The "Last Great Race on Earth," The Iditarod Trail Race is 1049+ miles from Anchorage to Nome across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline. In the week leading to the start of the Iditarod tens of thousands of Alaska residents and tourists flock to Anchorage to participate in another annual event, Fur Rondezvous. What a fun time to be an Alaskan. This year Gammy & Pop Pop Carroll decided to time their visit with the Fur Rondy and Iditarod festivities.
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| Gammy Carroll along for the ride |
First on the agenda: Dog Sled Rides on the park strip in downtown Anchorage. Gammy was quite surprised at the size of the sled dogs. I guess when people think about running 1049 miles they imagine the dogs to be big and bulky not small and thin. I still don't think she is convinced that these dogs are lean-mean running machines, bread to run like the wind. On day's like this, I often imagine Bakoa in a harness on the gang line, yapping up a storm, rearing to go.
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| Hugh Neff & the Cat in the Hat |
After seeing the first few sleds off at the incredibly crowded Downtown Starting Line we headed to Takishla where the ceremonial trail winds it's way through the park on the way to Campbell Airstrip for a more up close and personal view of the dog teams. Mitch Seavey tossed a flyer, Hugh Neff tossed lapel pins, and John Baker tossed a dog boot at Reyn. We might just skip the crowds downtown next year and bring a little hibachi to build a fire to keep warm, some lawn chairs and cheer the teams on from along side the trail. That is unless, we have more out of town guests.
Another day of amazing weather brought the perfect opportunity to go sledding. Though it's been more than a month since we've hand any significant amount of snow the hill was perfect. Didn't notice it til we got home, but we had the hill all to ourselves the entire time we were there. Except for a couple taking a walk and a lady walking her dog, we were the only ones sledding. Hmmm? Maybe everyone was in Willow for the official Iditarod re-start.
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| Pop Pop Carroll - also known as "the Shredder" |
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| Reyn's motto: "Love the wind in my face" |
Did you hear about the moose that kicked a woman at the Town Square Park in Anchorage on March 7? Apparently she tried to pet the moose as it walked by her and it kicked her several times - once in the chest. Fortunately she was all right (didn't need to go to the hospital) and more importantly the moose was allowed to go on it's merry way without being handled by the State Biologists. In any event, it seems that moose like to look at the ice sculptures downtown too. We took this picture just a few days before the incident.
The "Last Great Race on Earth," The Iditarod Trail Race is 1049+ miles from Anchorage to Nome across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline. In the week leading to the start of the Iditarod tens of thousands of Alaska residents and tourists flock to Anchorage to participate in another annual event, Fur Rondezvous. What a fun time to be an Alaskan. This year Gammy & Pop Pop Carroll decided to time their visit with the Fur Rondy and Iditarod festivities.
Another day of amazing weather brought the perfect opportunity to go sledding. Though it's been more than a month since we've hand any significant amount of snow the hill was perfect. Didn't notice it til we got home, but we had the hill all to ourselves the entire time we were there. Except for a couple taking a walk and a lady walking her dog, we were the only ones sledding. Hmmm? Maybe everyone was in Willow for the official Iditarod re-start.
