On my recent Alaska cruise we visited Skagway. Due to recent rockslides, the port wasn’t accessible but a short tender ride later and we were onshore. We boarded a bus to take us to the base of the Tongass National Forest, then walked in until we reached the camp. It’s an uninhabited expanse of land with mountains, water, fields and wild flowers and we had perfect weather.
Base camp looked interesting but before we explored it, our guide hustled us aboard a huge open air vehicle, very high off the ground. This took us way up into the forest on a twisty, bumpy, one-lane dirt road as our guide gave us fun facts and history of the camp. Occasionally a zip-liner would zoom overhead through the trees. When we got to the top we met our Mushers and our group was assigned to one of three dog sleds. The dogs were hooked up and ready to go. Our Musher was a young woman who was passionate about working with these beautiful animals. She let us know we would meet the dogs after our sled ride and away we went. We were amazed at the speed as we careened down those same twisty roads, our Musher calling out commands when necessary.
As we were returning to camp, our guide pulled off for a scenic overlook of the valley and mountains where we’d first arrived. Breathtaking!
Back at the camp, we had a presentation on how the sport of Mushing came to be as well as a history of how certain breeds of dogs were mated to get the strength, endurance and love of running resulting in the mixed-breed dogs they use today.
Next came our favorite part – getting to meet and snuggle puppies. My sister and I were giddy as we held them. They were so sweet!
