It's An Alaskan Thing

What to do in winter in Alaska?  Well, there are more options than one might think.  I did get a winter house guest over Christmas a couple of years ago, which forced myself and a coworker to get out there and explore some of what Alaska winter tourism has to offer.

Some places offer horseback riding...on beaches, in forests, jungles, and mountains.  In Alaska, we have dogsled tours.  There are many dog sled tours one can join in Alaska (both winter and summer), so for our week of home tourism, we picked one that wasn't too long of a drive, and one that was run by a family long engrained as mushers in the Iditarod race.  Alaska Sled Dog Tours, near Talkeetna, run by Dallas Seavey, who I believe won the Iditarod 5 times -- his father and grandfather also quite legendary in the dog sled community.

It was, of course, a wildly snowy day as we set out in daybreak.  The roads were bad enough that my coworker took an uber for the 13 mile drive to my house, but for some crazy reason everyone still felt very confident about the nearly 2 hour drive in a blizzard with me at the helm of my Grand Prix (fortunately equipped with some pretty expensive and awesome Nokian studded tires).  I am not going to lie...it was a white knuckle drive, and my two fearless passengers actually kept their eyes closed a good chunk of the way.  But as we finally got close to the destination, the roads cleared a bit.  We got off the main trail on the way to the kennels, and, after all of that, we went to turn down a long lane and saw a major snow drift, probably 3 feet deep, running across the entire road.   In true prairier farm girl style, I did the only logical thing once we sighted it.  I pinned it.  We ploughed through, coming out slightly sideways, dragging and spewing snow and we launched out/over the other side...but we didn't get stuck and were able to get through the last few miles to our destination.  For this moment of brilliance, I would for the remainder of the house guests visit, and forever more, be referred to as Grand Prix.

We got there a little before sunrise...a beautiful expanse of snow, sky, a few moose in sight, and a lot of chatter of sled dogs.  They ushered our little group over to an area to meet our teams for the day.  This dude looked at us as if to say "you coming with me?"

Followed by, then why are we still standing here?

I am not sure what the dogsled equivalent of "Saddle up" is...I imagine it's harness up, or hitch up.  But all the same they got everybody in their spots and leads and gave us a quick lesson on mushing...the main thing being how to apply a little foot brake, which is basically a metal claw on the back on the sled that you can lean on to dig into the snow.  Sled dogs can 9-10 miles per hour.  On this day, we did a little 5 mile loop, and went about 6 miles per hour (giving us time for a short stop to switch up mushers).  So yes, we all got a turn to mush.

While the Iditarod became a race after the famous 1925 serum run where diptheria antitoxin was delivered by dogsled over 1000 miles in a winter diptheria outbreak as there was no other way to get supplies, the Iditarod trail predates that, and dogsled teams as a way of transport go back hundreds of years in the Alaska Native culture.  Genetic studies show that many lineages of todays sled dogs include malamute, husky, german shepherd, and even wolf.  In general, these are high energy dogs with a good thick undercoat of fur.  Most mushers have little booties for their feet if it's a long run.  There is no enticement for the dogs to run...yes, they train to run together, to be a team, but, mostly they run because that's that's just what they do most days.  Many an Iditarod musher has had their dream dashed because the dogs just said, no, we are not running today, and no coaxing in the world was changing that (thinking of the year Nic Petit was set to be the clear winner, but when his dogs got to an area they didn't like, they just hunkered down in the snow and said "nope".  He waited it out another day, maybe two, then took them all into a nearby cabin where they cozied up by the fire and called it the end of their race.)

We got to have a little taste of both of these things.  Once we got ready, the dogs were eager to go, the footbrake was no match for their enthusiasm.  But once you got the hang of it, it was such a beautiful, serene, peaceful ride.  Just the sound of the sled blades cutting into the snow, and the chatter between the dogs.  It was honestly one of those times that you just stop and think how lucky you are to be right where you are at that moment.

At the halfway point, we stopped at this little cabin for a sip of hot chocolate.

Prophet, was ever so excited to get moving again, and seemed to be urging us to hurry up.

"Come ooooooooonnnnnn", he seemed to be saying.  And so we did.

Back on the trail we went, smoothly, happily, all going according to plan.  Until Grandpa Seavey and his team were sighted cutting up some snowbanks off the mail train in the distance.  This is where we got to see the dogs doing what the dogs wanted to do.  Attempts at steering, braking, talking, coaxing, and pleading were all unsuccessful and Prophet and his buddies decided to go join Grandpa, bounding through dog deep snow, us in town, until we finally, truly, got stuck for the day.  Fortunately our chaperone musher was near by and came to the front on the team and led us out on foot back to the trail, where, excitement over, and Grandpa Seavey long gone, they happily sped off down the trail back taking us back to the kennels.

Back at the kennels, we got offered a chance to snuggle some puppies.  We sooooo took them up on that.  After that we headed to Talkeetna, home of Mayor Stubbs (of a previous blog called "The Disputed Political Career of Stubbs the Cat"), in quest of lunch.  Talkeetna is a quirky little town, for sure.  I have to admit the irony of this sign announcing downtown Talkeetna cracked me up a bit.

I honestly don't remember where it was that we stopped for lunch.  I am sure it had Brewery in the title, so going to surmise it was The Denali Brewery Company.  And in all it's Alaska quirkiness, I noted that it had this poster hanging in the bathroom.

Another great Alaska Adventure complete!