Over 144 dogs

The 26th Annual Race to the Sky sled dog race is now underway. It kicked off just north of Butte yesterday and I got the opportunity to see my first sled dog race ever. I was there for work braving the elements, which as it turns out were too warm for the mushers and their dogs. I don't know the exact temperature but to me it was cold and extremely windy. But while interviewing mushers they told me it was too warm for the dogs to really race and they would get over heated. So their plans were to slowly trot along during the day and they would do their real racing at night once the sun goes down. Interesting. I could never be a musher because I like warmth.

It did turn out to be a very nice day later on and was very cool experience. I learned that all the teams don't all start out at the same time. I was thinking it'd be like a track race where the gun goes off and everyone races forward. Nope, one team starts, a few minutes pass, then another team starts and so on. This may be something that everyone else knew but I had no idea. Now I know. I also learned that while you can only have 12 dogs on your team during a race the mushers have many more dogs than this. (the title of the blog is because there were 12 teams) One woman I spoke with has 30 dogs and a guy I spoke with from New Zealand has 40 dogs. And yes, there was a musher from New Zealand in Montana for a race. He told me it was his first time in the state and it looked a lot like home. And why you ask did he come to Montana? To give his dogs the chance to race a new trail. At least that is what he told me. But he has been training in Minnesota so it's not like he just came to the states from New Zealand a week ago.

There's also some fashion involved in dog sled racing. To keep the dogs feet warm they all get little boots put on them. Before the race I saw several mushers booting up their pups and the boots are all very bright colors. I saw fluorescent yellow, orange, green, pink, and blue. And while interviewing some people just there to watch the start of the race a woman told me her favorite part of it all is those boots.

Another interesting fact that I learned but thankfully did not experience, while racing when a dog needs to potty it just goes. No stopping to squat or lift up a leg they just let whatever needs to come out come out. Naturally this gets pretty messy for the musher on the sled behind 12 dogs doing this. Especially when you are behind these dogs for 350 miles. So there's another reason I will never be a musher. I love dogs but no thanks I don't want their bodily waste flying in my face for miles.

Another person I interviewed who was watching the start of the race told me she came because it's an experience everyone should have. I agree. Before the race starts the public is welcome to walk around and meet the mushers and their dogs. Little kids especially seemed to love this part and getting to pet the dogs. Parents seemed to love telling their kids to stand by the dogs to take pictures of them. And while I'm not gonna go out and buy a sled and a ton of dogs now I'm glad I got to see what it's all about and learn something new. Just another Montana experience.