Sled Dog and Musher Camp

I’ve chosen my 1200^th review to be about the highlight of our Alaskan cruise — visiting a working musher’s camp and riding a dog sled.
The dogs were already harnessed to the sled and they went absolutely bonkers when they saw our tour group arrive. They couldn’t wait to start pulling us, and were so full of excitement they barked and barked. Once in awhile some of the dogs would pop straight into the air like popcorn kernels in the several minutes while waiting for the sleds to be ready. The best part of the whole trip was watching the dogs be so excited. We couldn’t stop grinning the whole time. We even shot a video.
The best known dog mushing trips involve a helicopter trip to a glacier for the sledding. We didn’t want to do that because of 1) the cost (they’re something like $ 450 per person!) and 2) the much higher risk of crashing in small aircraft. I’ve also heard those trips are very frequently canceled due to the weather.
Our dog sled trip was in at a working musher’s camp in the rainforests of Douglas (on the other side of the bridge from Juneau). We took a 30 minute van ride there, and since we left early, our driver took the extra time to give us her own tour through downtown Juneau complete with tales of Juneau history. On the thirty minute ride to an from the camp, she told amusing stories — one was about bears using automatic doors to walk into Juneau’s grocery stores. (Everyone who worked for the camp was exceedingly friendly and professional.)
Since we were in the rainforest with no snow, the dogs pulled us on a contraption that was a cross between a golf cart and a short airport tram. The dogs pulled us on dirt trails for a half mile, rested, and then pulled us for another half mile. Although we didn’t have the glacier experience to compare it to, we didn’t feel like we missed out on anything being pulled on trails instead of snow.
The sled dogs are all referred to as Alaskan Huskies, and they’re a combination of Border Collies, Siberian Huskies, and German Shepherds (each breed bringing a different useful trait to the table). We took some pictures with and petted Dracula, one of the affectionate dogs that pulled our «cart» (best to ask the musher first).
Next we learned about a musher’s equipment and what to look for in a sled dog. This was demonstrated on a 4 month old puppy who was much more interested in playing with a harness than letting the trainer put one on him. (There were lots of «awwwws» the whole excursion; this part was no exception.)
Then we moved to the next station — a sit down talk about the history of the Iditarod. Many of the young people who work at this camp have driven their own team of dogs in the Iditarod before or are gettting the money and dogs together to race their own team. (I can understand the exhilaration of doing something like this but I’d want to arrive home with all of my digits thank you very much.)
Our hearts melted at the last part of our trip: 3 week old husky puppies! We held the little fuzzballs until we had to put them down to go. The whole excursion was great from start to finish so we were very sad to go, indeed.