Doggies and skiing. Skiing and doggies.

What could be better?

As part of four days of the American Birkebeiner this morning I took photos at the Barkie Birkie -- which is dogs and skiing.

There are two parts to the event, the first is a competitive event where skier and dog take a 5K route. The photo of the team of the guy in blue and the dog in brown won, moving at the speed of a VW bug going down hill.

The second is a three-block romp where, more often than not, the skier reaches the finish line before the dog. Imagine a happy, playful dog surrounded by other dogs and snow and cheering and a fair amount of people who've been drinking copious amounts of beer for several days. This stressed out some of the dogs, whose humans would pick them up and cart them off to calmer places.

I feel lucky to be part of it as a journalist, even if the windchill was below zero and I drove through 6 inches of fresh snow.

Lucky.

And I met some awesome dogs. (People, too.)

If you think of it, drop me some dog chow on Venmo at @Rich-Jackson-15.

Peace unto Ukraine and peace and doggies unto all of you my brothers and sisters.