Mush, Mush!!

Michael, Jill, Kate, and I all went to base this past Monday to go tubing! However, all the snot-nosed little kids bought all the tickets and they were sold out for the session we wanted. This was a huge bummer, but there was also dog sled rides going on this day!! We went down to the frozen lake to check this out. A local dog musher brought some of his dogs out and took people on a 3-5 minute ride around the lake. I really wanted to do this because how many people can actually say they have actually rode on a dog sled pulled by dogs!?!?!! Michael and Jill both really didn't want to ride when we found out that they would only allow one adult (plus the musher) to be pulled at a time. They both felt like the ride would be boring. However, I convinced them all to go! Everyone LOVED it! The ride was so smooth and actually quite fast!

This is the view from inside of the sled. There were only 8 dogs pulling the sled at a time. Normally, for the Iditarod, there are 16! They did swap out the dogs after each ride. The dog handlers also fed and watered the dogs in between rides. The musher owns 40 dogs!

Me on the sled with one of the mushers. These dogs are so obsessed with running that when they are waiting by the truck, they are going nuts waiting for there turn to run! It was quite impressive. The musher said that he had to run his dogs at least 10 miles the other weekend before they would even slow down because they had so much energy!

Michael's turn!

The dogs are also super skinny and wirey. If you remember the pics from my post on the 2009 Iditarod, you will remember seeing these skinny dogs. I just always thought sled dogs were big huskies or malamutes! Little did I know...

So for all of those that still need yet another reason to come up and visit us in the winter, we can take you on a dog sled ride! :)
Mush, mush!!