Early Morning at the the starting gate |
Despite growing up in Alaska, I have never attended the ceremonial start of the Iditarod in Anchorage. I don't recall attending the Fur Rondy either, which started last week. After all that time spent on dog mushing, and the Idita-read, I really wanted to experience some of the events.
Very early this morning, we headed into Anchorage for breakfast and walked around, talking with dog handlers, and experiencing the pre-race excitement.
After explaining my mission to find a musher to follow, the dog handlers were very helpful and let me take pictures, spoke with me, and let me pet the dogs.
One of the lead dogs -- she was a sweetheart that loved the attention of anyone who would stop and pet her.
The sled waiting for the race to begin.
"Kenneling up" under the truck.
A friend of mine was near where the day's ceremonial start finishes and snapped pictures of all teams as they came in, here is our musher and dog team.
Musher information:
- Gerald Sousa (link will take you to his page on the Iditarod website)
- Bib Number: 49
- Hometown: Talkeetna, AK
- Website: http://www.sundogkennel.com/
2 comments:
Very cool!!! I might share this with my class....can I borrow your pictures? I cannot get on Blogger at school, so I'd have to copy everything and load it at school...we have state testing starting this week, so it might be a good distraction for them..
Thanks for asking, you may slurp the pictures. I have edited to add links to Idita-read, as well as information on our musher and a link that will take you directly to Jerry's page on the Iditarod webite.
There is a TON of educational resources on the Iditarod website.
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