Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The "It's too long an acronym to remember" Sled Dog Race
(OK it really is : IPSSSDR. See what I mean though?)



Have you ever attended a dog sled race? This was a first time for three of us (me among those three). If you ever get a chance, Go! Talk about friendly folks. It was fun for the kids and for us. Here are a "few" pictures.


Kids bundled up so we could walk down the raceway a bit.


Let's GO!


Getting the dog string ready





Grooming the Trail as the race begins

The order of racers is determined by the previous days times.
Slowest to Fastest. The faster racers will catch the slower ones.

First Racer, Chris Adkins




A new racer starts every 3 minutes
So there's a little time to play in between

Time to wade into the snow until you get stuck.



Yeah! Have a good run.




After a while it was cold so some of us hunkered down.



Or traced letters on the sled.



And then another racer!




We had two favorite racers who made an extra effort to interact with the kids
You are right on the course so it doesn't seem hard for them to do.

In trying to take her picture I cut off the head of Kate St. Onge, who said, "Hi kids," and waved enthusiastically to the kids.


A lot of times in this sport handlers (the ones who move the vehicles around to the end of the race and take care of the dogs when not racing) and racers take turns. Very often they are family members. In this case it was her turn to race and her husband, Rick's turn to handle.
Thanks Kate!




Here is the eventual winner of the race, Buddy Streeper.

Mowg is big on giving folks thumbs up,
so it was very cool to have a racer respond.
Buddy's racing here so that makes it extra nice
that he's taking the time as he goes by.



Then there's time to play with Dad



Another Racer


This race is a "stage stop" race where the racers travel
to different towns and race a "course"in each place.
The "leg" of the race we saw the beginning of is about 43miles.

There they go.




Midwinter can be fun!

3 comments:

GPT said...

What fun for all of you! Was it close to your home? Sounds like fun. It's funny, I was just thinking about dog sledding for some reason, can't remember.... Have fun!

Heather said...

I have never been to one before. That sounds like it would be a fun thing to go to.

Chiska said...

Gwen: It's not too far--a bit of a drive, but close enough the kids didn't mind.

You should come up next year Heather! :)