Mountain mothers pack a wallop

A major part of the fun at the Talkeetna Moose Dropping Festival every year centered around the second Saturday in July is the annual Mountain Mother contest. This is not your typical beauty contest or celebrity event.

Mountain mother contestants are required to don hip boots and a back pack with a diapered doll representing a baby. Then they must rush across a log and several wobbly rocks carrying two heavy bags to simulate a stream crossing, rush to the wood pile and split four pieces of wood, load the wood into a wheel barrow and rush it to the campfire site. Once the wood is dumped each pauses to blow up a balloon and tack it onto a target board and then rushes to the bow-and-arrow station some 50 feet away. You get 10 tries with the bow and arrow, then it's on to pounding a nail into a board, rushing to the casting area and showing your ability to accurately cast a fishing lure more than 50 feet. The final rush is to a table to take the diaper from the baby, wash it and hang it out to dry, then put together a confection (cookie, whipped cream and a cherry), and rush to ring the bell at the finish line.

Needless to say, there are a lot of laughs at this event.