The Day We Met Gilmore.

Thursday 15th June 2006, was not only Lachlan Hunters' 5th birthday, but a day that Gail & I will long remember. It all started around 6:30am, as we slowly approached Juneau, the capital of Alaska aboard the beautiful & elegant ms Ryndam. Now Junea is by no means the largest town or city in Alaska with a population of a mere 32,000 residents compared to Anchorage's 130,000 which is almost half the population of the state of Alaska. However Juneau holds a special place in our mind for it is the town from where we met Gilmore. After docking around 7:45am, Gail & I spent a leisurely few hours visiting some of the quaint shops of the downtown area. Then at 11:15 it was off to the helicopter base just out of town for our flight to the Mendenhall Glacier and Ice Field. After a safety briefing we were fitted out with waterproof tractor tread boots, then another 4 passengers joined us for the most amazing 20 minute flight over the adjoining snow covered peaks to Mendenhall. Our chop!
per landed at the remote dog camp where the camp manager gave us a rundown on the camp and it's summer occupants. About 300 dogs, 20 full time mushers, cooks and assorted staff. The camp is a temporary location setup for 4 months only of the year on the glacier field. The snow is 25 - 30 feeet deep, sitting on top of approx. 600 feet of ice.
Gail & I then met our "musher" - no not Gilmore, but a great young guy named Drew, who took us across and introduced us to each and every member of his 12 dog team led by - you guessed it, Gilmore. All of the sled dogs are working dogs and apart from being the most cuddly and gorgeous animals are also the most friendly. After playing with all of them for a while it wa time for the real adventure. The 12 dogs were hitched to a sled driven by Drew with a second sled towed behind on a loose tow rope. Initially Gail rode with Drew while I drove the second sled. Don't laugh, it's not that simple - much like being towed in a car. Drew's simple instruction to me was - hang on, don't let go and for god sake don't run up my behind when we slow or run downhill. OK got it. Away we went with the dogs literaly straining at the leash and only too eager to run as hard and fast as possible. After a mile or so Gail transferred into my sled and off we thundered again. The ride is quite bumpy !
as the snow was quite soft in places and narrow gullies have formed across the trail. At our next stop Gail and I swapped places, she became the musher and I was her passenger. We made several stops to admire the awesome scenery around us and to simply listen to the sounds of the snow and ice breaking up and moving. At one point we saw a small avalanche which I was able to capture on video. My turn again to be musher as we approached the camp after the most auxilerating one hour on the sleds - certainly full on enjoyment by both Gail and I. We said goodbye to all our dogs, took more photos, then were shown around the camp by Drew. He also showed us some Husky puppies - all sired by Gilmore who incidentally is a five time entrant as a lead dog in the gruelling 1,000 mile annual winter endurance dog sled race known as the Iditarod.
Our return helicopter trip took us over another two glaciers - more photos, then back to Juneau and our cruise ship for a late lunch on board.
Well Lauchie, do you realise that you had two birthdays this year - because where Grandma & Grandpa are is 17 hours behind the time at Cambewarra, so we hope you enjoyed your birthdays on June 15th, - we did.

Kevin & Gail.
www.alaska-2006.blogspot.com

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