Mush! Not Just for Breakfast.

Turns out, Hayden comes from a long line of mushers. His Uncle Tyson raced in Alaska from the time he himself was a pup. And when Sandi married him she took it up, too (along with drinking, but that's another story!). Cousin Thane, of course, had his own mini-sled practically from the time he could stand, and he's been helping Sandi feed and run and vaccinate dogs for six years now. And even Daddy had his fifteen minutes of dog- sledding fame. (It was a 3-way tie for first place, yet somehow Tim managed to end up with the seriously tacky trophy...)

In any case, with such a lineage we pretty much had no choice but to introduce Hayden to the sport this morning, at the start of the Lander stage of the IPSSSDR. And what an intro it was. The barking! The pulling! The pooping! The race announcer's inane commentary! Although it's not apparent from the photos, Hayden was quite impressed. In fact he may be heading north for lessons from the Peterson clan before we know it.

Gee! Haw! On by!