Sled Dog

ELDERSBURG -- Alaska is one of the 50 states, but Thursday's visitors to Eldersburg Elementary School might as well have been from another planet.In 70-degree temperatures, Ron Tinsley and Vivian Pederson -- owners of the Tivi sled dog kennel in Fairbanks, Alaska -- tried to take the students to a land where the temperature rarely gets above 50 and the sun never sets from mid-May to August."

On a bracing morning in early winter, 12-year-old Miranda Gindling is about to speed along the Northern Central Railroad Trail in Monkton, pulled by a team of four eager huskies. Not a snowflake's in sight. "Do you get motion sickness?" Catherine Benson asks. The co-founder of Maryland Sled Dog Adventures has finished harnessing the team into a wheeled conveyance called a rig. Miranda, a seventh-grade student at Sandy Spring Friends School who is working on a dog-sledding research project, shakes her head.

NEW MIDWAY -- Seven yelping huskies strained at their harnesses, eager for their master's command to lunge and lumber along a winding trail at a remote Frederick County farm.The cold, starlit night was nearly perfect for sled-dog racing. Just one thing was missing: Snow."Ready! Go!" cried John Tate, the bearded, 33-year-old president of the Mason-Dixon Sled Dog Racing Association. His seven-dog team jerked ahead for a training run last week into the darkness of a Maryland night -- and into continued obscurity.

Iditarod L. Mackey wins race in just over 9 days Lance Mackey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the first musher to win major long-distance North American sled dog races back-to-back. Mackey crossed under the famed burled arch in downtown Nome, Alaska, early yesterday evening, completing the 1,100-mile Iditarod in just over nine days. He celebrated as he came down Nome's Front Street, alternately waving a fist in the air, then high-fiving fans who lined the street. His family mobbed him at the finish line.

For Westminster veterinarian Nicholas Herrick, turning the Big 4-0 in December had more than the usual significance.His wife, Becky, decided to send him to Alaska as a birthday present.It was she who urged him to apply for a position as one of the trail veterinarians for the running of the 21st Iditarod Sled Dog Race."It's something that he's always wanted to do," said Ms. Herrick, who remained at home with their daughters, Natalie, 11; Holly, 10; and 7-month-old Susanna.On Tuesday, he flew to Alaska to join 20 other veterinarians who were chosen from around the world to monitor the health of the dog teams on the 1,157-mile run from Anchorage to Nome.

Dan Dent's dreams of completing the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have come to a bloody end on a frozen river northwest of Anchorage.The Baltimore investment adviser's hands were badly bitten on Sunday, just nine hours into the race, when he tried to break up a fight among his dogs. He resumed the race, but Iditarod officials saw by Monday evening that he had lost most of the use of his hands, and forced him out. He was then flown back to an Anchorage hospital for treatment."It was a pretty ugly end to a good story," Dent said yesterday from his hospital bed.An Iditarod rookie, Dent, 57, was running last among 55 mushers in the grueling 1,100-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.

It's been a cold, cold world at Ilchester Elementary School the past month or so. At least it has been for the first-graders in Robin Sharp's class. The fourth-graders in Julie Bartel's class might say that for them, it's been somewhat of a dog's life. But that will change tomorrow when the two teachers leave the shelter of the school building for colder climates and "ruff"-er challenges. Bartel and Sharp have been preparing their classes for the teachers' departure to Anchorage, Alaska, where they will participate in the snow-covered state's best-known sporting event: the Iditarod sled dog race.

Iditarod L. Mackey wins race in just over 9 days Lance Mackey won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, becoming the first musher to win major long-distance North American sled dog races back-to-back. Mackey crossed under the famed burled arch in downtown Nome, Alaska, early yesterday evening, completing the 1,100-mile Iditarod in just over nine days. He celebrated as he came down Nome's Front Street, alternately waving a fist in the air, then high-fiving fans who lined the street. His family mobbed him at the finish line.

LOVE TO LEARN WITH THE LEARNING SITE If you like games, you'll love The Learning Site by Harcourt School Publishers at www.harcourtschool.com. This fun, colorful site features all your favorite subjects, from reading to social science. Each section's activities are categorized by grade level. The site map has links to games and activities. The art section is filled with activities about architecture, cave paintings and relief sculptures such as Mount Rushmore. The health section has info about your brain, teeth, skeleton and the food pyramid.

Norman Vaughan, 100, who as a young man explored Antarctica and spent much of his life seeking adventure, died Friday at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. He joined Admiral Richard Byrd on his expedition to the South Pole in 1928 and 1930 as a dog handler and driver. Days before his 89th birthday, he and his wife, Carolyn Muegge-Vaughan, returned to Antarctica and climbed to the summit of 10,302-foot Mount Vaughan, the mountain Admiral Byrd named in his honor. Mr. Vaughan's exploits included finishing the 1,100 mile-Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race six times after age 70. At age 96, he carried the Olympic torch in Juneau, passing the flame from a wheelchair, 70 years after he competed in the Olympics as a sled dog racer.

Norman Vaughan, 100, who as a young man explored Antarctica and spent much of his life seeking adventure, died Friday at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. He joined Admiral Richard Byrd on his expedition to the South Pole in 1928 and 1930 as a dog handler and driver. Days before his 89th birthday, he and his wife, Carolyn Muegge-Vaughan, returned to Antarctica and climbed to the summit of 10,302-foot Mount Vaughan, the mountain Admiral Byrd named in his honor. Mr. Vaughan's exploits included finishing the 1,100 mile-Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race six times after age 70. At age 96, he carried the Olympic torch in Juneau, passing the flame from a wheelchair, 70 years after he competed in the Olympics as a sled dog racer.

I would love to take the week of Thanksgiving to go on a dog-sledding expedition in Alaska. What are the more affordable options? As odd as it may seem, last year many places in Alaska did not have enough snow on the ground for mushing until late November, said Amy Cockerham, a spokeswoman for Alaska Travel Industry Association. Because the time of the first snowfall varies from year to year, you will want to monitor snow conditions as winter begins and perhaps delay booking your flight until tour operators confirm that they will be running trips.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Somewhere up in the heavens, they evidently thought it would be a joke: Let's switch the winters on people and see what happens. We'll sock the mid-Atlantic, where a dusting of snow can cause mass hysteria, with 2 feet-plus in a single weekend. And we'll leave Anchorage with the second-warmest winter since record-keeping began in 1915. Hence, the bizarre turn of events in this normally white and frigid region, which springs to life each winter with cross-country skiing, snowmobile races, sled dog competitions and ice climbing.

Although I had anticipated that it would happen, it was still with some surprise that I found myself being dragged in the snow behind eight powerful, excited Siberian huskies, one desperate hand on the sled handle and legs flailing behind me in what our guide good-naturedly referred to as "an Indiana Jones." I managed to pull myself back on the sled and bring it to a halt. As I waited for my wife, Kerry, to limp her way over because she had been knocked off the sled halfway down the hill, I found myself breathing heavily, surrounded by a stunning, snowy landscape.

LOVE TO LEARN WITH THE LEARNING SITE If you like games, you'll love The Learning Site by Harcourt School Publishers at www.harcourtschool.com. This fun, colorful site features all your favorite subjects, from reading to social science. Each section's activities are categorized by grade level. The site map has links to games and activities. The art section is filled with activities about architecture, cave paintings and relief sculptures such as Mount Rushmore. The health section has info about your brain, teeth, skeleton and the food pyramid.

It's been a cold, cold world at Ilchester Elementary School the past month or so. At least it has been for the first-graders in Robin Sharp's class. The fourth-graders in Julie Bartel's class might say that for them, it's been somewhat of a dog's life. But that will change tomorrow when the two teachers leave the shelter of the school building for colder climates and "ruff"-er challenges. Bartel and Sharp have been preparing their classes for the teachers' departure to Anchorage, Alaska, where they will participate in the snow-covered state's best-known sporting event: the Iditarod sled dog race.

Wintertime in Baltimore may not seem like the optimal time to hang out in the great outdoors, but a festival this weekend is meant to convince you otherwise.Baltimore on Ice Winterfest '98 kicks off at noon tomorrow and, if Mother Nature refuses to cooperate by providing real snow, the manufactured stuff will be substituted.The four-day festival will take place mainly at Rash Field and the Inner Harbor ice rink.Dogs -- and plenty of them -- will figure prominently among the wintry wonders of the festival.

I would love to take the week of Thanksgiving to go on a dog-sledding expedition in Alaska. What are the more affordable options? As odd as it may seem, last year many places in Alaska did not have enough snow on the ground for mushing until late November, said Amy Cockerham, a spokeswoman for Alaska Travel Industry Association. Because the time of the first snowfall varies from year to year, you will want to monitor snow conditions as winter begins and perhaps delay booking your flight until tour operators confirm that they will be running trips.

THIRD-GRADERS at Worthington Elementary School met a sled dog and learned about the famed Iditarod race as part of a program called "Sled Dogs on the Run." Wednesday's event began several months of Iditarod-connected instruction. Schoolchildren will chart the course of the 1,000-plus-mile race and follow its progress on the Iditarod's Internet site. Worthington is one of about 600 schools nationwide participating in the program, said Susan Ay, the school's speech pathologist. Schools must submit a plan and have it approved before they can participate.