Caledonia Classic Sled Dog Races
The last weekend of February offered mixed weather for the Caledonia Classic, but despite the snow flurry on Friday the race went off well.“The event was fantastic,” said Craig Houghton, one of the event organisers, and a musher in the distance events.The weather offer both a challenge and great pleasure…
Grand Mesa Summit Challenge Sled Dog Races
At first the barking, yipping, howling and whining appear to be coming from every direction. Tied to the bumpers of trucks, peering over closed tailgates and half-open cab windows, or peeking out from within their travel kennels, the teams at this year’s Grand Mesa Summit Challenge Sled Dog Race —…
Ikidarod Mimics Iditarod as Fourth-Graders Learn About Alaskan Race
A fourth-grade lesson went to the dogs Tuesday.Students ventured into the wilderness — the Port Edwards Elementary School Little Hawks Outdoor Classroom, anyway — to participate in the fourth grade’s 16th annual “Ikidarod.”The approximately three-mile race mimics Alaska’s Iditarod, an annual race to Nome, Alaska, that began Sunday. It takes…
Iditarod Kindles Memories of Greenland-to-Barrow Mushing Expedition
As the latest Iditarod gets underway, my wife Chris and I and our Greenland Husky Avu will be trying to keep up on the race from a distance. And it brings back memories of a 100-day, 2,500-mile dogsled trip to Barrow in 1992 by two Greenland mushers — over land…
Aliy Zirkle Builds Lead in Iditarod but Mandatory Rest Coming Soon
All that was missing here Tuesday night were pit crews as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race sped into this village on the banks of the Kuskokwim River and then out again almost as fast. And, of course, the Iditarod doesn’t allow pit crews. On the 1,000 miles of trail…
Three Generations of Seaveys Tackle Iditarod
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race ended last year for 2004 champion Mitch Seavey when he nearly sliced off one of his fingers while opening a bale of straw for his dogs.If the 52-year-old veteran Iditarod musher runs into trouble on the trail this year, he can count on family.His…
Iditarod Front-runners Put Pedal to Mettle
Iditarod all-star DeeDee Jonrowe cleared the treacherous Alaska Range fully loaded Tuesday, every dog healthy and hungry to run. The kind of rare fortune that, in a normal year, would sling you to the front of the pack.Instead, Jonrowe found herself parked along the frozen river here Tuesday, trailing the…
Iditarod’s Notorious Happy River Steps More Mild Than Mean
Trail breakers spent time Sunday sculpting the section of trail that until a day earlier was out of play for the 2012 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race. The infamous Happy River Steps, one of the race’s most hazardous sections, had been declared, at least publicly, history.Race officials planned, instead, to…
Behind Full Strings of Feisty Dogs, Zirkle and Baker Bolt for McGrath
Led by former Yukon Quest champion Aliy Zirkle, a six-pack of some of Alaska’s most-feared mushers left Nikolai Tuesday afternoon bound for McGrath.A glance at their dog strings offered testament how gentle the Iditarod Trail has been on the animals that do most of the work. Of the 96 dogs…
A Team of Olympic Champions Brings Up Back of Iditarod Race Pack
Iditarod rookie Matt Failor has a message for the Flying Tomato. He wants the red-headed Olympic snowboarder Shaun White to know there’s a young dog driving deep into the Alaska wilderness named for him.Failor, 29, hoped to let White know about his elite canine, who’s racing in the so-called Super…