Today we went down to the town of Seward to go on a tour of a kennel that raises and trains dogs that race in the Iditarod. They gave some background on the race and what they do to survive. Then the dogs were hooked up in pairs to pull us on a summer-friendly sled on some of the trails nearby. You can see the back of one below:
They got so excited to run, they'd bark and bark until the musher gave the signal to go. One interesting fact I learned that has nothing to do with the race, really, is that some of the smaller towns in the more remote places of AK have a shipment of food once a year. So they have to plan out their year of food and put their order in because that's all they'll get. I think that's pretty crazy. No emergency midnight runs to Wal-Mart. Here's a funny do who perched himself up on his little "dog house". You can see from this picture how the kennel is laid out. The dogs each have this little cylinder they sleep in and a chain that keeps them close. It makes for a pretty nasty smell and lots of noise if they're all excited to get hooked up to run.
After the ride, we got to hold some of the puppies.
Then they showed us what they do to keep themselves and the dogs warm during the race. The mushers have an inner lining to their coat that absorbs the moisture from sweat and then when they get to the checkpoints, they put it out to freeze and shake off th ice. With all the gear they put on, it's amazing to me that they can even move at all. It reminds me of The Christmas Story movie where the little kid is all bundled up and can hardly walk to school. But they're bundled for good reason, as the temperatures can get colder than 60 degrees. The hat in the picture below was more for amusement than anything. They showed that they cook food using something called "Heet" and everything they eat has been vacuum-packed before hand. They eat everything from fish to pizza.
Earlier in the day we hiked (more like walked) to the side and toe of Exit Glacier. The walk to the side of the glacier was easy compared to the toe. Here we are at the side:
Here's Sariah at the toe. Matthias and Sariah braved the glacier ice water that you'd have to walk through either with your socks and shoes getting all wet or go barefoot. I'm not that much of a die-hard. It did turn out to be an awesome picture, though.
On the drive home, we saw some dall sheep (the only white sheep that is wild, I learned):
And then we drove off into the sunset...
Pretty much a perfect day!
sweet pics...thought about moving there once...somehow, ended up in AZ..go fig..
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