? »

Where elbow grease and luck meet

Ultimately, Abby discovered that the key was simply to be confident in the vision she had for her life and to take a chance.

“Sometimes we just have to believe in ourselves,” Abby said.

It doesn’t hurt to have a lot of elbow grease and determination, as well as a dash of good old-fashioned luck. This came in the form of a The Abby TikTok account started on the flylike some kind of joke.

“I was like a lot of people, like, ‘Oh, it’s just a stupid thing.’ It’ll be a trend,” Abby recalls. “So, I just started posting videos of our dogs for fun and I would joke and say, ‘I’m going to be famous on TikTok.’

Wyoming has 6,000 businesses that use TikTok to one degree or another, Abby has since learned. Collectively, these businesses generate $38 million to the state’s gross domestic product, supporting 410 jobs, according to an Oxford Analytics analysis.

Abby’s TikTok account may have started as a joke, but it’s become serious business.

Customers have told her that Call of the Wyld’s TikTok feed helped people decide they wanted to take a dog sled tour, and she knows that’s why they’re able to sell out their seasons so often.

With this success, Call of the Wyld has doubled the size of its operations several times and has 75 sled dogs.

The Tarvers have been able to embark on summer wagon tours, like those offered in Alaska, and they have added a fun little running club, where participants attach themselves to a sled dog, who then helps pull them from more and faster. A great training exercise for both humans and dogs.

“I don’t consider myself ‘TikTok famous,'” Abby said. “But it’s kind of funny how it’s allowed us to achieve such reach.” However, it doesn’t feel like glory, even though we’ve gathered a community.

One of the things she loves most about this community is that she knows that many people may never be able to take a dog sled ride, due to mobility issues or simply the expense of traveling to a place like Jackson Hole.

“But it’s really great to have people who have the same dreams that we all had, and we can bring that to them virtually,” Abby said.

Now when Abby posts a message on social media, it doesn’t seem hollow at all. It finally feels like the world is her home, and by following her heart, she has found the right place in it.

Contact Renée Jean at [email protected]

Renee Jean can be reached at [email protected].