Dog Sledding

I mentioned in my Quebec post that we’ll be going dog-sledding while we’re there.  We’ll each get a chance to drive the sled for a while, which I think will be incredibly exciting.  So here’s a bit on the history of dog sleds:

Dogs have been used for transport in arctic regions since the 10th century.  It’s believed that without such means, we never could have explored or inhabited such snowy climates.  They’ve been used to transport everything from people to mail and medicine, and other supplies.

The first recreational dog race was believed to have been held sometime in the mid-to-late 1800s.  In the 1920s, gold miners brought dog sledding back to New England, where it boomed with popularity.  By 1932, dog sledding was a demonstrational sport in the Winter Olympics of that year.  It was featured again in 1952 at the Oslo Olympics.

Since then, interest has seemingly waned, but every year, many dog sled races are held across the world.  The Iditarod, for example, is a grueling 1150 mile sled race across the wilderness of Alaska which draws worldwide attention.