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Sierra Sweepstake Sled Dogs Race Again
In the late 1800s sled dog racing was popular in many parts of America, none more so than in Truckee, California. It was a popular pastime in which groups of men got together, brought their best dogs, and pitted them against each other in trials of strength.
In the early days of the Alaskan goldrush, dog teams were a crucial element to settling the frozen frontier. The idea of using dogs to pull a sled was borrowed by Alaskan settlers and gold miners from the Eskimos who had been mushing (driving) dog teams for thousands of years. Today, modern transportation and communication methods have replaced the dogs, but the sport of dog sledding lives on in professional and amateur sporting events.
Competitive sled dogs are trained every other day. Puppies are run in a harness for 2 to 10 miles, adolescents run 10 to 90 miles, and adult team dogs run 10 to 90 miles. Because of their high metabolisms and activity level, sled dogs must be fed four to five times a day. Their meals must be very high-quality and high-fat in order to supply the dog with the needed calories and nutrients. Sled dogs also need to drink a lot of liquids, since their high activity level can cause dehydration.
Although most sled dogs are owned by recreational mushers, there are many sled pulling competitions throughout the United States every year. Some, such as the Dog Chow/Keystone Classic in Colorado, have a competition where seven-dog teams must pull sleds for 9.4 miles over frozen lakes and snow-packed trails. Other Keystone Classic events include a five-dog team race that covers 7.4 miles and a three-dog team race that covers 3.1 miles. On the second day, the races are repeated and the results of both days are combined to name the winning teams. There is also a weight-pulling contest, where a dog will try to pull a 350-pound sled for twenty feet in less than 9 seconds. Weights are added to the sled until a winning dog can be determined.
Long-distance races cover more than 1,000 miles. The grand daddy of all North American sled races is the 1,100 mile Iditarod Trail Leonhard Seppala Memorial Race in Alaska. The race was organized to honor the musher who used his dog team to carry diphtheria serum to Nome, ending the epidemic of 1925.
Professional racers compete for purses around $1,000 but in Truckee, this year's purse will top $10,000. Gambling stories from the early days are legendary, and the writer Jack London drew on his experiences to craft the famous best-seller, Call of the Wild. This is the great story, the odyssey of Buck, a California dog kidnapped to pull a sled in the Yukon gold rush, as he learns the "rule of tooth and claw" and goes wild to run with native wolves. One version of "Call of the Wild" was actually filmed in Truckee in 1935.
One of the most popular competitions at Truckee will be the novice weight pull. Dogs of all sizes have to pit their strength against a dead weight pull. Records prove that in one year a 32 lb border collie managed to pull 900 lbs - 30 times her own weight!
Next year sees the return of sled dog racing to Truckee. The event will begin on Friday night, February 12th with a Dog Parade down one of the main streets.There will be other competitive sled dog races on the Saturday and Sunday. Spectators should ensure they have warm clothing to protect themselves against the cold.
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Jack London's Early Life
The early life of Jack London, who died young when aged only 40, was as wild and unforgiving as the harsh Northland where he searched for fortune, fame and gold. This extract tells part of his extraordinary story.
Jack worked at a number of odd jobs to help earn money for the family. He delivered newspapers, set pins at a bowling alley, and worked in a cannery. Many nights he swept out a local saloon and would listen to old-timers tell about the California Gold Rush of 1849. He loved the tall tales the forty-niners spun.
By the time Jack turned 21 he had shoveled coal at a power plant, boiled uniforms in a school laundry, and sailed as a crewman to Japan. With each new job he yearned for more excitement.
Then one day news of an enormous gold strike on Canada's Klondike River swept the nation like a hurricane. From the San Francisco wharf Jack watched the ships returning from the north. He saw grubby miners struggle down the gangplanks with their heavy bags of gold.
Jack caught the gold rush stampede fever. Within a week he borrowed money to buy a steamship ticket, warm clothes, heavy boots, tents, blankets, and a gold pan. He also bought a small portable stove called a Yukon Stove, and a year's supply of flour, bacon, and beans.
Jack had an enormous sweet tooth, and he loved to read. At the last minute he packed a few books and some candy. When his gear was placed on the scales, it weighed 2,000 pounds.
The overcrowded S.S. Umatilla sailed through the Golden Gate with Jack on board. The date on his newspaper was July 25, 1897. For the next week his ship sailed up the coast, past Oregon, Washington, and Canada, and through the Inside Passage to Juneau, Alaska.
Jack, with his open manner, made friends with three men. They became partners while still on the ship.
In Juneau he hired a 75-foot-long dugout canoe for the journey up the Lynn Canal. Bald eagles soared overhead as Jack and his new friends paddled past magnificent waterfalls and icy blue glaciers to the town of Dyea, the last bit of civilization until Dawson City, Canada.
The scene at Dyea was chaotic. Dozens of ships filled the inlet and the beach was cluttered with wooden crates, flour sacks and canvas rolls. Horses and goats roamed freely through the 1,500 tents that filled the misty valley. The hills were noisy with the echoes of shouting men and barking dogs.
Jack and his new friends bought an old boat and loaded their supplies into it. They lined their boat up the Dyea River by walking along the riverbank and pulling a rope attached to it.
Where the river was too shallow for the boat to float, they portaged their supplies by carrying them down a narrow canyon path. They hiked under a hanging glacier, and crossed over a raging creek by walking on a 60-foot tree that had fallen across it. Every part of Jack's body ached by the time they reached Sheep Camp at the base of the Chilkoot Trail.
The path to the Chilkoot Pass was a steep 45% grade. It looked as if it went straight up. The trail was too steep for pack animals and the endless line of men trudging up the rocky slope reminded Jack of a line of ants.
Jack hauled his supplies up the mountain in two days. He carried 100 pounds on each trip and it took him about 20 trips up the same mountain to get all his gear there. He saw men carrying chickens, dogs, whipsaws, and even a sewing machine. In the afternoons he was so warm he stripped to his red flannel underwear.
On the far side of the mountain lay Lake Lindeman. There Jack and his friends cut down trees and built a boat. Jack, with his experience of mending in the laundry, stitched a canvas sail.
When the boat was finished they named it Yukon Belle and launched it into the glassy lake. But the water did not stay calm for long.
The roar of water at White Horse Rapids was deafening but Jack smiled in the face of the churning danger. He tried to steer clear of the whirlpool but the current was strong and whipped the Yukon Belle toward the jagged rocks. At the last moment Jack used his strong arms and oar to save the Belle.
Jack was exhausted but he and his friends were in a race against the winter freeze-up. They rowed through a blinding snowstorm on Lake LeBarge, stopping only to build a fire and get warm.
At Split-up Island Jack talked with disappointed miners who were heading upriver on their way home.
"You're too late, boy," one sourdough told him. "There's no gold left."
Another warned, "Too many men and not enough food in Dawson."
Jack and his friends heeded the warnings and stayed in an abandoned cabin on Henderson Creek. They prospected along the snowy banks and found small amounts of gold. Jack was happy as he floated to Dawson City in the Yukon Belle to file his claim.
There was always excitement at Dawson. Jack, along with thousands of other men, roamed the frozen mud of Front Street. He talked with men who sold fresh baked bread, served hot meals, washed clothes, cleaned watches, and repaired shoes from their tents, all in exchange for gold dust.
Jack talked to miners who had made a fortune only to lose it all in a card game. It was a land like no other, threatening and wild, yet beautiful.
Every evening Jack listened to tales of mosquitoes as big as ravens and of temperatures so cold that it would freeze spit before it hit the ground. Sometimes he spun his own fantastic stories in the smoke-filled saloons of the Orpheum, Monte Carlo and El Dorado.
On Thanksgiving Eve a fire roared through the dance hall where the annual masquerade ball was being held. The town, having been built with wood, burned quickly. Jack joined hundreds of men to form a bucket brigade from the river to the fire. A hole was cut in the ice for water, but nothing could stop the fire as it burned half of Front Street to the ground.
Jack made many new friends in Dawson, including a St. Bernard who was also named Jack. Jack admired the dog's great strength and ability to stay warm in extremely cold weather.
"Someday I'll write a story about you," he told the dog as he rubbed his neck. "But I'll call you Buck."
Years later Buck did become the hero of Jack's most famous book, The Call of the Wild.
Jack returned to his cabin on Henderson Creek before Christmas. He chopped and hauled river ice for water during the short frosty days and listened to howling wolves under the swirling northern lights.
Inside the cabin he spent many hours playing cribbage, talking with his friends, and reading by the light of a kerosene lamp. When he was alone he dreamed of being a writer, of being warm again, and of eating just one piece of candy.
In the spring Jack became deathly ill with scurvy. The lack of fresh fruits and vegetables had taken a toll on his body and he could hardly walk. He had no choice but to find help. His friends dismantled the log cabin and turned it into a raft. They bundled Jack up and floated between the ice floes to Dawson.
For a month Jack was bedridden in a small hospital. To regain his strength he ate raw potatoes, fresh lemons and meat. From his hospital bed he watched thousands of boats and stampeders arrive. They were the latecomers who had left after he did and became stranded when the lakes and rivers froze. He could tell by their faces that it had been a harsh winter.
By early June of 1898 Jack was strong enough to start the journey home. He said farewell to his many friends and set off in a rowboat down the Yukon River. The midnight sun reflected off the river as Canada geese, trumpeter swans and sandhill cranes flew overhead. As he floated to the sea he began to write about all he had seen. He was happy to be going home, even though he hadn't struck it rich in the northern gold fields.
Back in California Jack worked on many articles and tales about the Gold Rush. Three years passed before he finished The Call of the Wild, the story of Buck, the courageous dog, who survived the madness of the Klondike Gold Rush to run wild with the wolves.
When he had written the last word of the great novel he reached for a piece of hard candy and sat back in his oak chair and smiled. He was warm at last.
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