A few weeks ago we got to go to the start of a dog sled race, the Yukon Quest. It is a 1,000 mile race between Fairbanks, Alaska and Whitehorse, Canada in the Yukon Territory. The teams began the race with 14 dogs, I think. I don’t have a very good memory right now. They started a new team every three minutes and we were standing pretty close to the starting point. We forgot our camera but took a few pics and videos with our phones. The pic to the left is the frozen river. The black spots are the river. The race actually began on the Chena River which was completely frozen. It was strange walking out there and knowing this was a river. The river wasn’t completely frozen downstream so I was a little scared. The day was cold but we have hot chocolate which made it a better day. I can’t wait until I can go on a dog sled. It looks like it would be so much fun.
The dogs had to be held back because they wanted to run. If you ever get to see a sled dog race you will see the happiest dog in the world. These dogs are small, compact dogs that look like mutts but are Alaska sled dogs, an actual breed. They are fast and so cute. I think Gabe wants to try dog sledding now. I don’t think I could be alone in the wilderness for that long. It took the winner 9, yes I said 9 days to complete the race. They have checkpoints they can drop off dogs if they need to but that is the only contact with other people the racers have. I could not do it.
Buster had his first encounter with a moose. Fortunately nothing bad happened. We knew the moose was out front and tried to keep him in the house but he ran out of the garage door when Gabe went to get firewood. The moose pretty much ignored him until Gabe came outside. I don’t think the moose liked Gabe. Busted even went to the bathroom about 5 feet from the moose and it did not even look at him. When Gabe went out there to get buster, the moose finally looked at both of them. I think he looked annoyed but never charged.
The second encounter was early one morning when Gabe and Buster went outside to get firewood. Buster rounded the corner on the woodshed and started growling and barking. Gabe went to look and the moose was getting up. We have a moose that sleeps in our backyard. I got up the other night about 2 am and saw him out of my bedroom window. He sleeps behind our woodshed on the snow. The moose got up and walked away and didn’t charge buster. This makes me feel good except these moose did now have babies with them. Cows protecting their calves are more dangerous that bulls. I really hope I don’t see too many of those this spring.
The temp is rising!!! Yea!! All this week it is above 0!! It feels so nice outside. I can actually go outside and stay longer than 30 minutes. Recess isn’t all that bad now because it is warm. We have icicles on our house now because the snow on our roof melts during the day and refreezes at night. It’s really pretty. However the roads are awfully slick now. I’m in a rental car that has bad tires. They are so bad I could not make it up a hill the other day. I had to reverse back down the hill and try again. Scary! I am figuring out how to be a better driver though. I still am ready for roads with no ice or snow.
That’s all I’m writing today. I promise I will update more. We went ice fishing so I will post pics for that one. Have a good week!!
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