Mushing

Hi everyone! I've finally arrived home from our fabulous week long Alaskan adventure. I can't wait to share all of my photos and stories with you. Because my photos aren't entirely organized yet, I've decided to split them up and do a few blog posts sharing specific adventures with you. First, I want to share our Mushing experience.

We knew we wanted to go on a dog sled ride but all of the touristy places were booked. We met some friends of ours from CA up in AK, one of which lived in Fairbanks for 6 yrs and he just so happened to know a musher and connected us with Matt! We travelled to Matt's cabin, literally in the woods and met his 20-some dogs he watches over and mushes, some of which have run in the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest International dog sled races. We learned so much about the sport, the tradition, history, competition, ethics and had such a fantastic experience. I can see how people really get into this dog sled racing stuff, not only is it an exciting sport, but you can really connect with the dogs, they are really incredible animals and are different than pet dogs.

Each dog has its own little house with a hay bed to stay warm at night.
They are built and bred to withstand extreme temps. Their ideal temp is -20!

This was my favorite dog. She kept giving me hugs.

Matt is getting the sled ready and harnessing the dogs.

These are Matt's pet dogs, they ran behind us the entire trip, unharnessed!
They were so sweet and they pretty much run the show, bossing the
sled dogs around and helping Matt get them ready for the trip.

Me, sitting in the sled, ready to take off! We wore SO many layers

My view from the sled.

Bob's beard was frozen when he got back from mushing!



Bob's on the sled, getting back from his trip.

We truly fell in love with Alaska and had an incredible trip. We were so sad to come home and have already started planning our next visit. I really do feel it is a place everyone should go to at least once. There is some magic up there that we just don't get in the lower 48. We felt very at ease, we had countless adventures and we felt very human. The weather is a life force and you are just part of it all.

I look forward to sharing more photos and fun!

iz