Homeless man to attempt dog sled journey from Knoxville to California

You may have seen him in Knoxville in recent days.

An unshaven man draped in a poncho, zooming up and down the sidewalks of Cumberland Avenue in a lawn chair atop a long board propelled by two Siberian Huskies.

His name is Georgie Cutright, and he’s currently living out of his van, training his rescue dogs - Sarah and Lobos - for what he calls an “urban dog sled” journey across the country. At least one friend will accompany him.

The 2,200-mile or so trek from Knoxville to Venice Beach, Calif., would double the length of the world’s longest annual dog sled race, the Iditarod in Alaska.

“I’ve never actually finished anything in my life, you know?” Cutright, 41, said. “This is something that’s going to be really incredible to do, and it’s something that I’m really, really adamant about finishing. I just want to spread some joy.”

Cutright said that wherever he and his dogs go, “people just smile and videotape and clap, and it just brings a lot of joy and a lot of smiles to the world.”

While his makeshift sled was parked in front of the Walgreens along the Cumberland Strip on Tuesday night, pharmacy customers and college students passing by stopped to greet him and fawn over the dogs, who rolled around on the ground as they fought for attention.

Cutright, originally from Mattoon, Illinois, said he became homeless two years ago after he lost his job as a carpenter. He said he’s been unable to secure another steady job because of a felony conviction for an armed robbery when he was 18.

“I haven’t done anything really bad since,” he said. “I haven’t done drugs or anything. It makes it kind of hard to get a job. People look at me a little differently.”

Cutright worked “handyman jobs and different things along the way” to scrape together enough money to buy his 1989 Chevrolet Mark III van, his only significant financial asset, which he now plans to sell to buy necessities for his expedition: several pairs of boots to protect the huskies’ feet; an iPhone and a GoPro to livestream the journey to prove it was done “only on dog power”; and a bus ticket, a bike and a cart for his friend, Sean Butler, who will travel from Philadelphia to make the journey alongside him.

Butler, a 29-year-old deejay, said he first met Cutright while working in game booths at the 2015 Texas State Fair in Dallas. They then went on the road together, traveling the country for a while before parting ways.

To Butler, the dog sled trip represents an opportunity to inspire people and create a legacy, "like something that we can say we did in our lives."

"I just want to see as much as I can in this world before I die," Butler said. "It's two men's stand of 'Can we do this?' And drop everything that we're doing in our lives to try to achieve something incredible."

Cutright has already secured his first sponsor: HeadQuarters skateboard shop on Cumberland Avenue. The owner, Nick Tomany, gave Cutright multiple sets of wheels and bearings for the journey, according to Tomany’s longtime friend and HeadQuarters employee, Zachary Puca. Puca, who owns a nascent clothing line called Murderer's Row, gifted Cutright a shirt, which he wore Wednesday.

"I think it's a good idea," Puca said of Cutright's ambitious journey. "He's got nothing to lose. I think it's positive, and if he can do it, it will be pretty incredible."

The legal logistics 

Interstate 40 is a straight shot to his destination, Cutright said, and he plans to stick closely to it but will be taking back roads and side roads. He said riding his dog sled on the back roads is “not illegal."

Several local authorities and law experts agreed that taking a dog sled or any non-motorized vehicle on the interstate is forbidden, but were uncertain whether such a vehicle may legally operate on smaller roads.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Miller, when asked about the legality of dog sleds on smaller roads, referenced the state law on horse-drawn carriages and wouldn't explicitly say whether a dog sled would be permitted. He referred questions to the Knox County District's Attorney Office. A message left Thursday for spokesman Sean McDermott was not immediately returned.

Ben Barton, a law professor at the University of Tennessee who cautioned he is "not an expert in homemade dog sled law," said Cutright may be within the boundaries of the law as long as he stays on those small roads.

"Animal-drawn vehicles are allowed on small roads in this state and in every state in the country," Barton said. "As long as he's not being cruel to the animals and staying on the right type of road and obeying the safety regulations, he should be fine."

However, Barton said, if Cutright travels at night, he will need to equip his sled with lights. Barton noted that even if Cutright is technically within the law, "the police in this country have great latitude to stop individuals who appear to be violating safety rules.

"Some combination of, 'It's not safe for him,' or 'It's not safe for the dogs,' would be the kind of thing a police officer might say. ... He seems super likely to run into some at least curious officers along the way."

Douglas Gordan, a lawyer who specializes in animal issues for the city of Knoxville, laughingly called the issue "a weird question," and said "this is not something I spend my time thinking about."

"We have a horse-drawn carriage ordinance and we have an ordinance prohibiting the driving of livestock," Gordan said. "This is really outside of what we're used to seeing.

"I'm sort of slightly in favor of saying, 'Sure!' As long as it's not a threat to navigation. Sure, it's slow, but if you don't have a minimum speed limit, then it's just annoying."

The travel plans

Cutright said he has a tent he can sleep in, and he'll stay in motels when he can. He also expects people will hear about his journey and offer to house him and meet the dogs. He said he’ll rest whenever the dogs need a break and he won’t travel on Saturdays - the Sabbath. Cutright is a non-denominational Christian who strictly follows the text of the Bible — “I know Him well,” he said simply.

In addition to spreading a positive attitude and sharing his faith along the way, Cutright hopes to extol the virtues of rescue dogs such as Sarah and Lobos. Cutright got Sarah off Craigslist from a woman who was moving, and acquired Lobos from the police department in Venice Beach when the dog's homeless owner was arrested.

“The problem with rescue dogs is they don’t get a fair chance,” he said, as Lobos interrupted him with a mixture of a howl and bark, as if on cue.

“(Huskies are) very vocal and talkative, and they express their opinions through their voice, and the growls and the barking are just their ways of expressing themselves. Unfortunately, in the industry of trying to rescue dogs, a lot of people don’t want that."

Cutright said he and Butler plan to embark for California by Wednesday or Thursday next week.

"I just want people to know that if you put your mind to something, you can do it. Anybody can, even a homeless guy."

You can follow Cutright on Facebook.