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| By: John, Travis, Emma, Tyler, Britney, Chelsee |
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| As you are reading the paragraphs below, you may want to refer to this labeled illustration to locate the different parts of a dog sled. |
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Preparing for an Iditarod is not very easy at all, especially considering the food. You have to make sure that you're going to have the right amount of food and also some extra. Then you have to ship the food off to all of the checkpoints, and that costs a lot of money to do. So getting the food ready for the Iditarod is not easy or cheap. You also have to make sure it won't spoil, so you need to send it at the right time.
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the Rainy Pass checkpoint. Mushers ship food and supplies to checkpoints in advance. (Photo by Richard J. Murphy) |
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Mushers also have to pack for the the dogs. If the trail is rough they would pack booties to put on their dogs' feet. If their teams' feet get cracked, they would need to have some salve to rub on them. Some of the dogs take medication and the mushers must have that with them. Also, most mushers carry vitamins for their dogs. The dogs could get cold so mushers need to pack doggie coats. When the mushers stop, they need to cook for their dogs by melting snow in a pot and boiling it on their portable stove. The meat for their dogs is cooked in sealable bags that they put in boiling water. They bring dishes for each dog to eat from. Each musher carries an extra gangline and harnesses. That is what mushers must pack for their dogs. |
| Everyone has to have proper clothing in the
Iditarod. All mushers have to have extra clothes packed. Some mushers have ten different pairs of boots and gloves. They have about nine different pairs of clothes. |
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A snow hook to a musher is like an anchor to a boatsman. A snow hook is a piece of metal that is shaped like two hooks put together on a small thick bar. When a musher wants to stop his team he throws it down and it digs into the ground or if there is no snow he hooks it onto a tree. It hooks in a little pouch on each sled where the mushers can reach it. A snow hook can stop the sled from crashing into things. One year a musher cut her thumb on it and she had to scratch because she kept ripping her stitches open. Snow hooks are very sharp. Be careful if you ever handle a snow hook. |
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There are two kinds of brakes on a sled.
One is a bar brake and the other is the drag brake. The bar brake
is a bar that is hooked to the sled. You step on it and the two bolts
dig into the snow in order to stop. The drag brake is made out of
snowmobile tracks. It has bolts sticking out of it and when you step
on it, it stops you.
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