Well, anyway, it seems that way! But the truth is, mushings a pretty simple sport and it doesn't take all that much stuff to go out and explore the winter with a few dogs....
All you need is a couple of dogs... 4 is plenty to go have fun with!...harness' for the dogs to wear, warm clothes for yourself, something that will slide on the snow for you to sit or stand on (a sled, skies,ect..), and some rope to connect you and the dogs... and away you all go!
Pretty simple!
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As you hook up more and more dogs (an un avoidable fate as you fall into the addiction of running dogs!)... and want to go farther and farther with them... use them for work to keep your family warm and fed... or even race them thousands of miles across cold remote wilderness... It starts to take more and more gear to care for the dogs and keep yourself safe!
| Snow Hook: Attaches to the lines to hold the sled when stopped. |
| Bronze Snaps: Connects the dogs to the lines...always breaking! |
| Dog 1st aid kit |
| Dog food cooker: Mushers usually make there own out of metal bucket and pie pans... Burn Methanol for heat and must be light wieght and melt 3 gallons of snow as quick as possible... great pride is placed on how fast your cooker melts snow! |
| Sled Bag: Made of thick, tough fabric it goes inside the sled to hold all a mushers gear. Mushers can sleep in them like tents when they need to. |
| Ice Chest: In this case used to keep things from freezing mushers will use them to keep cooked dog food warm until the next feeding |
| The sled | We use 2 different sleds one larger "frieght" sled for training and then a smaller, lighter sled for racing... Both are handmade by Rich using Hickory that he shapes, bends, and then ties together. Both are basket sleds built in the traditional style common along the Kuzitrin river of the central Seward Penninsula. |
| Harnesses | The harnesses we use are made of nylon webbing simular to what you would find on a backpack... they are padded with soft fleece where the pass under the dogs front legs, across the chest, and around the neck. We like a traditional X-Back racing harness with a modified H-style chest piece... typicaly we make all our own harnesses but... the dogs wear them out quicker than we can sew them so some of our harnesses are store bought |
| Booties | Booties are worn by the dogs when the snow conditions are abrassive to their feet or when they have to run very long distances. We don't have a lot of experience... yet... in using booties, but we will soon! |
| The lines | The lines connect the dogs to the sled...They are generally made of hollow braided polyprpelene and range from 1/8 to 5/8 inches thick. There is one center line, the gangline, that runs from the sled all the way to the front of the team...This is the thickest line and often has a thin metal cable running through it so the dogs don't break it. About every 8-10 feet up the gangline a pair of tuglines attaches to the gangline. The tuglines connect fro the back of the dogs harness to the gangline... so the power of each dog is transferred through the harness, down the tugline, and into the gangline to pull the sled down the trail... mushers spend A LOT of time watching these lines to see how smoothly the dog are using their energy to get everyone down the trail... Necklines are used to connect the dogs collars to the gangline and are only used to help keep all the dogs organized...the dogs never pull on their necklines... Some musher do not even use necklines. |
| Dog Ankle Wraps | Dog Coats | Dog Dishes |
| Dog Food Ladle | Dog Food | Dog Snacks |
| Pickets | Straw |
A powerfull Headlight, Spare Batteries, Spare Bulbs, Sled Repair Kit, Musher 1st Aid Kit, a Straight Knife, a Pocket Knife, Matches, Lighter, Food, Trail Snacks, Fuel for the cooker, a Thermos, an Axe, a Sleeping Bag, Snowshoes, backup Boots...and, and,...what is it?.... ohh I can't remeber... there must be more...........................:)
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