Dogsledding in Alaska
My first lesson in Alaskan dogsledding came before I even got to my private cabin, said Andrew McCarthy in The New York Times. Instructor Carl Dixon, who met my ski-plane on the snow-covered ice outside Winterlake Lodge, shared his “rule No. 1” immediately: “When you crash,” he said, “never let go.” No one else had signed up for the four-day course with Within the Wild Adventure Co. (withinthewild​.com), and at first I rode as Dixon’s passenger. “There was no sound except the wind” as we darted through trees, and the rhythm of the huskies pulling us became hypnotic. I wiped out during my first time at the reins, but by day 4, I was ready to brave a section of the famous Iditarod Trail. Approaching “Wipe Out Hill,” I stood on the brake as I’d been trained, but the dogs wouldn’t slow. Suddenly I was tumbling 50 feet off the trail into the soft snow below. “Just like the pros!” Dixon shouted.
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