It has been a bit difficult getting back into school mode after the drama of December. Turning to local events for inspiration, we decided to do a short unit on Sled Dogs. As the highlight, we attended the annual K9 Challenge at the Sinks area up Logan Canyon along with friends Hannah, Sam, and their dad Brant. We arrived around 8:45 a.m. on a bitterly cold Saturday morning, with snow flurries and a fierce wind blowing. We bundled everyone in several layers and went to visit with the mushers and see the adorable sled dogs. Our favorite was Missy from Idaho who is the mother of most of the dogs pictured at left. She is the tan dog featured a couple times in the video. This was the second day of the challenge, and the dogs were as excited as ever. They were small, cute, and friendly, like we remembered from last year.The event was running an hour behind schedule, so we had a long wait during which Erin became quite distressed over the cold. In spite of the toe warmers in her boots and hand warmers in her gloves, she ended up having quite the melt-down (or should we say "freeze-up?") and spent much of the time in the car with Mom and Dad taking turns staying with her. Meanwhile, Megan, Ian, and Hannah played on the giant snowbanks surrounding the parking lot created from the snowplows.
When the officiators called out, "Mushers! 15 minutes!" we started walking down the trail about 1/4 mile in order to have a front-facing view of the dogs as they came running. The snow was deep, and sometimes we sank all the way up to the hips. Kevin was finally able to convince Erin that she wanted to see the dogs run, and he carried her out on his shoulders shortly after the first couple of teams left. We watched 10-12 teams (we didn't count too carefully, so we're not certain exactly how many there were), then walked back to the parking area and saw a short demonstration of skijoring. Unfortunately, our camera batteries died as we were taking video of the dog and skier, so we can't share that part.
You will get a better feel for our experience if, before watching this video, you go stand outside barefoot until your toes and hands are numb.
5 comments:
Oh, that sounds like fun!! I always wanted to be in a dog-sled race. One of my favorite books when I was little was Black Star, Bright Dawn about a girl who was in the Iditarod as a substitute for her father. I was convinced that I could do it, too. Unfortunately I hate to be cold (maybe even more than Erin) so it was a rather unrealistic plan...
That is so cool! How do you find out about stuff like that? You homeschoolers have the in, I tell you!
Man, I don't envy the cold wait but that video is awesome!
Way cool! Once, a few years ago, I visited the Galloping Husky Ranch in Nibley to pick apples from their orchard. There was this enormous circle of 20-30 bloodthirsty dogs tied up right by the driveway, and I was pretty scared to get out of the car. Good thing they were on chains.
That looks like a lot of fun! We noticed Yuki was missing. Too cold?
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