If the dogs left the trail the musher would wake up quickly as they flew off the back of the sled. The problem would be if the dogs stopped and laid down on the trail, which is why you need a good lead dog who will ignore the silly human when necessary and get on with the job.

Not many people understand that I’m about 650 miles from Miami by road. It’s almost exactly a thousand miles from the Gulf to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Alaska is about the size in land area as the US East of the Mississippi. There are few roads, and limited rail. From Anchorage south, a boat is the best form of transportation.

There is a reason there are so many small aircraft in Alaska, but when things get really bad, a dog sled will get you to places that nothing else can reach. It’s been that way for thousands of years, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

At this point, the dogs are a good deal more lucid than the mushers. If you have dogs that know the trail, you can, and many do, sleep on the runners.

You know, I just keep forgetting that Alaska is one enormous state. I’ll bet only a fraction of the people in the contiguous U.S. realize just how big it is. I tried this little map trick with myself last year, and I think I just forgot the utter vastness of it all. It just blows my mind. How in the world do these dogs do it? They are flat amazing, and the mushers are no slouches either.

AND, they’re not finished yet!