Every year, a sled dog race takes place through some of the roughest, coldest, most brutal wilderness on Earth. This race stretches 1000 miles from Fairbanks, AK to/from Whitehorse, Yukon. Yesterday, it started in Fairbanks!
The first racer gets on the move. They were spaced out at 3 minute intervals. The winners will complete the race in about 8-9 days.
It started right downtown, on the river. Yes, that's right - on the river. I'd bet its the biggest event downtown Fairbanks sees. People were all over the bridges, but mostly right on the frozen river in front of the action. You can even make out a musher in this shot, looks like bib 10.
Naturally, the event brought your fair share of folks.
Calm, controlled, and cheerful. I'd like to see him at mile 847.
Another happy face. Most of the mushers seemed very happy to be setting off. The dogs are outfitted with booties to protect their feet from the jagged snow, and to keep snow from bunching up in their paws. Some get jackets, but for the most part these dogs are impervious to the cold.
Lead dogs - focused, hyper, and strictly obedient. The musher calls out commands to the lead dog(s) to direct the rest of the team and steer the sled.
This race is pretty badass because the mushers have only a few checkpoints, which means they'll spend their rest time on the trail, camped out. There are places for them to drop injured or tired dogs and resupply, but not many. Rule is they can start with no more than 14 dogs, but they must finish with 5. 
Naturally, this got me all siked up. Skijoring is about as close to dog mushing as I'll ever get. So I went home, grabbed Apollo and hit the trail. We skijored some trails right in the neighborhood, but I got lost and we went quite the distance. I called it the Goldstream Valley Quest. He did great; our best skijoring yet. I foresee many miles on the trail with him. He is all healed up and in great health. He is finally growing some hair back on his belly!
