this is one of those great posts where you pretend it is a month ago and love it all. so think back to mid-january. the "premier mid-distance dog-sled race" the kuskokwim (or k) - 300 hit bethel january 18-20th (or about the 24th- when the last musher finally hit the finish line). it's tradition that the jvs help out at this 300 mile "race to aniak and back." if you dont believe how "traditional" is it- pick up jodi piccoult's book- "the 10th circle" and read about her mention of bethel jvs & the k300. so, here we are, all geared up to be checkers in some of the villages for the race- bridget and i head up the the turn around point in aniak, chelsea and kaela, along with our friends jesse and kristy, to tuluksak, and krissy and courtney were headed to man the station at kalskag. we took probably the smallest plane every created- i think it was a cessna 170 for those aviation buffs- for everyone else- it was a damn small plane with 3 seats besides the pilot. we stayed up all night waiting for mushers to come in and out of the checkpoint, recording their times, counting how many dogs they came in with, if they were going to drop or leave a dog or two at the checkpoint with the vet, and be their wake up service if they decided to nap.
dog racing is probably one of the most dramatic and intense yet anticlimatic sport ever. it is the epitome of hurry up and wait. you sit outside for 3 hours for 3 minutes of high intensity work when a musher comes in- but hey, it's all for the story. below is the photographic timeline of the weekend.
we found a peace taxi in aniak:
braving the perils of the aniak AC for $8 pretzels and expired juice:
...waiting....
entertaining ourselves with some good tunes while we wait:
oh, look, a musher. i look so official. duh.
flying back to bethel:
now that's what i call tundra:
3 comments:
We like to read about dogs and racing. We race to food every day! Where those sled dogs promised milkbones or a kong filled with apple and peanut butter?
Einstein from under the bed gave 1 paw up for your contribution to dogkind!
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