We found this
fabulous husband/wife team in Maryland, called
Maryland Sled
Dog Adventures. They run a wonderful program where the kids get
to learn all about the dogs, the equipment, and the sled by actually
participating hands-on.
These were the
awesome dogs. They are all rescue dogs.
Zoe
T-Bone
Sobo
Okemo
To read more about each dog, click
here.
The kids got to
harness the dogs and put booties on their feet for protection.
Then the kids
learned about the important specific positions of each dog in the
sled team. The first two are the lead dogs (the best at
following directions), behind them are the swing dogs (set the pace
and help make the turns), followed by the team dogs (the horsepower)
and bringing up the crew are the wheel dogs (calm dogs who help keep
the sled stable).
Next, we learned about the sled.
The best sleds are made of light and flexible wood and the pieces
are tied together. They have a basket up front to hold
supplies and carry hurt or tired dogs.
Next, they told us
about the Great Serum
Run to save the children's lives in Nome and then we were
treated to hot chocolate and brownies before setting out on our mock
Great Serum Run.
Sign were set up
along the trail to represent the different towns the original serum
mushers went through and the kids were given viles of "medicine"
that they had to carry with them in the sled and hand off to the
next kid at the next "town" they stopped in. It was a really
cool way to reenact the Great Serum Run.
After saving the
children of Nome, the kids got to feed the dogs a mixture of warm
water, raw chicken and dog food. They are fed a high protein
diet and burn 10,000 calories a day.
We all learned a lot
yesterday and had a GREAT time even though it was only 25 degrees
outside. We highly recommend this outing to anyone in the
area. For reservations, click
here.
Here is
Ramsey Central's webpage of our outing with more facts and
pictures.
We've had fun the
past 2 years participating the
e-Iditarod Project.
You can
register now for it. All you do is choose a musher you
want to cheer on in the race and follow his or her throughout the
race and learn about all kinds of cool stuff along the way.
It's a lot of fun!!! This is
our first
year webpage and this is
our second
year webpage.
The rest of the
afternoon was spent picnicking and sliding down the snow covered
hill. What a perfect day for the kids!
snowball art
the coldest picnic ever
