Dogs, dogs, dogs...

I can't resist a beautiful sunrise

The following photos include examples of three characteristic sled dog races.  The Yukon Quest is a long distance race.  The photos immediately below are from the start of the Junior Yukon Quest that took place on February 7th.   The race is for teens between the ages of 14 and 17 and is only 135 miles (as opposed to 1,000+ for the real thing).  

Following the Quest are photos from races at Dog Musher's Hall on Sunday February 8th. These are sponsored by the Alaska Dog Mushers Association (ADMA) and include skijoring and sprint races of 7.9 to 15 miles with varying numbers of dogs.  The cultures of the sprint and long distance racers are quite different -- they don't overlap much.  For one thing you need different types of dogs.  The sprinters can go 20 miles/hour or more while long distance dogs average around 10 mph.

  

The start is on the Chena River at Cushman (main street Fairbanks)

Young musher waiting for it all to begin

I fell in love with Norman.  He is named after Norman Vaughn, a famous Alaskan musher.  He and his team mates are freight dogs -- bigger and slower than most sled dogs, but very powerful on hills.

Getting lined up before the start

You can't believe the pandemonium just before they take off.  A photo could never capture it. Notice how the dog in the center looks crazed?  They are all like that and the noise level is unbelievable.

A team heading for the start of the race

They are held back by snow machines

Norman and Marty at the start.  

They are "wheel" dogs (dogs right in front of the sled).

I am now an official volunteer.  

I was able to help bring the teams up to the start.

A skijorer taking off at the start of one of the ADMA races

Dogs

...and more dogs

Two competitors among  the 10-dog teams

This is a big part of what I came for

Coming in for the finish

It is impossible to capture the excitement

Fairbanks is the world capital of dog mushing.  There are lots more races coming up (every weekend at least for sprinters).  On Saturday I also went to observe the vet check for the Yukon Quest which starts February 14th in Whitehorse.  While there I met the mother of one of the women mushers who is running this year.  She is absolutely mystified (and should I say horrified) as to why her daughter got into this.  She told me with strong emotion "She used to go to the mall with me in Colorado and buy designer jeans!  I don't know how this happened."  In any case, she invited me to sit with them at the Yukon Quest mushers banquet and I am looking forward to it.

That's it for now.  Believe it or not I have to work on a malaria lecture for a class tomorrow at UAF.