A Day at the Races

Today marked the final day of Fort Yukon's annual spring carnival, a weeklong celebration of springtime. Today was also the final day of the dog races that were part of the carnival. A visiting musher from Fairbanks took the men's cup, and the Lady Eagles' coach took the title in the women's round.

A few of the local AM radio folks had a generator-powered portable transmitter, so anyone in the whole Yukon Flats region could tune in to hear the play by play. Here's some photo footage:

the typical ten-dog team takes off, out of the chute, going whole hog and the double-pronged hook in the musher's right hand (which is tied to the sled frame) is his only hope of stopping when all his dogs are pulling. if something gets tangled, or the dogs don't take the right trail, the musher will take the hook in his hand and slam it into the snow flying by. if the dogs slow enough, he can step on the back of the hook, to set a temporary brake. even if he's standing on a well-set hook, at the start of a race, dogs will still drag the musher standing on his hook, sled and all... it could take three assistants, each holding a group of dogs by their harnesses, to contain a team.

the finish is a different scene. the musher pushes the sled along with a series of kicks as the dogs tire. he's shouting encouragement, and the crowd at the finish line whistles and claps 'til the dogs come home.

once through the finish, they're tired. mostly, they stand around long-tongue-panting. some of them lie down, some sit, some stand-too tired to do anything else. some dogs start gobbling up mouthfulls of snow.

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