Day 9: Black Spruce Dog Sledding and Chena Hot Springs Resort

Back when we were planning our trip and talked to my wonderful coworker Ali, she recommended her friends at Black Spruce Dog Kennel for our dog sled ride. Because we couldn't come to Alaska and not experience a dog sled ride - for a variety of reasons, including Alik's love for Jack London (specifically Call of the Wild) and my history with huskies back in Russia.

Of course, every place in Alaska offers some kind of "dog kennel" or "dog sled ride" - we saw signs in Seward, Denali Park, Chena Resort - but these are cheap tourist traps. (Or maybe not cheap, I don't know.) What I do know is that Jeff and KattiJo have the real thing: their kennel is authentic, personal, and a happy place. They live out there with their dogs, compete in the Iditarod race every year - this is their life, and meeting them was a real privilege. 

Another note on the weather: it was supposed to rain all day, with 93% probability... just what you do not need to enjoy a dog sled run... But as I mentioned earlier, Alaska was very good to us - the rain held off just when we most needed it!

We arrived at the kennel...

... petted as many dogs as we had a chance (I am severely restraining myself to just a few photos)...

... and learned about the famous Iditarod dog race. It is almost a thousand miles long and generally takes 10-15 days. (Fastest-ever winning time was 7 days 14 hours and change, in 2021.) There are two routes: a northern route, which is run on even-numbered years, and a southern route, which is run on odd-numbered years. Here is the map.

A ceremonial start occurs in Anchorage (no way they can dog sled directly from Anchorage), so then there is an official restart in Willow, after which the musher and the dogs are completely out there in the wilderness (with several checkpoints along the way). They run through tundra and spruce forests, over hills and mountain passes, across rivers and even over sea ice, finally reaching Nome in western Alaska. Mushers prepare "drop bags" of supplies, flown ahead to checkpoints, they make three mandatory rest stops and also shorter stops along the way to let the dogs rest, but the musher hardly rests at all. By the time he (or she) unharnesses the dogs, feeds them, checks and massages their paws, tucks them in to sleep and takes care of the gear, it is almost time to get up and going again... Jeff says the hardest thing during the race is sleep deprivation.

KattiJo has done the Iditarod twice so far, and Jeff will be running for the 10th time next March. Under the map, you can see his 2026 Third Place trophy. Let's wish him first place next year!

This is the sled they use for the race. They start with 16 dogs - because you cannot substitute fresh ones during the race, but if a dog injures a paw, gets tired, or whatever, there is a veterinarian at checkpoints and they can send the dog home - so usually they end the race with 8 (officially, you have to finish with at least 5).

We then helped harness the dogs into the ATV. (There is no snow, so ATV serves as the sled.) 

There was so much positive energy - the dogs really wanted to run! And here we go...

Of course, I wanted to take all these dogs back home with me...

The rain held off until the very end of our ride, when it started drizzling slightly. We still went into a separate pen, to say hi to the puppies...

... but then it was time to leave. 

That's when rain started in earnest and continued for the rest of the day. It must have colored my impressions, but in all probability, I wouldn't have liked Chena Resort anyway - it is not my kind of scene.

But first - lunch. We stopped at a Korean BBQ place in Downtown Fairbanks and had some hot soup - just what one needs in this kind of weather!

We then drove about an hour out to Chena Hot Springs Resort, where we were spending our last night in Alaska. Besides the hot springs, they have all kinds of tourist attractions (of the tourist-trap kind). We had to wait for our room anyway, so went to the ice museum. 

For extra $20/pp you can have an Appletini from an ice glass inside the ice museum... they make these martini ice glasses non-stop, right there in the shop. 

Beware that if you do have the martini, you need to carry that chunk of ice (the glass) in your hands for the rest of the tour - you are not allowed to put it down anywhere, and you cannot leave the "tour" early - even if you have looked at everything there is, which is not much. (You are not allowed to open the door to leave, have to wait until the "guide" does it.) Why they cannot put a plastic bucket near the exit, so that tourists can drop off their ice glasses when done, is beyond me. Maybe this is not a problem in the winter, when everybody wears gloves... but who carries gloves in the summer?

Anyway, you can sense that I was pretty annoyed with the place by that point. We went to the hot spring - there is a hot spring...

... and at least the water is hot. But another annoying thing - you have to put 2 quarters in your locker. Why!? You pay quite enough to get into the place, why do they have to nickel-and-dime you like that? - not a token, not a digital lock (like in any self-respecting public pool in Iceland), not even one quarter - but two...

Also - throngs of people everywhere, and the room - when we finally got into it - extremely hot. This happens sometimes when you stay at the hot springs - they get heating for free, so the hotel doesn't worry about regulating it. We tried to turn the thermostat off - it didn't do anything... opened the windows, but it didn't help much either. Room was very basic, nothing in it but two single beds.

I kept thinking that we should have stayed two nights at Best Western and just driven out to the hot spring and back - but hindsight is 20/20. 

> Day 10