Denali, AK - Doggin' It

Cool day. No, not the temperature although I donned long underwear, my Under Armor shirt and a warm jacket. But the activities. We’ve been rushing so fast and been so stressed that we’ve not had much time to really enjoy our journey. Well, today was a good start. Maybe we can finally begin to relax and enjoy the journey that we’ve been planning since last September.

We got up, dressed and headed to Rose’s for breakfast. Now, the outside of the restaurant is not elegant and doesn’t beckon you to enter for the fine dining. This is a picture showing the second row of vehicles outside the cafe.

But, judging by all the trucks and cars outside, it’s got to have good food. We got in and had to wait - all the tables were full. But, finally one opened up and we were in. Delicious: thick-sliced homemade sourdough toast, potatoes with fried onions, and scrambled eggs. The scrambled eggs were pretty plain but the rest was very good. We checked out the pancakes and they were plate-filling huge. A couple next to us ate about 1/2 each before crying ‘uncle’ and heading out.

As we were finishing up, a guy got up from his chair and was coming up front to pay. I looked up, he didn’t look particularly friendly and you know how it is between two strangers who will never see one another again - you can just stare or - I smiled and said ‘hello.’ And, now we’re BFF’s. Well, not quite that but we had quite an enjoyable conversation with him. Great way to start the day.

Now, we’re off to Denali. First the VC with its exhibits. We checked these out but then planned to hike to the sled dog demonstration at 2:00. Beautiful trail, through what is called a boreal forest or, as Wikipedia defines this: a boreal forest or a

         'snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces and larches’

Yes, there were lots of pines. But the views were smashing through the trees up to the upper slopes.

The trail 5 miles with 667’ of total assent. WOW, am I out of shape! ! ! Sitting for the last few weeks is not conducive to hiking shape. I’m panting and puffing. ‘Ooh, look at that view, I’d better take a picture.’ Meaning: ‘let’s stop a minute.’

But the sled dog demo was great. When we got there, the dogs were lying on top of their dog houses, some asleep, some just watching the tourists pass by, some just enjoying being petted.

But there was no indication that these dogs were very active.

Here’s one of their lead dogs - doesn’t look like he’s going top lead anything today.

And, when I say ALL were resting, I mean ALL.

At 2:00 when we were all in the stands to watch the show, the Ranger asked us to clap for the dogs and - they jumped up, began barking, wagging their tails and racing around. They knew what was coming and they wanted to be in the show. ‘Pick me, pick me, pick me’ they all seemed to be saying.

5 dogs were picked, harnessed to the sled and just excited with anticipation of running the course.

Even the dogs who weren’t chosen were barking and carrying on. At the signal, they took off and raced around the track, coming to a rest in front of us.

Here the handlers gave them a treat and they lay down while the Ranger told us a bit about them and answered any questions.

        They are not a recognized breed but a mutt, a mixture of other breeds called Alaskan Huskies

        Their characteristics:

                long legs so they can get through deep snow

                big feet so they can run in the snow and not sink and thick pads so they don’t get cut on the ice but, in case they do, they have some cute nylon booties to protect them

                they have a long fluffy tail to curl around when they sleep to protect their nose in cold weather, never let flesh be exposed to extreme cold

                lean body to run fast and long

                their food is a combination of protein and fat.

What makes a lead dog?

        Each dog can tow 50 - 100 lbs each but the park prefers 50 lbs so they don’t wear out easily and still like their job. to tow 500 lbs of logs for a new cabin or supplies out to a work crew, you would need 500/50 or 10 dogs

        Since the park is a designated ‘wilderness park’ they cannot use mechanical ways to work. So, dogs are the preferred way to get things someplace

        They work in the winter when there is snow and in the summer give demonstrations and are trained.

        They can run for 15 - 20 miles and the park has shelters spaced this far apart so they can stop for the night.

        These dogs love to run, they live to run. But, after 8 years or so, they get a bit older and can actually be retired. There is a waiting list of people who want to adopt one of these dogs when it retires but it must be an active family which lives in cold country, like Alaska, Canada or northern Minnesota or Wisconsin.

Very cool demonstration and the crowd loved it.

Time to walk back to the VC and we took off on an alternate trail.

By the way - note the sun in the pictures. Yep, we finally had a nice sunny day - after 1pm or so. It rained in the morning and we began with our rain coats.