Alaska Land Day 5: Seavey Dog Sled, Scenic Drive

 Wednesday morning, we checked out of our lodging and headed to Seavey's IdidaRide. Even though we already did a dog sled ride, the kids wanted to go again and we had reservations. It was a fun experience. The Seaveys definitely have a robust dog sledding business machine! They have an A team, a B team and a 2 year old team in the Iditarod. They like to have 2 litters of puppies in the spring and 2 in the fall. Ideal make up (which they can't control) is 5 boys and 2 girls. Their son, Dallas, won the Iditarod this past year and some of their dogs were part of the team.

We went on the dog sled ride right away. There were 14 dogs pulling us.

View from the front of the dogs. The lead dogs were Buford and Zephrom. There is a lot of cow parsnip on the ground. If you get it on the skin and expose it to the sun, it gives a nasty burn. However, the dogs learned that there is no sunlight in their stomachs and so they think it makes a tasty treat!

Dog sled cart with a couple of the dogs.

Video from on the dog sled ride.

We enjoyed petting the dogs for a bit after our ride.

Prophet, who was part of the winning Iditarod team this year.

We then watched a demonstration where they showed us different gear the dogs use. Notice the jacket (which they only wear when it gets really cold), ankle brace on front right paw and bootie on front left paw. They wear the booties all the time when they are running and put the ankle bracelets on when they rest.

We got to hold puppies! These were much younger then the ones we held in the Yukon. The first set was just 6 days old and their eyes were not yet open. Gem, their mom, was quite concerned about where her babies were.

Matthew holding a little brown puppy.

All of us held this little black puppy who was the only female and the smallest in the litter. She whimpered a lot and was very cute!

We then held 3.5 week puppies. They were whitish and much more alert with open eyes and interested in seeing where their mom was.

Puppies looking at their mom. Mom was much more interested in getting attention from the humans.

Mitch Seavey and team in 2017 on the way to winning his third Iditarod championship in 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds. Dogs sleep about half the time during the race. Mushers, on the other hand, get much less sleep. In one race, for example, Mitch Seavey got a total of 15 hours of sleep.

Pretty flowers.

We stopped at Tern Lake on our way north.

Gull

Arctic tern

Arctic tern

A bald eagle came. The other birds were NOT ok with this and kept attacking the eagle and making lots of noise.

Eagle landing while other birds dive bomb it.

Eagle deciding to leave.

A few pictures of the birds chasing the eagle away. It was really incredible to watch this.

One more arctic tern picture. We enjoyed watching them swoop down and get fish right in front of us.

Stunning scenery.

We saw some Dall sheep on Turnagain Arm.

View of Glacier Valley overlooking Matanuska River. It was a very pretty drive with lots of mountains and river valleys.

Me and U

Matanuska Glacier

Alaska Cruise Day 5: Skagway

 We were docked in Skagway when we woke up. I walked the promenade deck and then we had breakfast.

View into the city and beyond.

Megan and U with the Arctic Brotherhood Hall. The façade is made up of driftwood.

Our blue electric Mustang that we rented for the day.

We stopped at a lookout over Skagway on our way out of town.

Matthew at the overlook.

There were so many amazing views on our drive up to the Yukon.

Nice waterfall.

View down the valley with the Sawtooth Mountains behind.

U with the lovely view.

Some views as we got up to the top.

We stopped to get some pictures with the Welcome to Alaska sign when we were leaving Alaska....

Megan, Matthew, Me

Me and U

Some really lovely views! I love the reflection of the mountains in the lakes.

Megan gazing into the water.

Megan, Me, Matthew and U with the British Columbia sign as we were leaving BC to enter the Yukon.

Matthew, Megan, U and Me entering the Yukon.

Remnants of the Venus Mine

Lovely area!

U with the ruins of Conrad City. There really is not much left.

Bove Island in Tagish Lake--simply stunning!

Megan taking a rest.

Close up of Bove Island.

We stopped at Carcross Desert, which is actually an old sea bed.

Megan's thoughts about Carcross Desert: We are in a desert but there is snow over there and pine trees are growing in the middle. I think the world is broken.

Matthew led the way up the dunes.

Me and Matthew at the top of the dunes.

Matthew taking in the views.

Pretty flowers!

View down the dunes towards Bennett Lake. See Megan sitting down?

The farthest stop of our trip: Emerald Lake. It was really pretty!

U and Me at Emerald Lake.

We stopped by Carcross for some ice cream.

There is a different mentality here for sure!

Megan, Matthew, Me and U with our ice cream. Everyone but Me had caramel ice cream with rolos and some other stuff in it. The ice cream was delicious!

SS Tutshi Memorial. It was a riverboat that the town bought and then it burned down.

Nice scenery on our way back to Skagway.

We stopped by Tutshi dog sled tours which we all enjoyed.

Megan petting some of the puppies. They were 17 weeks old and quite large (big enough to be hard to pick up according to one of the workers).

More of the puppies

We had a ride on a dog cart. Me and Megan sat inside while Matthew and U stood on the back.

The dogs were super excited to run! They started barking as soon as we came over.

Our dog sled team as seen from the front.

Petting the dogs after the ride.

U

Megan

Matthew (and U)

We saw a presentation where they showed us all the different gear and supplies they use.

Me in a musher coat. They use real fur so they don't get frost bite.

U with a sled.

Megan with a sled.

Megan, Matthew and Me

We enjoyed some more amazing views on the drive back to Skagway.

We stopped by Reid Falls and Gold Rush Cemetery.

Me with Reid Falls

Me and U

Matthew and Megan

Nice view of the falls

Megan and Me with a tombstone

Lots more tombstones.

We got some fry bread at Klondike Doughboy. Yum!

Train car ready to cut snow and ice off the railroad tracks.

U and Me by the Klondike Goldrush National Historical Park sign.

Crossing over the Skagway River. There were beautiful views both upstream and downstream.

Megan and Me on the bridge.

Me and U hiked out to Yakutania Point. It was very rocky with lovely views.

Me

U and Me at the point.

Lots of rocks (with cruise ships behind).

Our boat.

We ate dinner in the buffet with everyone and then went to the show "Do You Wanna Dance?" Some dances were good; others, not so much.