Dear Friends,

I hope you have been watching the race standings and seeing at which checkpoint mushers are taking their 24 hour rest!  

Some people worry that it’s hard to make the dogs run.  Mushers know it’s not a problem to get Alaskan huskies to run; the difficult part is to get them to stop!  One peek at sled dogs before a race harnesses will show you that we jump wildly and bark as though we’re saying, “Let’s go!  Let’s go!”  They love to run and pull.

So excited!

There are times, like when going down hills or coming into a checkpoint, where the dog team should be slowed.  Mushers have equipment for that.  One way to slow down a team is the brake.  On the back of the sleds is a foot brake which looks like a metal “U” shape.  When the musher steps on it, it digs into the snow and slows the sled and, hopefully, the dogs.

14 sled dogs can easily overpower a foot brake, however.  When a team needs to stay stopped, the musher will stomp on a snow hook, driving it into the snow or ice like an anchor to prevent the team from pulling away from that stopping point.  The snow hook is tied to the sled with a rope.  As you watch mushers come into checkpoints, sometimes they will put the snow hook down while they talk to the checker.

No musher wants to be left behind if the team of dogs takes off without him/her!  Brakes and snow hooks help slow them down.

Until next time, this is your canine reporter,

Gypsy