Category archives: Uncategorized

I had a chance to visit with Lance Mackey, last year’s Quest and Iditarod champion. We discussed what he is, and isn’t changing about his team, training and race strategies. Lance fosters no illusions about how incredibly tough it would be to win either race again, however, one can’t help…

A century ago, musher Jujiro Wada braved steep hills and frigid temperatures in the long, lonely miles between Fairbanks and Dawson City. By himself, he found his way without trailbreakers, the global positioning system or a handler.These days, the same route is relatively simple. The trail is marked and broken…

John Baker is always less than thrilled with anything short of victory.Yet at last year’s Iditarod finish, while still in his usual blue bibs stained from 10 days of dog food grease, Baker was inexplicably pleased by a come-from-behind odyssey that barely nudged him into the top 10. He finished…

Will Steger didn’t need Al Gore to open his eyes about the dramatic effects of global warming.Steger’s eyes have always been wide open. Among his many expeditions into the lands of snow and ice was the first unsupported expedition to the North Pole by dog team in 1986. He calls…

Charlie Champaine was standing on the side of Cordova Street, in 1978, when he saw his 1st Anchorage Fur Rendezvous World Championship.He was twenty nine. He watched the teams fly down Cordova hill, mushers’ pants legs flapping in the breeze as the teams sped down the street. The impression of…

Annually, I have been asked by Mushing Magazine’s editor to write an authoritative preview of the coming year’s Iditarod. To date, I have been pathetically incapable of predicting an Iditarod winner. Fortunately, previous articles contained qualifiers similar to this year’s caveat­- “nothing in this article, in all probability, will have…

Drivers, dog teams and all manner of wheeled conveyances met once again on the fields of the Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, MN, on Nov. 17 and 18, for the second East Meets West Dryland Challenge. Race participants and a fair number of spectators felt the bite of a strong,…

It’s shortly after sunrise on a brisk, sunny, Saturday morning on the Adventure Unlimited Ranch in Colorado’s Arkansas River Valley. The temperature is 29 degrees Fahrenheit, but is forecasted to creep up into the low 50’s by early afternoon here at 9,000 feet. The ranch sits on the edge of…

My past issues have focused more on the shoulder area, as well as general injures that occur in the dog and how to treat them. I would like to start looking at more specific body parts in the lower back and other joints. In this article I will begin to…

Parvo is actually a mutated form of the feline panleukopenia virus, the cause of feline distemper. This viral infection has been around since the early 1970s. Over the last thirty years there have been improvements in vaccines, vaccination protocols, and treatment of infected patients. Unfortunately the nature of this disease…