Page 45 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

A POR TR AIT OF ALASK A  43

Alaska’s Dog Sled Races
Dog sled races feature in winter festivals all
over Alaska, but the best-known mushing
event is the famed Iditarod. Other popular
races include the Yukon Quest, Glennallen’s
Copper Basin 300, which is a qualifier for
the Iditarod, and the World Championship
Sled Dog Races. Racers come from all over
the world to serve apprenticeships with
Denali Park Rangers use sleds to patrol the park in est ablished mushers and learn how to care
winter, but summer visitors can watch demonstra tions for the dogs and cope with the elements.
of dog sleds adapted for use on trails.
Lead dogs, in the front,
Team dogs follow follow the musher’s commands.
the swing dogs and
provide a steady Swing dogs back up the lead
pulling action.
dogs and assist in steering.

The Yukon Quest is one of Alaska’s major
dog sled races. The 1,000-mile (1,600-km) race
follows a Gold Rush and historic mail delivery
route between Whitehorse, Canada, and
Fairbanks, Alaska.

The World Championship Sled Dog Races
take place on a short track around Anchorage
during the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous. This
weekend event focuses more on speed and
strategy than on endurance, which is the
main factor in long-distance mushing.
The Last Great Race on Earth
Historically, the Athabaskans called their
hunting grounds Haiditarod, “the distant
place.” In 1910, the derivation Iditarod was
given to the rough trail between Seward
and Nome. In 1925, dog teams transported
life-saving diphtheria serum to epidemic-
stricken Nome along a por tion of this trail.
To commemo rate this feat, a dog sled race
between Anchorage and Nome was initiated
in 1973 by legen dary musher Joe Redington,
affectionately known as the “Father of the
Dog sled team pulling out of the Iditarod starting line
Iditarod.” Held in early March, this annual
event begins with a ceremonial start in Anchorage and restarts the next day from Willow.
Each year, the race follows one of two alternating courses. The leaders usually complete the
1,100-mile (1,760-km) run in about nine days.

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