Sled Dogs, Wild Blueberries and River Otters

You can't go to Alaska and not visit a sled dog team, so we planned a stop in Wasilla at the Headquarters of the Iditarod where we learned all about this famous race.

Every March, up to 70 dog sled teams race over 1000 miles from Anchorage to Nome thru snow covered mountains, arctic tundra, boreal forests and frozen lakes. The trail began as a supply route from Seward to Nome for dog sleds to transport food, mail and other supplies.

 In 1973 Joe Redington Sr organized the first Iditarod Trail Race as a way to keep the dog sled tradition alive at a time when snow machines were beginning to replace the dogs and also to preserve the historic trail. The winner of that first race won with a finishing time of 20days 0hours!

Each team formulates their own strategy for the race- when they'll run (day or night), how long to rest, what and how much to eat, etc. A few things are required- an arctic parka, a heavy sleeping bag, an ax, snowshoes, food for the dogs and musher, and boots for each dog to protect their feet. They are also required to take three breaks, the first being a full 24 hours of rest and the other two are 8 hours each. That's not much for a three week race. The rest is up to the musher. Dallas Seavey currently holds the record time of 8days 11hrs 20min 16sec!

Here's a real Iditarod team taking Asher, Journey and I for a ride!

My favorite story about the dog sled teams is when they saved the children of Nome. 

Sled dogs became heroes in 1925 when the town of Nome was overcome with diphtheria and 20 mushers and 150 sled dogs formed a relay to deliver medicine. There were three planes in Alaska at the time, but none of them could operated in the cold temperatures. The dog sleds ran the 674 miles in five and a half days despite the -62 temperature (-85 wind chill) with 80mph winds! Balto was the lead dog of the final team that delivered the serum to Nome and has been a symbol of sled dog heroes ever since.

We met some of the sled dogs.

And held the newest members of the team!

The next day we went blueberry picking along the trails at Glen Alps. 

Of course we had to stop and play in our favorite trees.

Purple pinecones!

A pretty nice collection of berries. We enjoyed them as snacks and in our breakfast pancakes.

Afterwards, we went to the library for a special presentation by the Anchorage Zoo. They brought two baby river otters for us to see and learn about. Another fantastic program at the Anchorage Library!

Journey took this cool picture.