My first Alaska adventure

Today I went dog sledding. The owner of the last house I looked at to possibly rent is a retired musher who still has four of his dogs. He takes them out for runs fairly often. On Friday afternoon he called me to let me know he was taking the dogs out on Sunday and wanted to know if I would like to come along. Sure! It's something new, I like sled dogs, why not?

Then I spent the next two days wondering if I had made a pact with an ax murder who was going to take me out into the remote woods of Alaska and chop me into pieces to feed to his dogs. I reasoned it over in my head, told several friends my plan, and googled him. He's a real musher, real school pyschologist. Decided what the heck. I made sure I had my Road i.d. on, had my cell phone (and it even had signal at the place), and some matches in my pocket in case I needed to plan a night in the woods.

Today's temperature reached at high of 7 above zero. My clothing to go dog sledding consisted of one layer cold gear from Under Armour, one layer running pants, one layer North Face snow pants plus two layers of socks and my snow boots (all on the bottom half); then I had on one layer silky long underwear on top, with a zip up Under Armour jacket, then my fleece and liner Cabela's winter coat with fleece hat and scarf. My thinsulate gloves were upgraded with hand warmers and I was ready to go.

I had a great time and am back home, freshly bathed (smelled a bit like wet dog and diesel fuel) and I have the still warm hand warmers tucked in my Sherling wool slippers and am quite toasty.

Here are a few pictures from the day! It was beautiful! Enjoy!

My chauffeurs were Tazman, Yoda, Helen, and Pearl. Their owner drove the snowmobile, I just held on. And yes, we tipped it over once but we weren't going very fast and the worst part of it was getting up and hitting the little spruce tree just enough for it to "snow" all over my head.

Tazman howling to say he's ready!

Pearl also knows it's time to go!

And we are off!

There isn't enough snow yet for a sled or the four wheeler so we used the snowmobile.

Look at all the blue sky! FYI: The bluer and clearer the ski, the colder it is outside!

Taking a little break. Clockwise from the dog rolling in the snow you have Tazman, Pearl, Helen, and Yoda. When Yoda runs, she lays her ears down and looks just like the little green guy except for that green part.

Yoda wants to go, Helen is getting a "drink" from the snow.