Today we had a great time at the Tustumena 200 Dog-Sled Race! We started the day at some friends of ours from church. At 2:00 AM we decided to come home & go to bed! Later that morning we got back up and went to the ceremonial start of the race in Kenai at 10:00! At the race we met a musher who was alone, as his wife and 3 year old son were home in Fairbanks.
Pat, having prior knowledge in dog sleds (thanks, Bruce!), jumped in and helped! He helped harness the dogs and hold them in the main harness, and whatever else needed to be done. The ceremonial race was only a couple miles through town, and the main race began at 2:00 in Kasilof (ka-SEE-lof). After a couple hours at the Peninsula Winter Games we headed down to the main race to help our musher again! Here are the race photos and later I'll put up some pictures of the Games - the games were set up mostly for kids, but we enjoyed it, too!
This gal on the right has won the T200 the last two years in a row!
I've never heard howling like this before! It was really exciting when the dogs got riled up! They would start barking and howling like crazy!
It was fun and the energy just spiked when they got going! I love the look of Alaskan Huskies! Pat has told me that they are basically a huskie mixed with any other dog! I still think they are cool! I really like the blue eyed dogs! I was a bit surprised at how small they are, but they love to pull!
This was a great Alaskan experience! Our musher, Rod Boyce took off at 2:15, and has a long 200 miles to go! Eight years ago, Rod got caught in a blizzard at this race and was lost for 6 days! The weather was great today and we've had lots of good snow, so they should have a good trek! If you'd like to see more, go to www.tustumena200.com.
