Our guide, David Gossman (aka Goose), leads the way on cross-country skis. As he sets out, we are to remain braked until he is 100 yards ahead. The dogs, who live to pull, are going totally crazy in anticipation of the departure. Rory and Nicolai are unable to hold their team back and are thrown off the sled as they rapidly accelerate (to roughly 20mph in the first few seconds). This condition is called Loose Sled. Without a musher, the dogs will happily run all day long and return to home base only when they get hungry. Obviously, this is something you would like to avoid. Fortunately, Goose was able to catch the sled as the dogs ran past him. The other thing you would really like to avoid is passing the sled in front of you (which the dogs are all too eager to do). When they come even, it seems, they feel compelled to attack each other to see which team is the king of the hill. This only happened once or twice before we all learned our lesson.