June 2 2008 Whitehorse still

We visited Muktuk Kennels run by Frank Turner, 24 times runner of the Yukon Quest, a 1,050 mile dog sled race from Faribanks to Whitehorse or the reverse depending on the year. Frank won the race in 1995 and his record stood for 12 years. We did kind of a tour, but really more like a friendly visit to his kennls and house. We started by wandering through the kennels by ourselves meeting and petting all the dogs who weren't too sleepy. Then we went with Frank and one of his volunteer assistants for a walk with about 20 of the dogs down to the Takhini river a tributary of the Yukon river. During this walk Frank spent a fair bit of time explaining teams, how they are built on trust, how he gets the best out of each dog and things that can go wrong and cause problems. Once back at his house we watched an hour long video which took us about 2 hours to watch because Frank pauses it and explains everything that is going on, the strategies involved and the way the people and dogs are feeling at the time. Finally we were taken to his gear room to see his clothing, equipment and sled. It was fascinating and too soon one o'clock became 5 o'clock and we had to go home.