Some wonderful Cantwell folks help with this event for the kids. Little guys (3-6 this year) choose a single dog to pull their sled and slightly older kids (7-11) choose two dogs to pull their sled. Then the rookies get to go for a practice run with the sled hooked to the snowmachine. In the actual event the dog is hooked to a kid size sled and encouraged to run by a musher leaning off of the back of a sled that is hooked to the snowmachine.
Slater could hardly wait to go and traveled the runway on the snowmachine sled several times, with all of the other kids. Slater drew a quiet dog that spent it's time lounging under the truck and looking mellow (this made mama happy). But that is not the dog that wound up sprinting him down the strip (thanks to Slater's fearlessness the day before) when his dog didn't want to run they grabbed "Tank" to tow Slater. He fell at the turn around, but was encouraged to get back on and made the ride back with another kid. I was glad to know that he was undaunted by the fall and talked for the rest of the day about the "fun dog race with the kids."
Here he is waiting his turn to take a trip down the runway behind his own dog.
Here he is taking a practice run behind the snowmachine. He was so EXCITED!! We were cracking up at how casual he was about the whole thing, while he was on his practice run he would lift one hand and wave at the people he passed.
Ready to begin his run.
Trapper - the original dog he drew. He didn't want to run after the snowmachine and turned around, so they got Slater another dog ...
Tank - 82 pounds of running fun! Slater was thrilled and mom was a little nervous.
Here is a 30 second clip of Slater coming back in from his trip down the runway. He fell at the curve and then I am not sure what happened, but one of the older girls rode back with him (Thanks Rachel). Unfortunately didn't get a photo of him heading out and this one just doesn't do justice to the speed of the dog.
Wow! That is so cool! Another reason why I miss Fairbanks!
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