This month, Dallas Seavey won the 52nd Iditarod and made race history with his sixth Iditarod Championship! He completed 975 miles from Willow to Nome with an incredible team of dogs (started with 16/crossed the finish line with 10) in 9 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes and 8 seconds. Absolutely amazing!
During this last great race, our family stayed in a yurt on musher Nicholas Petit’s property which was perfect for a mini getway.
We also booked a dogsled tour but Nic was finishing up the Iditarod (he came in at 12th place) so we did a tour with musher Kristin Bacon. We loved every moment of it and thank Nic, Kristin & the pups!
The experience to ride on and help drive a dog sled is an unforgettable adventure. The dogs are Alaskan Huskies, but look different as they carry mixed features from their breed. The dogs were so excited when we pulled up to the team… barking, jumping and running in a circle around their little houses. We met the dogs, trying to remember their unique names. The dogs from the same litter were given “theme” names: holidays, potatoes, weather…. They loved to be pet and the kids loved to pet them. The kids helped harness the dogs for the sled ride. There are lots of behind the scenes duties-record keeping, supplies, food, water, clean up, training (2000+ hours)….
On the trail, every ride is unexpected due to weather, animals, the sled, the dogs, the driver or anything in between. The driver has a slow down brake, stop break and snow hook (looks like a metal claw) to control the speed of the team. The rails of the sled seemed a bit like skis with a plastic track surrounding them. The dogs listen to the commands :
- Hike! | Get moving
- Whoa! | Stop
- Gee! | Turn to the right
- Haw! | Turn to the left
- Easy! | Slow down
It is all very fascinating as an observer. It takes much time, patience, strength, trust, love and work as a musher.
KNECHTTREK 