Saturday, February 25, 2012

Fur Rondy Sled Dog Races

Our annual Fur Rondy celebration started this weekend. One of the big events is the World Championship Sled Dog Races. It's a three day event in which teams race 25 miles every day. They combine their three times and the lowest time is the winner.

Last year Jake really enjoyed going downtown and watching the races, so I made sure when I planned our Florida vacation that we would back in time to attend the races. On Friday I took the trio to watch. My goal was to be there at noon when the races started. By the time I got all three in their coats, mittens and boots and drove downtown it was well past noon. In fact we arrived in time to see the hind ends of the last team racing down the street.

Fortunately the dogs travel out and back down that same street, so we just had to wait a half hour for the first teams to come back in. While we waited the children played in the snow bank. It was a nice, sunny afternoon.

Finally the dog teams started returning. Every time a team came through the trio would race over to get a good look at them as they ran by. Then the trio would return to the their snow games until another team came by.

I purchased Viva a sausage to eat. She shared it with Jake. Everyone shared a muffin. The last team came in. We went home. Another Fur Rondy tradition successfully completed!


The trio playing on the snow bank. You can see the top of Viva's light pink hood if you look very carefully.


What are Jake and Viva looking at? Not dogs. Not me (with the camera).


A sled dog team comes by!


Another sled dog team races by--although they aren't always moving fast when we see them because we are at the top of a very steep hill and they've run 23+ miles by this point. The dogs are tired.


My best photo of the day. *sigh* The racing dogs, bouncing children, and winter cold didn't make for easy photos.


After the last team came in then the snowplows arrived to take the snow off the roads. Sometimes the Fur Rondy races are canceled because there is insufficient snow on the trail. That is not a problem this year.

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