If you are planning a holiday in Alaska, USA, you"ve come to the right place. We have the scoop on the big events in Alaska, as well as detailed travel information that will help you plan your trip to Alaska, USA. Are you a winter person, a spring person or a summer person? Every season features a number of big events in Alaska. Let"s begin in the summer.
Summer Holiday in Alaska, USA
Summer brings a variety of festivals and events to Alaska. The Summer Solstice is one of the most popular big events in Alaska. It is celebrated in different ways in every part of the state. However, the Solstice is just one of the festivals you will enjoy on your holiday in Alaska, USA. In June, the Anchorage Music Festival presents an exciting classical music repertory. June is also the month when other one of the popular big events in Alaska takes place: The Midnight Sun Marathon. People come to Anchorage from all over the world to run this beautiful course.
Meanwhile, in Valdez; The Last Frontier Theatre Festival is a unique event, that features readings from a variety of new plays. If you have thespian talents and experience, you can apply to be reader, and get the $250 conference fee waived! Although there are a vast multitude of hotels and motels in Valdez, you can save even more money by staying for free at the Prince William Sound Community College.
If your holiday in Alaska brings you to Fairbanks in July, you might want to check out the Midnight Sun Intertribal Powwow, where a number of Native American groups perform tribal music and dance. World Eskimo-Indian Olympics in Fairbanks is an athletic competition between the two native cultures. During that same time period, be sure to check out the Golden Days of Fairbanks, which is a weeklong celebration of Alaska"s gold rush heritage.
Winter Holiday in Alaska
Winterfest at Denali National Park is a popular Alaska event. It features Survival tips, snowshoe and ski trips into the park, food and music. The winter ice festival in Seward, you can watch snow machine demonstrations and races, sports and recreation trade show, wildlife cruises, fishing, and other great activities.
The Iditarod Race is perhaps the most famous Alaska event. The Iditarod travels over 1,150 miles of some of the most extreme and beautiful terrain in Alaska. The sled drivers cross over steep mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests and windswept coastlines. The Iditarod Race travels from Anchorage to Nome. Each Iditarod team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher covers over 1150 miles in 10 to 17 days.
The Iditarod Race is often referred to as the "Last Great Race on Earth". It has received highest acclaim throughout the world. Each year, German, Spanish, British, Japanese and American film crews come to Anchorage to cover this Alaska event.
The Iditarod Trail was originally a mail and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior mining camps at Flat, Ophir, Ruby and beyond to the west coast communities of Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain and Nome. As the mail and supplies went in, gold came out. This was all done by dog sled. In 1925, the Iditarod Trail saved many lives in epidemic-stricken Nome, when dog mushers brought in powerful diphtheria fighting serums. The Iditarod is a commemoration of those days.
No matter when you plan to take your holiday in Alaska, there is bound to be an exciting Alaska event happening somewhere in the state.
For the dogs, the Iditarod is a bottomless pit of suffering. What happens to the dogs during the race includes death, paralysis, frostbite (where it hurts the most!), bleeding ulcers, bloody diarrhea, lung damage, pneumonia, ruptured discs, viral diseases, broken bones, torn muscles and tendons and sprains. At least 142 dogs have died in the Iditarod, including two dogs on Dr. Lou Packer's team who froze to death in the brutally cold winds.
ReplyDeleteDuring training runs, Iditarod dogs have been killed by moose, snowmachines, and various motor vehicles, including a semi tractor and an ATV. They have died from drowning, heart attacks and being strangled in harnesses. Dogs have also been injured while training. They have been gashed, quilled by porcupines, bitten in dog fights, and had broken bones, and torn muscles and tendons. Most dog deaths and injuries during training aren't even reported.
Iditarod dog kennels are puppy mills. Mushers breed large numbers of dogs and routinely kill unwanted ones, including puppies. Many dogs who are permanently disabled in the Iditarod, or who are unwanted for any reason, including those who have outlived their usefulness, are killed with a shot to the head, dragged, drowned or clubbed to death. "Dogs are clubbed with baseball bats and if they don't pull are dragged to death in harnesses......" wrote former Iditarod dog handler Mike Cranford in an article for Alaska's Bush Blade Newspaper.
Dog beatings and whippings are common. During the 2007 Iditarod, eyewitnesses reported that musher Ramy Brooks kicked, punched and beat his dogs with a ski pole and a chain. Jim Welch says in his book Speed Mushing Manual, "Nagging a dog team is cruel and ineffective...A training device such as a whip is not cruel at all but is effective." "It is a common training device in use among dog mushers..."
Jon Saraceno wrote in his March 3, 2000 column in USA Today, "He [Colonel Tom Classen] confirmed dog beatings and far worse. Like starving dogs to maintain their most advantageous racing weight. Skinning them to make mittens.. Or dragging them to their death."
During the race, veterinarians do not give the dogs physical exams at every checkpoint. Mushers speed through many checkpoints, so the dogs get the briefest visual checks, if that. Instead of pulling sick dogs from the race, veterinarians frequently give them massive doses of antibiotics to keep them running. The Iditarod's chief veterinarian, Stu Nelson, is an employee of the Iditarod Trail Committee. They are the ones who sign his paycheck. So, do you expect that he's going to say anything negative about the Iditarod?
The Iditarod, with all the evils associated with it, has become a synonym for exploitation. The race imposes torture no dog should be forced to endure.
Margery Glickman
Director
Sled Dog Action Coalition, http://www.helpsleddogs.org