Speaker 1: Welcome to car Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio's
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hi, and welcome to car Stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: your host Scott Benjamin, and I am another host, Kurt
Speaker 1: garn And we have a third arm in the room,
Speaker 1: and that is that's true. My name is Ben Bull
Speaker 1: and I am I am a Coco host here I believe.
Speaker 1: And this is part two of our of our two
Speaker 1: part series on the I did a rod the race,
Speaker 1: not the trail. If you have you're just tuning in,
Speaker 1: now do yourself a favorite hit pause. We'll wait and
Speaker 1: listen to part one of the series, wherein we dive
Speaker 1: into some of the history, a little bit of the
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts about the race, and then only then
Speaker 1: push play on this one because now the rubbers hitting
Speaker 1: the road, or I should say the rails are hitting
Speaker 1: the snow. Yeah, oh thank you. Yeah. Stayed up pretty
Speaker 1: late working on when so I'm glad you guys can
Speaker 1: find you guys are into that. Uh. Today we're going
Speaker 1: to dig into, i would say, some of the science
Speaker 1: behind the equipment, a little bit more about the race itself, uh,
Speaker 1: and of course the lovable, hard working dogs that make
Speaker 1: the entire thing possible. The race itself. When last we
Speaker 1: left Scott you were telling Kurt and I about the
Speaker 1: two different routes and we were talking about why these
Speaker 1: might change or alternate from one year to the next.
Speaker 1: Let's let's pick up there. Because there are checkpoints for
Speaker 1: the roots. That's how how the race works. Every team
Speaker 1: has to hit certain points along the trail. There twenty
Speaker 1: six checkpoints on the northern route on the southern route,
Speaker 1: and when people hit those checkpoints, the mushers have to
Speaker 1: sign in, they have to give throw their John Hancock
Speaker 1: on something. This has a couple of different functions and
Speaker 1: so if we're guessing, one would be of course safety
Speaker 1: make sure that no one disappeared or something bad happened,
Speaker 1: and to of course to prevent cheating, to make sure
Speaker 1: that no one just tried to hot rod around, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: and and somehow take a shortcut and they have to
Speaker 1: sign in with their dog. Like the dog team that
Speaker 1: they've got ploint of slide at that moment, because they
Speaker 1: do begin to drop dogs as we go through this race.
Speaker 1: So they start out the race maybe with twelve dogs,
Speaker 1: and then they drop down to eleven dogs, and then
Speaker 1: ten and then nine, and then eventually by the time
Speaker 1: they get to the finish, they might be down to
Speaker 1: as few as what six seven, eight eight dogs maybe,
Speaker 1: um and Tosh, is that correct? That might be five
Speaker 1: five cross the line. You're right, and these dogs are
Speaker 1: all of course, well we can talk about the care
Speaker 1: of dogs too, but um, the dogs are. When I
Speaker 1: say dropped, I mean that they're you know, either carried
Speaker 1: back and handed off to a handler that you know,
Speaker 1: travels along with the race along you know, alongside of
Speaker 1: the team. Um, not not during the race itself, obviously,
Speaker 1: but they go from town to town in a much
Speaker 1: more efficient way and meet them there, or they have
Speaker 1: them in place ahead of time. And you know that's
Speaker 1: a dog that's worn out or injured or you know,
Speaker 1: whatever the case. Maybe it just needs a break arrest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they right in the sled. Yeah, that's right. That's that's
Speaker 1: part of the benefit of some of the different sled
Speaker 1: designs is that they can carry dogs that are somehow
Speaker 1: in need of that to the next checkpoint and safely
Speaker 1: deliver them. Yeah. Good musher is like a combination cartographer, sledder,
Speaker 1: dog trainer, veterinarian, right e n T. At some points,
Speaker 1: you know, oh yeah, they wear many hats, and they
Speaker 1: have they think that's important. They have drop bags that
Speaker 1: they pick up at checkpoints, and these drop bags have
Speaker 1: supplies that they use right to to replenish their stores
Speaker 1: of food. But there's also a lot of stuff for
Speaker 1: the dogs involved. Yeah, that's part of the equipment right now.
Speaker 1: That's another thing that I learned at that that camp.
Speaker 1: We talked to a guy that was the guy that
Speaker 1: was kind of running our dog sled that you know,
Speaker 1: the wheel one that we're talking about. I'm this is
Speaker 1: a long time ago, I think in The name that
Speaker 1: popped in my head immediately was Mars, and I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: who's Mars. There is a musher on the iditorad named
Speaker 1: Wade Mars, and his his um career span is just
Speaker 1: about the right time for when this was. So I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that the person that I met and talked to
Speaker 1: with Wade Mars. I'm sure that it was Wade Mars,
Speaker 1: because it just popped into my head right when we
Speaker 1: were talking about this. But one thing that he told
Speaker 1: me that just stood in my head for for a
Speaker 1: long time. In fact, I'm still thinking about it. The
Speaker 1: dog booties. The booties that the dogs wearing their feet
Speaker 1: and you think, oh, that's kind of funny. That's kind
Speaker 1: of very Hollywood, right. You know, they're wearing little dog
Speaker 1: shoes around. You know, it looks like something a little
Speaker 1: poodle would wear on, you know, um, Rodeo Avenue when
Speaker 1: they're shopping. It's not that way at all. These are
Speaker 1: for These are to prevent um, you know, injuries from
Speaker 1: ice and rocks and you know, things like that that
Speaker 1: they might encounter on the trail or abrasions. Um. It's
Speaker 1: these little sacks almost as they put on and they're
Speaker 1: held on with is it leather or velcrow or something
Speaker 1: like that, right, just just like little socks they put
Speaker 1: on every dog's foot and of course they throw these
Speaker 1: off while they're racing, whether they're running. So these guys
Speaker 1: will go through the the mushers will spend a significant
Speaker 1: amount of money on dog booties every year in the
Speaker 1: training camp in you know, the race itself and other races,
Speaker 1: you know, qualifying races or whatever, you know, because the
Speaker 1: idea route is not the only race they're gonna be
Speaker 1: in dog race for the year. That that's just not
Speaker 1: the way it works. But they will go through. They
Speaker 1: buy thousands of dog booties every year. For every team,
Speaker 1: which I thought was incredible. Thousands of dog booties every year.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a huge expense. Yeah, because you
Speaker 1: think about it, you can't just if you want them
Speaker 1: to be comfortable, you can't just give them those dog
Speaker 1: booties during the race. They have to wear these weird
Speaker 1: paw shoes during training as well, so that it becomes
Speaker 1: a normal customary thing. And you know the supplies that
Speaker 1: you were talking about that their ship to each checkpoint.
Speaker 1: There's limits on this, but I think, and I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that I read this in the rule book. I
Speaker 1: can verify this in just a little bit when you
Speaker 1: get to this, but I think it was like sixty
Speaker 1: pounds per package is what they what they send, and
Speaker 1: that's like it's dog food. That's everything that they need.
Speaker 1: The musher needs. Of course, because they got to carry
Speaker 1: everything with them, they'd be self sufficient. Um. But the
Speaker 1: dogs eat a tremendous amount of food and it's this
Speaker 1: really high energy. Um I don't I don't know what
Speaker 1: they put in it to make it so high energy.
Speaker 1: I'm sure's a lot of protein, probably a lot of fat,
Speaker 1: if I had to guess, because they're gonna be burning
Speaker 1: so much energy. But a lot of this is dog food. Now,
Speaker 1: imagine that you've got to ship sixty pounds of supplies
Speaker 1: to twenty six or twenty seven different checkpoints. That that,
Speaker 1: right there is a pretty huge logistical nightmare. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: gets expensive quickly. That is a lot of that's pounds
Speaker 1: of stuff that you gotta get ready ahead of time
Speaker 1: and know where you're gonna need it and make sure
Speaker 1: it's there. Yeah. And they are already carrying gear with
Speaker 1: them that stays with them the entire time. Headlamps for
Speaker 1: night travel, tools and parts to repair of sled. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine how terrible batteries of course for the lamps
Speaker 1: and and you know nowadays people are carrying radios with
Speaker 1: them and you know, maybe they're listening to their favorite podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah they probably, yeah, maybe they are, Maybe they are. Uh.
Speaker 1: The interesting thing is this reminded me a little bit
Speaker 1: about some of the restrictions placed on long haul truckers. Uh.
Speaker 1: Every team has three mandatory rest they have to take
Speaker 1: during the iditar Rod and this is in the rules.
Speaker 1: It is, yes, yeah, they have to take it. Is it? Well,
Speaker 1: there's a twelve hour laver and then there's a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour layover. Is that right? Well, there's a twenty
Speaker 1: four hour layover that they can take at any point,
Speaker 1: at any checkpoint. It's a strategy game. Yeah, they decide
Speaker 1: when the dogs need it, when they need it, what
Speaker 1: the weather is doing. All that that plays into when
Speaker 1: they take that twenty four hour break right, and then
Speaker 1: they have two mandated eight hour layovers they have to take.
Speaker 1: One is at any checkpoint along the Yukon River, and
Speaker 1: then the one that never they can never move is
Speaker 1: the eight hour stop at White Mountain. Okay, So there,
Speaker 1: I think you make a fantastic point. There's Scott. With
Speaker 1: the flexibility of those two other places, there are there
Speaker 1: ample opportunities to uh, to give yourself that last burst
Speaker 1: of energy to recover from a particularly arduous leg. But
Speaker 1: there are also opportunities to fall behind. Because what if
Speaker 1: you are in the lead, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: And I don't know whether this has ever happened, and
Speaker 1: you're like two checkpoints away but you haven't burned your
Speaker 1: twenty four hour layover yet and you have to sit
Speaker 1: there again. I don't know if this has happened, but
Speaker 1: can you imagine like you have to sit there for
Speaker 1: some reason and you're watching there, watching the four number
Speaker 1: two and the former number three, neck and neck, and
Speaker 1: you're thinking, maybe I should ask him to pause for
Speaker 1: like twelve hours. Yeah, you don't have like that pause
Speaker 1: button for them, right, I mean, it's only your your own,
Speaker 1: your own account. And you know, I think I said
Speaker 1: twelve hour lay over a mistaken You're right, it was
Speaker 1: eight hours. But yeah, that's gotta be frustrating to have
Speaker 1: to take that time, that downtime for some of them.
Speaker 1: Others might wish it was more, and I think others
Speaker 1: do take more. It's all up to you. It's just
Speaker 1: how quickly do you want to finish this? And this
Speaker 1: is a race of days? And you know, it's not
Speaker 1: like a race of you know, hours and minutes. It's
Speaker 1: a very long drawn out process right where you have
Speaker 1: to play the long game. I mean the long game.
Speaker 1: We're talking more than a week. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: long it's a long journey from Anchorage to Nome. And they,
Speaker 1: I mean they have to kind of account for the unforeseen.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the way they have to do it. So
Speaker 1: if you take that break early on, what happens if
Speaker 1: there's a blizzard, you know, up ahead that you don't
Speaker 1: know about her, you're not aware of that's it's on
Speaker 1: its way that you know, suddenly cuts your visibility to
Speaker 1: zero and you know the temperature is eighty below zero um,
Speaker 1: that's fahrenheit. That's not well, I guess would be worse
Speaker 1: for celsius. Right, Oh, maybe it's not that bad then, right,
Speaker 1: eighty blow fahrenheit. That's if there's ad blow Celsius. Look out,
Speaker 1: that's like, that's like you're on neptune or something. No,
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding that, but I mean that's a really
Speaker 1: important point though, that people there are three mandatory minimum
Speaker 1: layover times, but anything can happen, so people end up
Speaker 1: taking extra time. This is like this like pit strategy
Speaker 1: and racing right or refueling strategy or any Every race
Speaker 1: has its own strategy and how people like to run it,
Speaker 1: even like horse racing or something like that. You know,
Speaker 1: like you do you hold back and then give it
Speaker 1: the all out there at the end of the last
Speaker 1: stretch or do you just consistently go or you know,
Speaker 1: how do you do it? How do you play it?
Speaker 1: Do you sand bag and then uh or at the
Speaker 1: end um or just just go for it right out
Speaker 1: of the gate. I mean, it all depends on the horses.
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on your team, your dog team,
Speaker 1: and your ability. You know, you're you know, you know
Speaker 1: how how much you can take. And again this is
Speaker 1: a true test of human endurance as well. Um not
Speaker 1: many people are are fit for for a trip like
Speaker 1: this really when you think about it, I mean, I
Speaker 1: get cold walk into my car right now. It's the
Speaker 1: mid it's mid thirties here in Atlanta, and I don't know,
Speaker 1: I guess I've become kind of a weather wimp, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's cold, it's colder at night, you know, I
Speaker 1: gets down to the twenties, I don't want to take
Speaker 1: the dog out to go to the bathroom out in
Speaker 1: the backyard or something. It's uncomfortable. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be uncomfortable anymore. And look at them there, I mean,
Speaker 1: really blizzards eighty they I think they've recorded temperatures as
Speaker 1: low as one hundred below zero. And that's that's wind chill,
Speaker 1: of course, windschill. But have you ever felt like forty
Speaker 1: below zero? Uh, you know, wind chill. It's it's awful.
Speaker 1: Like they tell you not to expose your skin to it.
Speaker 1: They tell you that you can't go outside of Man,
Speaker 1: are you not supposed to breathe? It's it's forty below
Speaker 1: is cold meth. We've talked about the Midwest and like
Speaker 1: I remember, my dad went out to his older cars
Speaker 1: that had you know, vinyl seats, and you sit in
Speaker 1: them and they crack all the hell. It's like you
Speaker 1: broke a chocolate bar that's been in there for a
Speaker 1: freezer or something. You know, It's like it's like that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's that brittle. So can you imagine what
Speaker 1: a hundred below feels like? And they really do race
Speaker 1: through that. It's it's insane. I feel it feels like,
Speaker 1: you know what I would do it to say that
Speaker 1: I had had that experience. What if it kills you, well,
Speaker 1: then I won't get to say that I had that.
Speaker 1: Ben had one third of that experience and that's when
Speaker 1: and that's how it ended for him. We would be
Speaker 1: left to spread the word have been You're gonna say
Speaker 1: his ashes on the Wow, this escalated pretty quickly, guys,
Speaker 1: But let's let's stay with the trail. Let's let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about this because we know that it
Speaker 1: can be dangerous. There have been canine deaths, especially, A
Speaker 1: lot of the rules are focused on safety. Those those
Speaker 1: layovers are not just to make things interesting, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Uh, this is I believe, as as
Speaker 1: we said at the top of part one, this is
Speaker 1: an incredibly brutal experience, right, Definitely, it's a race of endurance.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of factors that go into being a
Speaker 1: top performer versus being just one of the people that
Speaker 1: are there to finish this. This race we keep saying,
Speaker 1: a test of endurance or physical challenge, or you know, whatever,
Speaker 1: however you want to label that you were this The
Speaker 1: idea will routinely come up on lists of the ultimate
Speaker 1: tests of human endurance of how much can a human stand,
Speaker 1: whether it's heat, cold, time, you know, whatever the case
Speaker 1: may be. And there's a lot of absurd world records
Speaker 1: that people have said that are tests of endurance, and
Speaker 1: I don't need I don't think we have a chance
Speaker 1: to go into all those, but that the contest, the
Speaker 1: test that the people routinely do year after year, those
Speaker 1: are the ones that I find probably the most interesting.
Speaker 1: And I did a ride. It happens to come up
Speaker 1: on every list that I looked at so far, and
Speaker 1: a couple of them, just so you get an idea
Speaker 1: of what is on these lists. There's there's the Race
Speaker 1: Across America UM, which is a bicycle ride that goes
Speaker 1: across the United States all the way across all three
Speaker 1: thousand miles and it's essentially like a they call it
Speaker 1: a like a one leg bicycle race. It's it's just
Speaker 1: this intense right across the United States. As fast as
Speaker 1: you can go, people do it and something like I
Speaker 1: think the maximum you can do it is in twelve days.
Speaker 1: The person who has done it the fastest was like
Speaker 1: seven days. Can you imagine riding your bike in seven
Speaker 1: days from coast to coast in the United States and
Speaker 1: we're talking, you know, again, over three thousand miles in
Speaker 1: that this in that time UM. That was back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and fourteen. There's the Marathon de Sable, which
Speaker 1: is happening or Sabelle and I don't know Sable in Morocco,
Speaker 1: and uh, that's the one that you have to be
Speaker 1: entirely self sufficient. It's an ultra marathon. The first race
Speaker 1: was held in and it's essentially a race across hot sands.
Speaker 1: I mean it intensely hot sands. You're racing across the desert,
Speaker 1: and then that's that. Um, you know, these are really
Speaker 1: really dangerous. There's Ramsey's Round in Scotland. There's the Iditarod Trail,
Speaker 1: which we've been talking about all day. We can you
Speaker 1: can find out the details, and that there's something called
Speaker 1: the Jungle Marathon that happens in Brazil, which I think
Speaker 1: is really interesting. And one thing that okay, this is
Speaker 1: the last thing I'll mention about this endurance thing, but um,
Speaker 1: maybe for now. UM. They at one point that they
Speaker 1: pointed out in this National Geographic article that I was reading.
Speaker 1: He says, the winner of the two thousand fifteen race
Speaker 1: is um named Thomas Witwick of Germany, was stung by
Speaker 1: a sting ray before the race even started, and then
Speaker 1: he went on to win in forty hours and ten minutes. UM.
Speaker 1: This is a race that has running at forty degrees celsius.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that temperature is, but it's hot.
Speaker 1: It's the jungle, um humidity. It's a hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: eight mile course that goes through um and of course, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, swamps and rivers and steep descents, trails, beaches, climbs,
Speaker 1: there's it's just crazy. Of the people drop out ever
Speaker 1: before reaching the end just because of exhaustion. Did you say,
Speaker 1: did you say forty degrees celsius? Four degrees celsius. It's
Speaker 1: a hundred of four degrees they're running and what essentially
Speaker 1: is an ultra marathon. I guess in uh a hundred
Speaker 1: it's a hundred and fifty eight miles through the jungle
Speaker 1: in Brazil with you know, they say anacondas they've got
Speaker 1: piranhas in the rivers or jaguars in the trees. Different. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: I mean the winner that year in two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: got stung by a sting right before the race. And
Speaker 1: still I mean, that's that's nuts. So yeah, these these
Speaker 1: testsain endurance, like they're not for the faint of heart.
Speaker 1: And the Iditarade is something that just when you when
Speaker 1: you ponder what it takes in your head to to,
Speaker 1: you know, take off from that start line and know
Speaker 1: that your destination is a thousand miles away through that territory.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty shocking. Most people who perform well in
Speaker 1: the Iditorade are from northern states in the United States,
Speaker 1: are Arctic states. Yeah, something you have to kind of becca, Yeah,
Speaker 1: are we gonna have like a like a cool Runnings
Speaker 1: kind of moment? You know, Oh yeah, you know Jamaican
Speaker 1: team is going to show up there in Alaska and
Speaker 1: well maybe not when, but it's fun doing stuff. Relay
Speaker 1: team go up there and do it. Yeah, you have
Speaker 1: relay teams and I did Rod. I know you have
Speaker 1: to be a single single it has to be a
Speaker 1: single musher and the team is already signed up ahead
Speaker 1: of time and the team. Oh that's another thing. That
Speaker 1: dogs are all chipped, and of course there's careful veterinary
Speaker 1: care along the way. You know, beforehand, there's all the vaccinations,
Speaker 1: there's everything that they need to have for the medically
Speaker 1: is done ahead of time and during the race and
Speaker 1: then after as well, they after care sure when they
Speaker 1: make their stops, they do during those stops. The chipping
Speaker 1: is important because that shows that you're not swapping out
Speaker 1: dogs that you know, weren't there at the beginning. You
Speaker 1: know exactly who's who when they get because it's tough
Speaker 1: to say like, well, of course that's uh, that's my
Speaker 1: dog milky way there. You know that's happened before and
Speaker 1: that's why or whatever. Yeah, I mean, that's another fight.
Speaker 1: Look at the list of names of the dogs on
Speaker 1: the teams. They're all pretty funny. But but imagine you've
Speaker 1: got a name, you know, twelve dogs a couple of
Speaker 1: times a year, you know, yeah, litters of dogs that
Speaker 1: you then select your best team from, you know, the
Speaker 1: training camps. And so when I was there, they were
Speaker 1: naming dogs like by groupings. Like they named them, uh
Speaker 1: like fashion names or you know, it could be like
Speaker 1: Nike and Adidas, and you know, like that's the names.
Speaker 1: Like they kind of run out of names. They can't
Speaker 1: name them like here's you know, Ben Scott and Kurt
Speaker 1: it's they do, but um, you'll run out. So they
Speaker 1: were naming them like candy bar names, and they I
Speaker 1: don't know, they come down to like star names or whatever.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's like grouping, so it's easier to
Speaker 1: remember them all. Um, but imagine you have to name
Speaker 1: like thirty six dogs a year. That's hard. I used
Speaker 1: to I used to volunteer at this animal shelter, and
Speaker 1: the one thing that irked me about it was a
Speaker 1: great place. Um, then support your local animal shelter. The
Speaker 1: one thing that urged me about it was that someone
Speaker 1: had this prestigious job where they would name animals and
Speaker 1: they were just terrible at it. Now, you know, it's
Speaker 1: a person who had been working there for years, so
Speaker 1: he's trying to be fair. And I was thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe at some point this person just ran out of names.
Speaker 1: It's like, I don't think this cat's name should be umbrella.
Speaker 1: But look, I just volunteer here, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I think that's gonna come back to haunt the cat whatever.
Speaker 1: But cats don't care what their names are. The kaiser
Speaker 1: say thing, Yeah, yeah, yeah, Let's talk about the dogs
Speaker 1: a little bit more, and then let's talk about the
Speaker 1: actual sled sounder. Yeah of course, all right. So there
Speaker 1: are several types of dog breed that are used. Pure
Speaker 1: breads are common in the most northern reaches of the hemisphere,
Speaker 1: you know, a Samoyad, Siberian huskies and so on, and
Speaker 1: Alaska Mala mutes would be another one. But most racing
Speaker 1: and sled dogs are a mixed breed called Alaskan Huskies.
Speaker 1: About ten the breeds like ten thousand years older. So
Speaker 1: according to um I did aad sources, it's not an
Speaker 1: officially recognized breed, but they're known for a couple of things.
Speaker 1: They're known for having very tough feet. They're also known
Speaker 1: for having a good weather proof coat, and they're known
Speaker 1: for just loving pulling sleds as I've seen, I've witnessed it,
Speaker 1: and it's weird because, you know, for a lot of
Speaker 1: people who criticize the practice of dog sledding, you know,
Speaker 1: like Peter and folks of that nature, and even people
Speaker 1: were unfamiliar with working breeds of dogs, it may seem
Speaker 1: incredibly cruel, but it is also a natural inclination. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like, have you guys ever seen hurting competitions
Speaker 1: with working breed dogs. It's really weird because their natural
Speaker 1: inclination seems like such a specific behavior. Any living creatures
Speaker 1: natural inclination to be finding a herd of sheep or
Speaker 1: something and then just like not attacking them, just walk
Speaker 1: making them go weird places. That's to me, that's weirdly specific.
Speaker 1: That's also something that these sorts of breeds seem acclimated
Speaker 1: to doing. Have you ever been around a dog that
Speaker 1: is a hurting dog that is not anywhere like anywhere
Speaker 1: near a farm. Yes that it was born hurting dogs,
Speaker 1: but born like maybe in the city somewhere and you
Speaker 1: you know, you you take it out to the park
Speaker 1: or whatever, and that dog will show hurting characteristics, will
Speaker 1: trying to hurting traits, trying to kids. They will, they
Speaker 1: really will. I mean, it's I've seen it with my
Speaker 1: my brother in law's dogs and uh and they do
Speaker 1: this and they have never ever herded sheep as far
Speaker 1: as I know, or cattle or you know, whatever. They heard.
Speaker 1: They just want people to move together. They do. They
Speaker 1: want it's like they want order and they're gonna make
Speaker 1: it happen, you know, that's what. It's just little dogs
Speaker 1: and it's like, what are you what are you doing?
Speaker 1: You're trying to force me to go the way that
Speaker 1: you want me to go, But they do. It's it's
Speaker 1: just it's completely instinctual in these dogs, and they do
Speaker 1: get excited about it. Like you said, it's not it's
Speaker 1: not what people think. I mean, I I guess I
Speaker 1: had my own preconceived ideas that you know, this is
Speaker 1: a little bit mean to make these like, these dogs
Speaker 1: aren't gonna pull seven people in these sleds, or even
Speaker 1: one person or a thousand miles on the sled. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna like that. But when you see the excitement
Speaker 1: and the and and the energy that they have, they're
Speaker 1: just jumping all over each other to to pull that sled.
Speaker 1: They want to go, they want to run, and they
Speaker 1: really do. And if you don't buy my version of this,
Speaker 1: go online to any of these training camp sites where
Speaker 1: people have gone and had the same experience and read
Speaker 1: the comments. They'll say how excited and and just pumped
Speaker 1: up these dogs are about running and the and how
Speaker 1: much they love doing what they do. They really enjoy it,
Speaker 1: and it's it's such a foreign idea to us because
Speaker 1: we think, oh, that's mean making them pull people around,
Speaker 1: and you know there's these toys. It's not to them,
Speaker 1: it's it's sometimes bred into them and they love it. Well,
Speaker 1: this is a race, but we have to remember this
Speaker 1: race only exists because dog sledding was the primary means
Speaker 1: of transportation for a lot of people. So if people
Speaker 1: object to the race, that's totally within the right to
Speaker 1: do so. But even abolishing this particular race would not
Speaker 1: abolish the practice of dog sledding because for some people,
Speaker 1: even today, it's a better means of transportation. And with
Speaker 1: these dogs also depend on what side you see about this.
Speaker 1: It's no secret that the endurance test, which is punishing
Speaker 1: to human beings, to the mushers, is also punishing to
Speaker 1: the canines. So yes, over the years, I think as
Speaker 1: recently as a few years back, uh, five dogs had
Speaker 1: died in the course of this. And those kind of
Speaker 1: deaths are you know, some of those things that can't
Speaker 1: be predicted very well. Diet, as you mentioned, is huge.
Speaker 1: These bushers are dedicating a lot of time to taking
Speaker 1: care of their dogs. Uh So they even even that
Speaker 1: high energy density food they get, they supplement it with
Speaker 1: They add water, meat, fat, vitamins, even digestive enzymes to
Speaker 1: I guess, take the inner work of digesting, smooth it out,
Speaker 1: a little bit less work that their body has to do,
Speaker 1: and they could focus more energy on running. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, when the more I read about these
Speaker 1: dog teams, the more I was You guys know, I
Speaker 1: love comic books and comic book movies. My girlfriend says
Speaker 1: it's because I have terrible taste, but whatever, uh whatever.
Speaker 1: As I was reading about the composition, the position and
Speaker 1: the roles of the different dogs, I felt more and
Speaker 1: more like I was watching when of those films where
Speaker 1: there's a heist crew getting together in the movies and
Speaker 1: then it's like, oh, it's you know, uh, that's uh
Speaker 1: slippery Jimmy he's the safe cracker and scumbag Pete he
Speaker 1: drives to get away from. And they got their own specialty. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they know their specialties, right and uh. And the dogs
Speaker 1: are like this too. There are the lead dogs. Because
Speaker 1: you'll notice when you see the dogs do have certain rules.
Speaker 1: The lead dogs understand these different commands that the mushers
Speaker 1: make and they respond. And I think, um, we had
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about some of those commands off air.
Speaker 1: You mean like g yeah, yeah, Hall means left turn,
Speaker 1: and Jeeves out said, you know, I gotta be honest, man.
Speaker 1: If I'm on the sled and we have to take
Speaker 1: that right turn, I'm just gonna start yelling right and
Speaker 1: dogs will be like the scott guy's in the amateur
Speaker 1: I thought they just like cracked the whip and y'ell
Speaker 1: mush right right. That's what I see in every cartoon,
Speaker 1: and I mean that's that's you know, well, I've seen
Speaker 1: it on many documentaries. I guess there's this one documentary
Speaker 1: Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Yeah, yeah, there's a there's
Speaker 1: a prospector who has a team and uh, Cornelius I
Speaker 1: believe is his name. Do you remember that the doctor
Speaker 1: they did this is like like y R yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: He would flip his you know, pick X in the
Speaker 1: air and then pick it up and like it kind
Speaker 1: of licked the end of it and decide if there
Speaker 1: was gold or silver there. Yeah, he's a good guy.
Speaker 1: Those uh, those claymation, those claymation features from you know,
Speaker 1: the fifties through the seventies. Some of them are pretty intense.
Speaker 1: Even watching them again as a kid, I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: my parents were letting me watch this three. I love it.
Speaker 1: You You've gone soft, Ben, I've gone soft, and I
Speaker 1: need to take an identarade trip. Yeah you get back.
Speaker 1: You know, it's weird because some of these dogs also
Speaker 1: are considered not the lead dog. And I didn't think
Speaker 1: about this for some reason. I always pictured the dogs
Speaker 1: being like raised together and trained together. But some of
Speaker 1: them are at different levels of experience and familiarity. So
Speaker 1: dogs that don't understand the directions that just like, who
Speaker 1: is this Kurt Garing guy yelling g at me? Uh?
Speaker 1: Those dogs you would think or put towards the back right,
Speaker 1: but not really. Some dogs have not learned these commands,
Speaker 1: but they're still used as the lead dog because they're
Speaker 1: especially good at discerning trails even when it's blown over
Speaker 1: with snow. Because the good folks at the Identarods are
Speaker 1: are pretty transparent. They say, you know, we will go
Speaker 1: and break the trail beforehand, but due to weather, we
Speaker 1: can't guarantee basically that you're going to be able to
Speaker 1: see the trail itself. Try to put up markers, but
Speaker 1: it's on you. So there are dogs that specialized just
Speaker 1: in finding that trail, and directly behind the lead dogs
Speaker 1: are the point or swing dogs. They're essentially backup leaders,
Speaker 1: second in command. Like if the lead dog is Captain
Speaker 1: Picard in Star Trek, then these are the Lieutenant Rikers.
Speaker 1: Does that work? You've lost me? Yeah? Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: attempting in Star Trek man, I'm I'm I'm out with
Speaker 1: Star Trek. I'm not a Star Trek fan. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I never happened. I never claimed to be. I think
Speaker 1: on the show we've talked about that man, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was a Jonathan Overn tech stuff. It sounds like
Speaker 1: more of a conversation he and I would have. But um,
Speaker 1: are you big star trek fan? I mean, I I
Speaker 1: like the idea, but I'm not gonna go. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so was a bunch of fan of other
Speaker 1: something about you, Kurt. I never got anything. I just
Speaker 1: thought of something. You know what we're talking his space?
Speaker 1: The Final Frontier? Right, yeah? Yeah, Alaska, the last Frontier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: isn't it the last Frontier? And they referred to it
Speaker 1: as the last Frontier? Yeah? Okay, well there you go.
Speaker 1: That's the tie in. There you go, there we go,
Speaker 1: we start it all. We made it so sort of
Speaker 1: so right, So we're on the sled right right in
Speaker 1: front of the sled. The dogs directly in front of
Speaker 1: it are called the wheel dogs. Traditionally, these were the
Speaker 1: dogs that were on the larger side. The average weight
Speaker 1: of a dog there, most of them is going to
Speaker 1: be between forty five and fifty pounds. Um. The wheel
Speaker 1: dogs are gonna be on the bigger end because they
Speaker 1: helped provide that initial power. They're bigger dogs. Yeah, would
Speaker 1: you say they're a little husky? Oh man, I have
Speaker 1: no regrets. That just came to me was reading the
Speaker 1: tag on my jeans. Husky. It's weird because off off Mike, Uh, Scott, Scott, May,
Speaker 1: Kurt and I be quiet for a second, and we
Speaker 1: we just sat here awkwardly in silence for eight minutes.
Speaker 1: That hopefully got cut was Scott ran and got his
Speaker 1: post it note with that joke on it. Uh just
Speaker 1: all relied on you saying bigger dogs. That's all talking
Speaker 1: about the fat dogs. I should have got there earlier.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so we've got the dogs. What about the uh,
Speaker 1: just real quick way, what do we know about this?
Speaker 1: The sleds. The sleds are relatively fascinating. Your modern lightweight
Speaker 1: racing sled generally weighs about twenty to thirty pounds that's
Speaker 1: nine to thirteen point five kilograms, and um most sleds
Speaker 1: are made of ash lash together with leather or nylon,
Speaker 1: though there's a trend to start to make the sleds
Speaker 1: out of more composite materials, which I'm surprised that that
Speaker 1: hasn't taken effect sooner. I bet it's I bet it's
Speaker 1: much more common in competitive sledding, competitive events, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. I mean, that's a traditional sled that
Speaker 1: we're talking about, right, The ash wood that's lashed together.
Speaker 1: I think it's the one we've can all picture too.
Speaker 1: Is that, you know, the typical wooden sled and geez,
Speaker 1: I mean to be honest, to twenty to thirty pound sled.
Speaker 1: That's not bad. These are big. These are big items.
Speaker 1: They're they're not small. They have to carry all the
Speaker 1: gear that you know we've talked about. And there's a
Speaker 1: couple of different types too. There's the toboggan style. I
Speaker 1: think most people can picture a toboggan with kind of
Speaker 1: the open design. I suppose that's what you said. And
Speaker 1: then there's the other type that's the basket style, and
Speaker 1: that's one that has more of a nose cone look
Speaker 1: to it, like a nose cone of a plane or something.
Speaker 1: And uh, and that one, to me, that makes the
Speaker 1: most sense for this type of race because I've I've
Speaker 1: read that you know, in uh, really really bad weather,
Speaker 1: um or maybe not even and just just normal weather
Speaker 1: they're in Alaska, Uh, the musher can then take their
Speaker 1: sleeping bag and tuck that inside the basket and sleep
Speaker 1: in there and use it as a tent almost, so
Speaker 1: that's where they sleep. The dogs, of course, have their
Speaker 1: own natural protection against weather. And the elements like that.
Speaker 1: But and they do carry straw and things like that
Speaker 1: for them to bed down on at night for the dogs.
Speaker 1: But um, a couple of different designs are possible. And
Speaker 1: you know, we've we've seen other designs of sleds too.
Speaker 1: I mean there's the real, real simple ones that look
Speaker 1: like um, you know, the old old style stadium chairs
Speaker 1: that look like um uh, look like folding chairs almost.
Speaker 1: There wouldn't very very simple to designed, very very small,
Speaker 1: look like match sticks almost. You know that they built
Speaker 1: this chair out of there's that kind I think I
Speaker 1: can't remember the name of it now, but it's a
Speaker 1: very small sled, very short. It's just two skis and
Speaker 1: a seat in front basically, and the musher will stand
Speaker 1: behind the chair with their hands on top of it
Speaker 1: and that's where they guide it from. But lots of
Speaker 1: different types of the dog sleds are possible. But these
Speaker 1: racers have to have some common safety features too, right,
Speaker 1: So when I saw at this this camp was the
Speaker 1: emergency break, which surprised me, right, because the dogs, the
Speaker 1: dogs will take off on their own and pull the
Speaker 1: sled to the next location. They've got some kind of uh,
Speaker 1: well you know I said, they love to to run.
Speaker 1: They'll take off without a musher and go the full
Speaker 1: distance they'll go. They'll go to the next town unless
Speaker 1: they're caught without the musher, and that's happened before. Right.
Speaker 1: You know, they have to send out a team, you know,
Speaker 1: on snowmobiles or snow machines to go out and rescue
Speaker 1: the sled. I guess from the dog teams running away, right.
Speaker 1: And this foot break that they have, think of it
Speaker 1: like a series of laws put activated clause. They also
Speaker 1: have a problem the metal claw, which is called a
Speaker 1: snow hook that can temporarily keep the team station. That's
Speaker 1: the emergency break that put the hook. And the hook
Speaker 1: looks like, um, something you'd catch a whale on or something.
Speaker 1: It's it's this massive dual claw thing that when the
Speaker 1: dogs pull, they actually pull it deeper into the ground,
Speaker 1: into the snow or the ground or whatever. It's um
Speaker 1: it's very effective, but it looks like this massive, massive
Speaker 1: hook thing that has to hold back the entire team
Speaker 1: of dogs. The one that you're talking about is the
Speaker 1: it's called a drag mat and I thought this is
Speaker 1: very clever of them. It's if you can picture a
Speaker 1: piece of conveyor belt that is flipped upside down with
Speaker 1: like you know, the the ridges for the conveyor belt,
Speaker 1: the rubber conveyor belt. Maybe it's you know, two ft wide,
Speaker 1: whatever it happens to be. The span of the skis
Speaker 1: hangs down in between the driver's feet. As the riding
Speaker 1: they can you know, raise it and lowered if they
Speaker 1: want to, But all they have to do is then
Speaker 1: kind of step on the mat to kind of feather
Speaker 1: the speed because you actually the dogs are going so
Speaker 1: fast you have to slow them down and not necessarily
Speaker 1: stop them every time. You can hurt them if you
Speaker 1: stop abruptly, or if they're trying to take a mountain
Speaker 1: pass and the dogs are pulling too fast and you know,
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna go over the edge or you're
Speaker 1: i mean down going downhill too, I would imagine the
Speaker 1: sled picks up quite a bit of speed run up on.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to keep the tension right. A
Speaker 1: very good point. Yeah, And they said that you know
Speaker 1: you can even drive um, you know, nuts and bolts
Speaker 1: through that matt to add kind of some some biting
Speaker 1: strength to it. Uh. There are other types of breaks
Speaker 1: that that can be used but they are not necessarily
Speaker 1: favored on these types of sleds because a lot of
Speaker 1: the racers will race in the same path as the
Speaker 1: person in front of them. It's like a warm path.
Speaker 1: And if you use a different type of break that
Speaker 1: operates where the rails are, where the skis are, you
Speaker 1: will leave deep ruts. Then that the next rider will
Speaker 1: have to have to deal with, you know, where um,
Speaker 1: the sled will bottom out or it will you know,
Speaker 1: lurch to one side or the other, depending on where
Speaker 1: the break was. So these drag mats seem to be
Speaker 1: the key and the whole thing. Pretty smart, smart design,
Speaker 1: pretty smart. And there's another thing. When we talk about design,
Speaker 1: it's not just the design of the sled itself. We
Speaker 1: shall also talk about the design of the race, which, yes,
Speaker 1: I do mean to refer to the rule book that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Scott, she read the whole thing. I looked
Speaker 1: at it. I didn't, That's all right. I read some
Speaker 1: parts more closely than others. About did you read did
Speaker 1: you read any of the rules at all? I haven't
Speaker 1: read the rules, okay, so I don't know why I
Speaker 1: found this interesting. I I thought I was going to
Speaker 1: be bored to death with the whole thing, right, because
Speaker 1: it's fifteen paid as the rules about a dog sled race,
Speaker 1: and I'm not a dog sled racer, I'm not a musher. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't have much to do with it other than
Speaker 1: we were doing this podcast I started Scott, that's right,
Speaker 1: me and Smokey eunuch. So anyways, I um, I kind
Speaker 1: of looked at it. I started to look at the rules,
Speaker 1: and I got more and more into these rules because
Speaker 1: there's some really obscure, odd rules in here and very strict.
Speaker 1: They're very strict, and of course they're all serious, they're
Speaker 1: all and some of these rules are just so out
Speaker 1: there compared to different races and things that were more
Speaker 1: accustomed to around here, you know, and in other races
Speaker 1: and other parts of our life. But it's just real briefly,
Speaker 1: I mean, the rules are fifteen pages long, and you
Speaker 1: can search this online if you want to look at
Speaker 1: them for yourself. There amusing and interesting and you know,
Speaker 1: informative and all that. It's worth, you know, ten minutes
Speaker 1: of time just to scan them, if nothing else. Just
Speaker 1: search for I did to ride rules and it'll come
Speaker 1: up with a full final list rules. Just to give
Speaker 1: you an example, like a lot of them are about
Speaker 1: the mushers themselves. A lot of them brought the equipment,
Speaker 1: the sleds themselves. There's a whole group of rules just
Speaker 1: about the treatment of dogs, and those are like rules
Speaker 1: number thirty eight through forty eight, and they're thirty seven
Speaker 1: through forty eight, and they're all kind of clustered that way, right,
Speaker 1: And I mean these include things like you know, the
Speaker 1: dog care and the and the food shipping and all that,
Speaker 1: and the amounts and you know, the requirements for shots
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. Very important rules about the dogs
Speaker 1: of course, and the and the mushers and you know
Speaker 1: what they're allowed to do, what they're not allowed to do,
Speaker 1: even to ring and things like that. On the trail
Speaker 1: um there were some really fascinating ones. And I chuckle
Speaker 1: about a couple of these, but you really shouldn't. I mean,
Speaker 1: some of them are again dead serious and there's reasons
Speaker 1: behind this. But one of the funny ones that came
Speaker 1: across initially was a rule number thirty four. So if
Speaker 1: you look at rule number thirty four, it's about the
Speaker 1: killing of edible game in that you you're it's necessary
Speaker 1: in order to protect your life or your equipment or
Speaker 1: your team or you know, whatever whatever that happens to
Speaker 1: be your your life or your property. I guess in
Speaker 1: defense of that, and it has happened on the trail before.
Speaker 1: The fact is that when this race is run in
Speaker 1: March of every year, there's a lot of snow up there,
Speaker 1: and of course as a lot of snow, and that
Speaker 1: will often force the moose out onto the trails which
Speaker 1: are less wooded, and it's easier for them to get
Speaker 1: around to forage and to you know, just just to
Speaker 1: get to a point A to point B for the moose. However,
Speaker 1: you come around a corner and there's a mad moose
Speaker 1: in front of you, they start charging your dog team,
Speaker 1: which they do. They get angry. There have been time
Speaker 1: in the past. In fact, I think the first woman
Speaker 1: who runs who uh no, and I'm sorry the second
Speaker 1: woman woman to win the race in nineteen I want
Speaker 1: to five missed it only missed the wind in the
Speaker 1: previous year only because a pregnant moose was around one
Speaker 1: of the corners that you came around, and it charged
Speaker 1: her team killed two of her dogs. That the moose
Speaker 1: did injured another one and another writer eventually came upon
Speaker 1: them This is like twenty minutes later came upon them
Speaker 1: and shot and killed the moose. Then there's a rule
Speaker 1: in the in here, this rule number thirty four, about
Speaker 1: what you have to do once you kill the moose.
Speaker 1: This is interesting. Let's walk through this rule thirty four,
Speaker 1: not the famous Internet rule thirty four, which we won't
Speaker 1: mention because this is a family show. Uh. Rule thirty
Speaker 1: four for the iditarod is is the following killing game animals.
Speaker 1: The event that in edible big game animal i e. Moose, caribou,
Speaker 1: buffalo is killed in defense of life or property, the
Speaker 1: musher must gut animal and report the incident to a
Speaker 1: race official at the next checkpoint. Following teams must help
Speaker 1: gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until
Speaker 1: the animal has been gutted and the musher killing the
Speaker 1: animal has proceeded. Any other animal killed in defense of
Speaker 1: life or property must be reported to a race official,
Speaker 1: but need not be gutted. Interesting, Now, what other race
Speaker 1: have you heard where that is one of the rules.
Speaker 1: You know what, it's probably gonna be in there that
Speaker 1: someone will bend that rule this year. Right? So no, really,
Speaker 1: that's an odd rule, right? I mean, so I read
Speaker 1: that and I thought, well, there's got to be more
Speaker 1: in there. There's gotta be other things like that. But
Speaker 1: the reason that they do that, and if anybody out
Speaker 1: there is confused, it's because it's edible meat. And so
Speaker 1: that you know, the nearest town of the nearest community
Speaker 1: will be able to come out, you know, via radio
Speaker 1: and know where it is and on the course come
Speaker 1: out pick up that you know that now gutted and
Speaker 1: be able to provide to the community. They'll give it
Speaker 1: to those who need, you know, those who need it,
Speaker 1: and whether that's sharing it among you know, the townsfolk,
Speaker 1: or you know, and they know of a family that
Speaker 1: needs meat for the season or whatever, that's what the
Speaker 1: reason is behind that. So you know, if it's another
Speaker 1: type of animal that you know, is not a game animal,
Speaker 1: not not one that people eat, and you still have
Speaker 1: to do that. The gutting rule, I guess doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to that animally, just you know, the caribou, the moose,
Speaker 1: and it was an elker, whatever that was. But I
Speaker 1: thought that was an interesting rule, and there's there are
Speaker 1: several others that are similar interesting items, maybe not quite
Speaker 1: as obscure as that as that one might be. But
Speaker 1: a specific rule. Number sixteen is a mandatory items list
Speaker 1: that the mushers must carry, and and that's important. I mean,
Speaker 1: everybody has common sense, you know, about what they need
Speaker 1: to wear, you know, the number of layers, the type
Speaker 1: of jacket or gloves or whatever. But this one has
Speaker 1: mandatory items that you have to carry in order to
Speaker 1: be cleared for um, you know, for for competition. Some
Speaker 1: of it's basic and some of it's pretty impressive. So
Speaker 1: of course the sleeping bag duh, yeah, but with a
Speaker 1: minimum weight right right, minimum must weigh five pounds minimum,
Speaker 1: and an ax uh snowshoes specific dimensions for those any
Speaker 1: promotional material provided by the race organization. Eight booties for
Speaker 1: each dog in the sled or in use, so it's total,
Speaker 1: so they need at least four that they're wearing at
Speaker 1: all times, and a backup. So you got twelve dogs,
Speaker 1: you need eight booties for each dog. Do you can
Speaker 1: do the math, But that's a it's a lot of
Speaker 1: booties to carry around initially, and then that number declines
Speaker 1: of course as you go through them and drop off
Speaker 1: dogs and things like that. And then if this was interesting,
Speaker 1: this impressed me a veterinarian notebook because when you get
Speaker 1: to the veterinarian checkpoint, you have to have It's essentially,
Speaker 1: you know, like if you're a responsible car owner, you
Speaker 1: keep a repair log and you have your mileage and
Speaker 1: you have the you know, like your yearlies and all
Speaker 1: that stuff, your thirty care or whatever. Uh. They kind
Speaker 1: of have that for the dogs, right, which I thought
Speaker 1: was responsible. And then they have to have dog coats. Uh.
Speaker 1: They they've got They've got several specific things here. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you one thing that I was curious about that
Speaker 1: I didn't find out until I went to the rule
Speaker 1: book was well, you know, I'm a cheap skate. Ever
Speaker 1: since we did this, I'm still I'm still really a
Speaker 1: cheap skate. It's impairing my relationships. But I looked into, uh,
Speaker 1: I looked into how much it would cost to get
Speaker 1: going right, not counting equipment, not counting dogs. Dogs are
Speaker 1: the biggest expense. Equipment is a second right. The entry
Speaker 1: fee alone is four grand. It's pretty expensive. It's just
Speaker 1: it's not I'm saying this because we need to establish
Speaker 1: This is not a thing where you can just like
Speaker 1: fly up a few weeks before March and say, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: how much is a sled going around me target or something. Uh,
Speaker 1: you have to it, you have to. That's four grand
Speaker 1: if you submit before December two. After that you have
Speaker 1: to pay an extra nonrefundable fee. So it's eight grand,
Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars just just to enter. That an extra
Speaker 1: four grand. Yeah if you go late yeah and yeah
Speaker 1: yeah steep it is a steep late feet and really
Speaker 1: when you think about how much it takes too. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of these you know runners at the
Speaker 1: Wade Wade Mars, the guy that I was talking about,
Speaker 1: he runs his own kennel now, so he has, you know,
Speaker 1: the dogs on his property that he has grooming for
Speaker 1: this whole thing. And of course there's gonna be you know,
Speaker 1: speaking engagements that they can do and make a little
Speaker 1: money here and there. Last I heard, the payoffs weren't
Speaker 1: terribly great compared to what you invest in order to
Speaker 1: run in this race because the sleds are expensive. The
Speaker 1: equipment is expensive. We all know. I mean, try to go,
Speaker 1: try to buy a really nice jacket, just asn't a
Speaker 1: simple example, just one jacket. Yeah, that's a expensive item, right,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna buy that. You gotta buy you know,
Speaker 1: the all of the gear that is arctic gear, you know,
Speaker 1: stuff that's I mean, we're talking really really heavy duty
Speaker 1: camping gear for for you know, the coldest temperature you
Speaker 1: ever you've ever felt in your life. And keep the
Speaker 1: dogs healthy, You keep the keep the equipment in operation,
Speaker 1: keep all you know, make sure that you have all
Speaker 1: these things shipped. You run a team of people you
Speaker 1: know that are at different checkpoints to help you along
Speaker 1: the way and to pick up dogs and to transport dogs.
Speaker 1: And it's just the logistics of this race are mind boggling,
Speaker 1: you know when you think about what it takes to
Speaker 1: put it together. And it's not something that, like Ben said,
Speaker 1: you can't go there a couple of weeks ahead of
Speaker 1: time and expect to enter the race. This is something
Speaker 1: that you get ready for gears in advance, plan for
Speaker 1: train for you have to qualify for UM. You have
Speaker 1: to get another musher that is already you know, a
Speaker 1: veteran musher to write a note of recommendation for you
Speaker 1: as somebody that they trust if you're a rookie UM.
Speaker 1: You know that's part of the rules too, that you
Speaker 1: have to Yeah, you have to to take a drug
Speaker 1: test thirty days before your dogs have to take a
Speaker 1: drug test during the during the competition as well at
Speaker 1: at points when they decide when they determ So no random, yeah,
Speaker 1: like any athletes. Yes, you're not gonna have You're not
Speaker 1: gonna have a chance, you know, to warm up with
Speaker 1: some brandy along the course there if you want to
Speaker 1: do maybe you can have a tiny little bit of brandy.
Speaker 1: But that's about it. And they check the dogs as well,
Speaker 1: and it's completely random. They may say, the first grouping
Speaker 1: of fifteen mushers that enter this town, we're going to
Speaker 1: test all of them, you know, with the spit test
Speaker 1: you're in, test of blood test, to hair test, whatever
Speaker 1: it is. We're gonna test the dogs. Or they may
Speaker 1: just randomly select one person. They may it's it's really
Speaker 1: as they see fit. I guess when they do it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So that's where there's oh man, that's another thing, you know,
Speaker 1: the drugging of dogs for added performance. That's that's another rule,
Speaker 1: which is rule number happens to be number thirty nine.
Speaker 1: I believe of the substances that you had talked about before,
Speaker 1: you know, no diuretics, no muscle relax just for the dogs.
Speaker 1: Thing that can suppress signs of illness or injury. They will. However,
Speaker 1: I thought this is interesting. Let them use steroids on
Speaker 1: their paws, a certain type of steroids that are approved
Speaker 1: through the through the medical office. They're ahead of time
Speaker 1: the veterinary office uh for injured pause so that they
Speaker 1: heal quickly, because you know they do. That's they're taking
Speaker 1: a ton of abuse on that On that course, you know,
Speaker 1: the ice and snow and rocks and all that. You know,
Speaker 1: the debris is there. Uh, and the dogs are evaluated
Speaker 1: pretty thoroughly by a veterinarian before entering the race. There's
Speaker 1: one other drug they're allowed to use, uh for an
Speaker 1: estrius suppressant. It's called ovavan is the U it's super creative.
Speaker 1: Well it gets kind of specific, right yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I believe that drug is specifically meant to keep the
Speaker 1: dogs out of heat. Oh, stay focused on the race,
Speaker 1: on the mission. Stay focused. Dogs stay focused. So Uh,
Speaker 1: it's strange because like many like many other uh competitive
Speaker 1: sports or other races they did have in the I
Speaker 1: did rod a bit of a doping scandal in recent
Speaker 1: years because there were some dogs that tested positive. Well,
Speaker 1: that's why they're pretty specific about it, right, And what's allowed,
Speaker 1: and if you look at the list, it does have
Speaker 1: the uh, the feeling to me that like every year
Speaker 1: that list probably grows a little bit like someone tries
Speaker 1: something new, you know what I mean, Like they detect
Speaker 1: something that is somehow an enhancement to that dog's energy
Speaker 1: level or the the oxygen um you know, carrying capability
Speaker 1: of the blood level and that dog, you know that
Speaker 1: type of thing. It's just like you said, it's like Nascar,
Speaker 1: the way that Nascar changes every time. Also, one thing
Speaker 1: I love about really specific rules like this. Anywhere you go,
Speaker 1: whether it's a department store or whether you're putting together furniture,
Speaker 1: and look at the instructions there. The weirdly specific stuff
Speaker 1: always tells a story between the lines, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like even when you see those bizarre laws
Speaker 1: that are still on the books in different U States,
Speaker 1: it's like, imagine you're putting together a couch and it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, step four attached the joist from point A
Speaker 1: to the uh you know, to the this part of
Speaker 1: point B. And then like the next step is like,
Speaker 1: under no circumstances, attempt to entirely eat joist and digest them.
Speaker 1: Uh if if you do so contact medical professional immediately. Uh.
Speaker 1: Please note that the joist should no longer be considered usable. Uh.
Speaker 1: Please see Appendix A for full details. And you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: eight part of this, you know what the equivalent of
Speaker 1: this is here in the office, Like if you know,
Speaker 1: suddenly an email comes out about something that you've just done.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, you burn you burn something in the toaster.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, and an hour later the email
Speaker 1: comes out to everyone, you know, for all the future
Speaker 1: users of the of the toaster, you know that type
Speaker 1: of thing. You know, so um, you know exactly there's
Speaker 1: there's one person that has has screwed something up in
Speaker 1: case that rule to be enacted. Unfortunately, if you go
Speaker 1: down a couple of rules farther down to forty two,
Speaker 1: there's a rule about expired dogs, as we talked about before,
Speaker 1: and then the treatment of those and what has to happen,
Speaker 1: and just so everybody is aware of this, when a
Speaker 1: dog does expire on the trail, which does happen, um
Speaker 1: and for for whatever reason they determine the reason, they
Speaker 1: do a quick UM. I don't think they call it
Speaker 1: an um. An autopsy is called like a necropsy. I
Speaker 1: think or something like that. They run that they have
Speaker 1: you know, veterinarians check it out. They do the blood
Speaker 1: samples and everything. The musher is held in the next checkpoint,
Speaker 1: you know, after the dog is delivered, you know, unfortunately deceased,
Speaker 1: to figure out exactly what happened, to find it, to
Speaker 1: determine if there is any abuse that was there, or
Speaker 1: drug overdose or you know, whatever happened to that dog.
Speaker 1: They find out the cause of death and either um,
Speaker 1: you know, either pull that musher from the competition if
Speaker 1: there is something suspect in there, or they allow the
Speaker 1: musher to continue if it's deemed as you know, a
Speaker 1: natural death, if something an unpreventable hazard enacted. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a hazard of the race. And I
Speaker 1: mean it does happen. It does happen. You know, someone
Speaker 1: will point to a human marathon and say that if
Speaker 1: we had deaths in this human marathon at the rate
Speaker 1: we have in the I did a ride, would have
Speaker 1: a big problem. Right if if people were dropping in
Speaker 1: the Boston Marathon or the New York Marathon like they
Speaker 1: do in the IDDA Rode. And it's not like dogs
Speaker 1: are dying every year by any means, it's just it
Speaker 1: happens occasionally, and it seems like for a couple of
Speaker 1: years there was a like a grouping where it happened often. Um.
Speaker 1: But anyways, that's something you can investigate on your own.
Speaker 1: But um, there is a rule about expired dogs and
Speaker 1: about you know, what has to happen there. Unfortunately, it's
Speaker 1: it has to be there, it has to be there.
Speaker 1: But also it's uh, it's prefaced with the iddar Rod
Speaker 1: holds firmly that no dogs should suffer harm or death
Speaker 1: in connection to the race. And it's good that they
Speaker 1: have a process in place to make sure that there's
Speaker 1: not some unscrupulous musher out there. Absolutely, but you know
Speaker 1: what you talk to, you know people that do this,
Speaker 1: and they they love their dogs. I mean they are
Speaker 1: they're they're part of their family. I mean it's now
Speaker 1: they really do they love these animals. So um, anyways,
Speaker 1: that's well, we'll move on past that. There's another couple
Speaker 1: that I want to mention here that I think we're interesting.
Speaker 1: There are rules about passing which I thought were interesting.
Speaker 1: That's ruled number twenty six passing. There's some interesting right
Speaker 1: of way type situations that happen where you know, if
Speaker 1: somebody is approaching you from behind, you need to let
Speaker 1: them pass, and there's a certain amount of time you
Speaker 1: have to wait and before you retake the trail, and
Speaker 1: you know that type of thing. So there's passing rules
Speaker 1: if you wonder how that works. So they're not getting
Speaker 1: next to each other and you know, like trying to
Speaker 1: knock each other out of the way like had Max
Speaker 1: style or something. I'm not saying that doesn't happen. You
Speaker 1: know that there's not somebody out there that's doing that,
Speaker 1: but do you think they would be reported and the
Speaker 1: next you know, the next checkpoint of course. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: way it works is if someone's coming up behind you,
Speaker 1: they can say get out of the way, and you
Speaker 1: have to you have to stop your team and you
Speaker 1: have to hold the dogs for sixty seconds or until
Speaker 1: the other team is passed, which ever happens first. That's interesting, right,
Speaker 1: But the team that gets past can't repeat that action
Speaker 1: until at least fifteen minutes have expired. So you gotta
Speaker 1: stay behind the team that passed you for a minimum
Speaker 1: of fifteen minutes and then get out of the way.
Speaker 1: Then get out of the way. Well, you got that
Speaker 1: sixty second breaks. You got all that energy, right, you
Speaker 1: can you can last past them, right. I wonder if
Speaker 1: dog dog slads don't have rear view mirrors. So I
Speaker 1: wonder if it's sort of a surprise when someone y
Speaker 1: else behind you. I don't know why that sounded so profound.
Speaker 1: That sounds like what you're talking about with the lead
Speaker 1: dog thing earlier. That sounds like something I would see
Speaker 1: on a bumper sticker. And it's like dog SAIDs don't
Speaker 1: have rear view mirrors. It's not really a life lesson.
Speaker 1: It's just that's just a fact. But it sounds like
Speaker 1: about something it could be. You know, I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: on that. There's got to be something that works, okay.
Speaker 1: And the last one that I wanted to mention, the
Speaker 1: last rule um and of many many rules in this
Speaker 1: book um are is number twenty three. There's something called
Speaker 1: the Good Samaritan rule. And the Good Samaritan rule is
Speaker 1: pretty interesting to me, Ben, I don't have it in
Speaker 1: front of me right now due to a computer failure.
Speaker 1: Rule number twenty three. The Good Samaritan Rules states that
Speaker 1: a musher will not be penalized for aiding another musher
Speaker 1: in an emergency incidents must be explained to race officials
Speaker 1: at the next checkpoint. I love this rule. You know
Speaker 1: this this goes back to you and I talking about
Speaker 1: how we would occasionally, and I guess i've we've slipped
Speaker 1: out of this, but would help someone somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: with the tire, a roadside assistance, you know, like of
Speaker 1: of another citizen. How that's kind of gone away. Now
Speaker 1: we don't necessarily do that anymore here and there. Maybe yes,
Speaker 1: you know, in certain circumstances, but the good Samaritan rule
Speaker 1: ensures that you know, someone's stuck out there in the
Speaker 1: wilderness with a broken uh you know, dog sled ski,
Speaker 1: or you know they're having a trouble of some kind,
Speaker 1: or you know, a moose situation, who knows, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: the good Samaritan rule comes into play that you have
Speaker 1: to aid the other, the fellow contestants, the fellow mushers,
Speaker 1: And I think it's a great rule to have. I
Speaker 1: mean that you know, you can't just ignore them and
Speaker 1: leave them out there, because in this case, you know,
Speaker 1: you ignore them, there's a good chance they might die
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah, the whole team. I mean, it really
Speaker 1: could happen. There have been no human deaths that I
Speaker 1: know of to date from nineteen seventy three until present.
Speaker 1: A few dog deaths here and there, but no human deaths.
Speaker 1: And I think the Good Samaritan rule probably has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with that, being, you know, just helping
Speaker 1: out your fellow man. It seems like that's just the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. Anyway. I think most people would
Speaker 1: do that regardless if there was a rule number twenty
Speaker 1: three if there wasn't, so, I guess the accumulated total
Speaker 1: time kind of the time clock stops when you stop
Speaker 1: to help someone. So before this rule, I mean, I
Speaker 1: would imagine that maybe the drive to yeah, and I
Speaker 1: think it it might come to in a position to
Speaker 1: you know, the one coming to the aid, yeah, is
Speaker 1: not penalized a position versus the other one, because I
Speaker 1: think when they, you know, if they get back on
Speaker 1: the trail, maybe they determine how, you know, what the
Speaker 1: gap should be in that type of thing. So without
Speaker 1: knowing the specifics of every situation, you know, it's tough
Speaker 1: to say, but I think that they're just generally, which
Speaker 1: is nice to say, they're generally fair about things, which
Speaker 1: is good. There's an etiquette to this to the race, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And uh, and a bit of um, you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they're women, and women participate also, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of a gentleman's rule. Well, there's not any um, there's
Speaker 1: chivalry to it, right, and there's there's not any I
Speaker 1: would see. Most of the people racing, they're not there
Speaker 1: to become millionaires off of it. They're they're racing because
Speaker 1: they enjoy the journey and they enjoy the competition. And
Speaker 1: part of the competition is a really enjoyable competition has fairness. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is a generational thing too, right, I mean, well,
Speaker 1: if you look down the list of winners from nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy three till present, you're gonna find that a lot
Speaker 1: of these, uh, the winners of the Idea Rode are
Speaker 1: either you know, I think there's a father's son, there's
Speaker 1: the brother. There's a lot of brothers and even sisters
Speaker 1: that you know, have raised and um, it's just it's
Speaker 1: a it's it's fascinating to look down the list of
Speaker 1: repeat winners and see who's won, you know, three, four
Speaker 1: or five times. It's kind of interesting. You know. Then
Speaker 1: there's always going to be the first, you know, like
Speaker 1: the first father son you know, uh, years apart obviously
Speaker 1: or maybe the next year or whatever. But then you know,
Speaker 1: the first person to win two in a row, the
Speaker 1: first person to win three in a row, um, you know, repeats,
Speaker 1: the first woman, the first uh whatever, you know, there's
Speaker 1: always first of everything. This is one of those sports.
Speaker 1: You It's interesting to me about this, this type ration
Speaker 1: is it's one of those competitions that probably will never
Speaker 1: have autonomous vehicles involved. There probably will not be uh
Speaker 1: electric electrics sled race there probably there there are, but
Speaker 1: it won't be the idea rode and then probably won't
Speaker 1: be you know, a computer at the other end of
Speaker 1: the sled that's yelling. It's you know. Before we finished
Speaker 1: this up, I want to point out that what do
Speaker 1: we say that the first race was one and it
Speaker 1: was like it was like twenty days, that's right, yes,
Speaker 1: twenty days and some out hours, and we were gonna
Speaker 1: we were gonna tell our listeners how that how that
Speaker 1: time has been cut down and cut down and cut down,
Speaker 1: and of course it's incremental, right, twenty days, zero hours,
Speaker 1: forty nine minutes and forty one second. Okay, so twenty
Speaker 1: days is how long that first first competitor was out
Speaker 1: there and all the teams behind him, and that was
Speaker 1: that was the fastest. Everybody else is out there a
Speaker 1: lot longer, right, Okay, So in I only have the
Speaker 1: numbers for number seventeen. Actually, you know what, I shouldn't say.
Speaker 1: I only have the numbers. I have the course record
Speaker 1: which was broken in ten and nineteen didn't produce the record,
Speaker 1: didn't break a record, but seventeen. Uh, the winner was
Speaker 1: a guy named Mike CV, and that's the musher and
Speaker 1: Mike CV. I think he's a repeat winner too, he wasn't.
Speaker 1: This is at first first win. Get this, Ben and
Speaker 1: Kurt get this. Eight days, three hours, forty minutes and
Speaker 1: thirteen seconds. So they have cut down from twenty days
Speaker 1: down to eight days, and not even not even like
Speaker 1: eight and a half days. It's like just over eight days.
Speaker 1: So that's unbelievable to me. I mean, how do you
Speaker 1: cut that much off of the winning time in order
Speaker 1: to in order to break the right? I mean that
Speaker 1: that is a shattered record right there. But I know
Speaker 1: that over the last well, gosh, how many years is
Speaker 1: that now? It's forty plus years, right, forty six years
Speaker 1: now that they run this thing. It's gone down slow,
Speaker 1: you know, slowly. The course record is then, you know,
Speaker 1: nineteen days, eighteen days, you know, it jumps down like that.
Speaker 1: But to get from twenty to eight that's pretty remarkable. Really,
Speaker 1: something's up? I mean, is it better dogs, is it
Speaker 1: better sleds, is it better mushers? Is it faster snow?
Speaker 1: The weather? It was a southern route because it was
Speaker 1: an odd number year, right, Yeah, so maybe the route
Speaker 1: has some sort of role. Um. Yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's over the years. In the big picture, it's probably
Speaker 1: just the stature of the event and the way that
Speaker 1: people approached it probably just got more and more competitive
Speaker 1: as as things now. See. I buy that too. I
Speaker 1: think that you know, early on, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: think that it was like we're all going to do
Speaker 1: this and it's going to be a good time. But
Speaker 1: no one is like, you know, training in the off
Speaker 1: season in order to lose weight in order to make
Speaker 1: their sled lighter, and no one is you know, looking
Speaker 1: at alternative materials for their sled, and they're not feeding
Speaker 1: their dogs, you know, like super high energy food and
Speaker 1: the right types of medical drugs that they can give
Speaker 1: their dogs that you know, help them to grow bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger and you know that are still legal, you know,
Speaker 1: for the dog race, their dog sled race. But it
Speaker 1: seems like, you know, people get more and more competitive
Speaker 1: about things, and I think money is probably a bit
Speaker 1: of a driver because there is a bigger personnel than
Speaker 1: there ever was. You know, it really wasn't a race
Speaker 1: about money to begin with, was it lifestyles and established sports. So,
Speaker 1: I mean people make their living doing this s these
Speaker 1: types of races. I'm sure that plays into it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just I mean, I know that people start to
Speaker 1: take things more and more serious. But it's kind of like, um,
Speaker 1: I see this. I guess a correlation of this is that,
Speaker 1: you know, we talked about how hard it is to
Speaker 1: you can't just show up and do this. There used
Speaker 1: to be there are some types of auto racing that
Speaker 1: you could do the same thing for right, you can
Speaker 1: just show up and race and you know, you pay
Speaker 1: your entrance fee and you've got the same equipment as
Speaker 1: you know the semi pros do that are already there.
Speaker 1: Everything seems to go this way, seems to get this
Speaker 1: way that you know, then if you don't have you know,
Speaker 1: now you're at the point in a lot of series
Speaker 1: where if you don't have two million dollars to start
Speaker 1: and and eight cars you know in the in the garage,
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be able to do it. And it's
Speaker 1: in a way simpler for the dog's letters to compete,
Speaker 1: but it also takes more time and more preparation and
Speaker 1: more understanding of what it was all about in the
Speaker 1: history of in order to to do this. I think
Speaker 1: it feels like we could talk about this all day, really,
Speaker 1: I mean, how these different shades of gray I guess
Speaker 1: of of why people do it and how they get
Speaker 1: better at it, and and I don't know, because you
Speaker 1: can't ride moose. Let's be honest. Dogs are great. Would
Speaker 1: you want to see a moose race? I would want
Speaker 1: to see a moose race? I really would. I would.
Speaker 1: I would they? Would you wear a saddle? Not you?
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean with the moose wear a saddle? Uh,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Apparently I zoned out for a little
Speaker 1: bit because I was thinking about this, and I just
Speaker 1: checked on it off Mike, and apparently it's very difficult
Speaker 1: to ride moose. They don't care for it. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: pretty big, Yeah they're they're they can be angry too.
Speaker 1: From what we've heard in the in this did I
Speaker 1: tell you? Yeah, I went. One of the things I
Speaker 1: was doing when I was up in Alaska is I
Speaker 1: interviewed a lovely lady who uh in her she was,
Speaker 1: she's retired, she's elderly now, but even just a few
Speaker 1: years ago, she actually got in one on one fight
Speaker 1: with a moose that was attacking her husband. Well she
Speaker 1: a dog there too, that was trying to chase the
Speaker 1: moose off. But she had to grab a shovel from
Speaker 1: a pickup truck and just start wailing on it. And eventually,
Speaker 1: I think, I think the thing is the size difference
Speaker 1: was so big that eventually the moose just became inconvenienced
Speaker 1: and then decided to leave. You know. Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: just like, well, this is not what I signed up for.
Speaker 1: This is and we've all been there, you know what.
Speaker 1: That's how I am with laundry. I got it. I
Speaker 1: wonder what the moose is going after her husband for
Speaker 1: though I don't know, but a mad moose is a
Speaker 1: very dangerous thing because, you know, occasionally when they perceive
Speaker 1: humans as threats, their initial like any wild animal, their
Speaker 1: initial idea if they think you're a threat, is going
Speaker 1: to be to either is to flee, but then the
Speaker 1: second option is to fight. So moose are giant, you know,
Speaker 1: they're huge. Camping and Clarney, Canada and uh, when we
Speaker 1: were headed to go camping and Clarny, Canada and it
Speaker 1: was it was probably around early and we're headed up
Speaker 1: and this is in like north of Michigan in Canada,
Speaker 1: and uh, it's pitch black. It's night. We've been traveling
Speaker 1: all night and now we're in this man event. It
Speaker 1: was in Ford Arrow Star, so back then, you know,
Speaker 1: revenans minivans. So we're up kind of high and we're
Speaker 1: on a gravel road, no lights anywhere. It's pitch black.
Speaker 1: My friend Mark slams on the brakes and we skid
Speaker 1: pretty significant distance. We were going too fast, but we
Speaker 1: skidded along long ways gravel and there we are eye
Speaker 1: to eye with a baby moose and it's big. I
Speaker 1: mean it's like it's seven ft tall. You know, if
Speaker 1: if it felt like it was seven ftall's probably six
Speaker 1: feet tall. But um, it had you know, the nice,
Speaker 1: big wide body, you know, like the big fat belly
Speaker 1: and everything. It's just what you would think, you know,
Speaker 1: like a baby. But it's clearly a baby, gawkish, awkward.
Speaker 1: It's like the legs shouldn't hold them up. The body
Speaker 1: is really big and their heads big and you know
Speaker 1: all that, and it was it was an awkward looking animal,
Speaker 1: but it's very calm and it just it just kind
Speaker 1: of stared us for a few seconds and we were
Speaker 1: all catching our breath looking at it in the headlights
Speaker 1: and just walked away. That's just strolled off to the
Speaker 1: side of the road. But we were lucky not to
Speaker 1: hit it because I think we would have done significant
Speaker 1: damage to the car. Oh yeah, last moose story. It's
Speaker 1: just something I've heard, so Alaskan residents right to us
Speaker 1: and let us know if if you've run into this before. Uh.
Speaker 1: I heard that people in in Alaskan towns around Halloween
Speaker 1: have a problem with jack Landern's because the moose love
Speaker 1: to eat pumpkins. So you'll carve a pumpkin and put
Speaker 1: it out and then some moose will come by and
Speaker 1: just sort of like lazily, uh, jaw on it. You know,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? They like pumpkins. How far
Speaker 1: are you willing to go to protect that? Don't don't
Speaker 1: push too don't put too much time into the carving
Speaker 1: of that pumping, And I guess that's what you're saying, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you know what they say, guys, dog sleds don't
Speaker 1: have rear view mirrors. No, stop working. It feels like
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be, you know something. Maybe we'll figure
Speaker 1: it out. But that's the idea. Rod. Yeah, there's there's
Speaker 1: a lot to it, isn't there. And there's probably a
Speaker 1: lot more than we're talking. We just scratched the surface,
Speaker 1: I believe, I think so, you know, we just we
Speaker 1: just pawed the snow. But I I am fascinated by it.
Speaker 1: You know, the three of us have been fans of
Speaker 1: the outdoors. Um temperature dependent, right, Scott, No, it's getting cold. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh And I I for one, would love to would
Speaker 1: love to travel back up to Alaska, maybe in March,
Speaker 1: to just at least see the launch because they launched
Speaker 1: from Anchorage. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah. How about
Speaker 1: the finish, I mean they have We didn't talk about it,
Speaker 1: but there's a listeners can check this on their own.
Speaker 1: But there's the borroled arch that they cross underneath. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a whole history behind that, and that's a pretty
Speaker 1: fascinating story. Too, but we didn't have time next time.
Speaker 1: How's that for a tease? Right? Wait, wait, don't have time?
Speaker 1: Maybe don't have time. But they're looking to look up
Speaker 1: the burled arch with the the Idea Rode and there's
Speaker 1: a story behind that and the original arch that was
Speaker 1: destroyed and now they've got a new one and it's
Speaker 1: really cool and maybe we can see that someday. Who knows.
Speaker 1: I mean, Atlanska is not like it's not impossible to
Speaker 1: get to anymore, right, pretty easy? Yeah, I think so. Yeah,
Speaker 1: unless something happened while we were in the studio. You know,
Speaker 1: flights daily. You can take a cruise there, you can
Speaker 1: drive there. I guess Kurt he's a bicycle or he
Speaker 1: could bike there. I'm sure he could. He's got a
Speaker 1: durance So so, uh, we want to hear from you
Speaker 1: have Are you someone who objects to the Idea Rode
Speaker 1: because of maybe concerns about the animals. Are you someone
Speaker 1: who supports this competition or you someone who has participated
Speaker 1: in the Idea Rode or any sled race. If so,
Speaker 1: we would love to hear from you. You can find
Speaker 1: car Stuff on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram,
Speaker 1: you can find us on Twitter, we're car stuff all
Speaker 1: one word or something, you know, derivation thereof. You can
Speaker 1: also find every single episode that Scott, Kurt and I
Speaker 1: have ever done on our website, car stuff show dot com,
Speaker 1: even even the first ones. Do you haven those first ones? Scott?
Speaker 1: And those were ugly? Boy? Yeah, I shouldn't have even
Speaker 1: said that on it might have said this one was ugly.
Speaker 1: But you know what, I think that we're getting better
Speaker 1: as as time goes on. We're like a fine wine then, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, age like wine, not like milk. Well, when
Speaker 1: we look back, you know, in our in our dog
Speaker 1: sled review mirrors, well we find that the early episodes
Speaker 1: were a little tough going. They were they were a
Speaker 1: little forced, um, but we got there right. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think the throughout our career with car stuff, you guys,
Speaker 1: we only have one episode that we were ever recording
Speaker 1: that we decided not to publish. You remember that way,
Speaker 1: I do. I can't believe you're bringing that up right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's true, though I will never divulge what that is.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I'll tell Kurt later. He doesn't know. Uh
Speaker 1: so let us know. We hope you enjoyed the this episode.
Speaker 1: We hope you tune in for our future episodes. No spoilers,
Speaker 1: but we have an episode about spoilers. I'm kidding. We
Speaker 1: don't have an episode about spoilers yet. It's this huge
Speaker 1: treasure true of topics we want to cover, so we
Speaker 1: also want to hear from you if you have suggestions
Speaker 1: for topics you feel that your fellow listeners would enjoy
Speaker 1: in the future. And thanks for listening everyone, We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time. Car Stuff is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.