Today we had to be dressed and ready by 7:30 to leave for breakfast. On our way, the sun was rising so we were able to take a detour to see a beautiful scenery of the pink sky over a mountain. We continued onto breakfast at Rose’s Cafe around 7:50. After we had a lovely breakfast as a group (and celebrated Mr. Cotter’s birthday) we began our bus ride to Talkeetna.
During the ride, we took another detour to a point that has a great view of Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, standing 20,310 feet tall from the sea level to the highest point. It was really amazing to be able to see it so clearly among other smaller mountain ranges. As we got closer to our final destination, we stopped at a grocery store/ deli to get lunch. It reminded us of a larger Wawa. After lunch we finally made it to the AK Sled Dog Tours.
While we were there, we got to experience three different activities related to the dogs. One of them was to play with the puppies that ranged from 6-10 months old. They were so excited to see all of us come to play. The second activity was to learn about the Iditarod from someone who actually competed this year and came in 15th. We got to meet the dogs she raced with from this kennel, as well as learning about the trail that they raced this year. Finally, the third thing we did was actually dog sled! We followed a snowmobile through a track around their property. There was a group of seven of us and two tour guides who led the dogs. It was an amazing experience to actually see what it is like to dog sled. They typically go around 8-9 miles an hour during their runs, but we went much slower during our tour.
We went to the K2 Aviation in Talkeetna, where we watched a video of the tours through Denali National Park. We found out that they land on a glacier during the tours and fly over the many mountains they offer here in Alaska. We even got the chance to step inside one of the planes they fly. After that we checked into the Talkeetna lodge where we are staying for the night. After about an hour of downtime we had pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie. We finished our night with a group meeting to reflect on the day and talk about our activities for tomorrow.
