Fur Rondy 2013 - World Championship Sled Dog Race and Snowshoe Softball 2-23-13

An Alaska tradition that precedes the start of the Iditarod each year is a festival called "Fur Rondezvous" or Fur Rondy for short. There are several activities going on throughout the festival, from ice sculpture contest to a blanket toss to a hunter's and trapper's ball to snowshoe softball and a world championship sled dog race. The highlight for me of course is the sled dog race. :) This year I was able to watch  the race from a different location than 2 years ago, and it was neat to see it from a different perspective.

First we must start with the snow machiners leading the way. Not to mention that this is one of those things that may not be "Only in Alaska", but is still a strange enough sight on downtown streets.

Here they come! This race is a sprint race, so much faster paced than a long-distance race like the Iditarod. This spot we picked this year is at the bottom of a hill, so the dogs are sprinting down the hill and the mushers are working to keep the dogs under control.

Happy dogs!! This team is all Siberian Huskies, and it was a pretty warm day (I believe around freezing) so you'll see later on when they are coming back up the hill that the heat is taking its toll on these dogs. Most of the sled dogs in Alaska are Alaskan Huskies (what you see in most of the other photos here), but there are actually several different breeds of dogs that enjoy pulling and running.

They love this! So happy to be running.

I especially love the brown dog here... he/she is focused and on a mission!

After all the teams went down the hill, they continued on the trail through the city and then come back up the hill on the way to the finish. While we were waiting for the teams to come back, we walked around a little and found this snowshoe softball game. We just watched from afar, but it looks like a lot of fun!

If you look closely (you might want to click on it to make it bigger), you can see a woman running to first base. Snow is flying!

And... down she goes (see the snow flying behind her?). I bet it's a lot of fun to play and try to run in snowshoes! Maybe one day I'll give this a try.

These are the type of snowshoes the players wear.

And back to the dogs... we're now at the top of the hill watching them as they climb the hill. It's not a long hill, but it's pretty steep and is near the end of the race (did I mention it's a sprint??) when the dogs are getting tired. You can see they're not bounding up the hill quite like they were bounding DOWN the hill earlier! Many of the mushers were running behind the sled, too.

The teams are sometimes pretty close together here and even overtake another team along this stretch. Pretty fun to watch.

Here's a video of teams running up the hill... one team is overtaking the other, too!

2013 Fur Rondy World Championship Sled Dog Races from Mary-Beth Schreck on Vimeo.

And here's the team of Siberian Huskies... they ended up coming in last this day, and looked quite warm! They did it though... and I didn't even hear any complaining. :)

'Til next time...

A Winter Visitor... For Christmas!

This year, my sister and great travel buddy came to both see Alaska in the winter and spend Christmas with me. This was quite a treat since we both enjoy so many of the same things and I generally don't get to spend Christmas or other such holidays with family.

I think we both agreed that we had a great balance of getting out to do fun things and relaxing at home. We caught up on the summer Olympics (I successfully saved hours and hours of Olympic events since August on my DVR), worked on our respective crafts, baked cookies, enjoyed a fire in the fireplace, and spent some quality time with the kitties. We also got to go snowshoeing a couple times, walked along the Coastal Trail, went to a hockey game, learned to make pottery (we each made a bowl and painted it too), and got to see STOMP for the second time together! And how could I forget our adventure at the Dolly Varden Lake public use cabin?! Let's just jump right in, shall we?

First up... a little snowshoe from Glen Alps toward Flat Top.

Some snowshoe hare prints... they're so light on the powdery snow!

The Alaska Range (including Denali) was lit up so nicely by the setting sun!

What a view!

Our panoramic view from along the trail

One of our other great adventures was to stay at a rustic public use cabin on the Kenai Peninsula. This is the same cabin I went to on Dolly Varden Lake with friends last year. This year's weather was pretty similar actually... warm and windy. We even had rain for our hike back across the lake as we were leaving. One of us may not have been entirely comfortable walking on the lake, especially with the warm temperatures, but I assure you it was multiple feet thick by this time. :)  It helped a lot to know where the cabin was, so it was a nice, uneventful lake crossing.

We made it!

It's all toasty inside with that fire going!


Our view from the front porch.

It's a great cabin! It's got everything we need. It would be neat to stay at this place in the summer, although there are lots of stories of fun with mosquitoes. Maybe we'll just stick to the winter.

Our bathroom facilities

It was a fun trip, although the walk back across the lake and the drive home were rainy. Not exactly winter weather, but we were glad to get home and resume our cuddling with kitties and other fun activities!

The last outing to include here is a walk along the Coastal Trail. I love to see the sea ice in Cook Inlet and enjoy all the great views from the trail. This sure was a beautiful day!

This is Westchester Lagoon. They clear an area for hockey and an oval to skate around, and even zamboni it with a pickup truck, a water tank, and a mop that is dragged behind the truck. Pretty neat to watch. There are always people using this space... just one of the many "free" outdoor activities a person can do around here!

Ah, the sea ice is scattered around (thanks to the large tides in Cook Inlet)

I love the sky in this one!

That pretty well sums up the adventurous part of our visit. As always, it was awesome having my sister come to visit. Many more memories were made!

'Til next time...