Man and his six best friends walk into Sisters

By Tom Chace

Marion Tobias and his six, four-footed friends made their way over the Santiam Pass and into Sisters over the Memorial Day weekend, walking and pulling a wagon. Photo by Tom Chace

He's making a circular trip from Salem to Salem.

What's unusual is that he's walking all the way. What makes it even more unusual is he's pulling a wagon and has six dogs as hiking companions and passengers.

"I'm just out seein' the country," said Marion Tobias as he neared Tollgate Road after spending the night at Indian Ford Campground. The night before he was at Suttle Lake.

"My dogs come first. I don't eat until they've had theirs," he said. "People are wonderful. They give me bags of dog food and other foods for me, too, wherever I go. But it's the dogs that gets the attention. People love 'em to death."

Originally from Monroe, Wisconsin, a small town, mid-state, 15 miles north of the Illinois border, Toby ("that's what everyone calls me") was a baker for 25 years there and in Milwaukee.

"When mom died, I kinda decided to see the country," he said. "I've been all over from Boston to Seattle. Not walking, mind you, nor with my dogs. I hitchhiked before I got them," he said pointing to his menagerie.

He called them out one-by-one: Girl, Duke, Maggie, Tina, Smokey and Toby (named for Tobias, obviously). Duke and Tina are the parents of Smokey, a black lab-looking pup and Maggie, six-month-old brother and sister who "get to ride as they're too rambunctious to walk," said the well spoken vagabond.

"I'm hoping to stay over, maybe in Sisters, while Tina has another litter," he said nonchalantly. "She's due any day now."

His route is through Sisters, continuing on Highway 20 into Bend and down Highway 97 to Klamath Falls.

"I'm not sure from there which mountain pass I'll climb to get back to Salem," he said. "We'll have to wait and see how I and the dogs are doin'.

"We can walk and pull about eight miles a day," he said.

His wagon is "brand new from Costco," he said. "A fella down in Detroit, where I stopped for a few days, thought my two wheeler was too hard to pull with the dogs and all so he drove back over to Eugene and bought me this one. Cost 75 bucks," Toby said. "Nice fella."

Tobias has few if any teeth, but a warm and happy smile. He was wearing a Green Bay Packers sweatshirt over his scrawny frame.

In his wagon is a first-aid kit, "mainly for the dogs," and a camp stove.

"We sleep on the ground and don't need no tent," he said. "I'd like to get out of these forests, though, as it's too hard to keep the dogs at rest."

His dogs looked in surprisingly good condition.

"They is so friendly that I sometimes have a hard time getting people away from them so we can get on," Tobias said.

Standing off the edge of the highway talking with Toby was scary, but the traffic didn't faze the seasoned traveler.

"Don't bother me none," he said. "I do get a little nervous with them big, triple-trucks whizzin' by for the dogs. I keep a tight rein on their leashes and try to keep 'em to my right.

"So far, no trouble," he said.

Probably better than a wave or a handout for this fellow would be a foot on the brake as you pass him on Central Oregon highways in the days ahead.