I received this question recently from someone interested in mushing, and the following is my answer. Please elaborate and correct me where I am missing information.

[quote]When you go to a checkpoint – usually the mushers will park their team in a designated area for the teams, and then they will go and get their food bags and straw. They lay out straw beds for the dogs – and then they get their food and extra supplies from their bags that were brought to that checkpoint for them. AFTER they are all finished taking care of the dogs – the mushers take care of themselves. They usually will grab a bight to eat, dry out a few clothes, and then catch a quick nap. They either will just lay down next to the dogs in the hay, lay down on top of their sled, or they will go inside of the checkpoint if there is room to sleep. Some checkpoints are family cabins, some are small towns, and some are tents. If the checkpoint is at a family cabin, sometimes they will make food for the mushers – and offer it to all of them, but usually there isn’t too much room to sleep inside. If they stop at a checkpoint that is at a city – usually the people of the town will have a community center ready for the mushers to sleep, eat, etc…inside. But other times, when the checkpoint is a small tent – the mushers just have to stay outside. With no tent – as most mushers don’t bring tents on their journeys as it adds extra weight that isn’t needed. If there is a particularly bad storm – they also have the ability to take their gear out of their sled – and sleep inside of it. Which makes a perfectly good shelter in times of emergency. For the most part though – mushers have extremely warm clothes – and just catch their catnaps when they can on the ground or on top of the sled. Maybe not the most comfortable – but they don’t care when they are extremely tired and ready for a quick snooze![/quote]