Wow wow! So, I got on this bus to pet dogs!

Denali National Park has some official employees who love their jobs more than anyone else who works there. About 30 sled dogs work hard through the winter to keep the park boundaries pristine and proper in the winter, but summer comes and it’s nap time. Their personalities are different; Nuna simply basks in all the attention she received, while Sultana chooses to stare into distant space, in a markedly indifferent manner. Then there are those kept in pens; those that do not guarantee that you will return with all your fingers intact.

The demo I got to see was one of a kind and I’m glad I did it. There are plenty of Iditarod competitors that do similar demos and make it a great package by providing tea. You can go for that if you want to pay $50 or go for the Denali park officials one with no extra frills and which is free.

The entire process is ceremonial; they take out the sled and select dogs to harness. During an Iditarod race, this selection process can be crucial and could make or break a situation. The team leader is selected followed by the workers to provide muscular strength. The atmosphere becomes charged and the dogs become a cacophonous bunch, each one wanting to be picked up! If only I could get excited about half of my research….

Americans know best how to strike a chord and get people to contribute to their cause. Guess the name of the dog statue when I came out of the kennels? It was Buck!

Have you seen the movie ‘Into the Wild’? It’s about a guy who graduates from Emory university (close to home, huh?) and travels across North America with his life savings and ends up in Denali. He does things there that I don’t approve of and eventually dies from eating poisonous berries and that warrants another rant entirely. However, the movie probably generated quite a bit of tourism for Denali. There were people willing to take a mile hike into the woods to see the wrecked bus used in the movie. The songs in the Eddie Vedder movie (Society, Long nights) always transport me to another world.

Walking so far I have taken you through the famous Alaska Railroad and Denali National Park. And here’s a spoiler alert for what’s to come, my trip to the Arctic Circle and getting my hands dirty digging in the permafrost!