ONAC day 3 (dogsled races)

We watched today the last day of the Open (North American Championships). Egil Ellis won the Open for tenth time. Amazing. He was actually not the fastest today - Arleigh Reynolds beat him by 10s or so (on 27 miles - again, amazing!), but over the three days of racing and 67 miles (20+20+27), Egil won by 54 seconds.

This is how you get a superexcited team of about ten or so dogs to the starting line: you hook up a snowmachine behind, and that way you go only as fast as the snowmachine, and stop when it stops.


One of the mushers: Clifton Carroll of Ft Yukon. The only village musher this year. The rest of the 14 mushers were Fairbanks-based, except for 1 from Canada, 2 from Michigan, and Egil Ellis from Willow, Alaska.



The dogs run about 20mph, so during the hour or so between the time that the last mushers leave and first ones get back, there are various activities, including the parka parade. Here is one beautiful parka:


Overall, another beautiful day.