Dog sled races

We moseyed up to Ashton Idaho this weekend to see what real dog sled racing was like! I can't say that it is as exciting as the movies like "Iron Will" make them look, but it was very interesting! Ashton Idaho has the oldest running dog sled race in the world.

This is what I imagined all sled dogs to look like:
That was the only team that had the "typical" look. Most of the teams had such small, mismatched dogs. This was the team that won the 100 mile race:

Hmm... They look a lot bigger in the picture, somehow. Notice the booties on their feet. The other thing was that it certainly wasn't an exciting race to the finish. The dogs didn't run nearly as fast as I had imagined (they go about 10-14 miles an hour the whole way) The announcer kept telling everyone to clear the path for the team that was coming in, but when the lead dog's nose reached the finish line, everything pretty much stopped. The guy who won the race was really great to answer a lot of questions.

I thought the methods of transport were interesting. Who knew that there are special kinds of trucks for avid dog sledders?
The dogs are kept in the kennels on the back:
While we waited for racers to come in they had some other events like the weight pull.
Any one could enter their dog in this and the kids were wishing that we had brought Jack along. We KNOW he can pull at least 100 lbs. up-hill!