Mush! The 2012 Iditarod Is Under Way
Spring is just a couple of weeks away in the Lower 48.But up in Alaska, it’s still bitterly cold and snowy — perfect conditions for the state’s premiere sporting event.What event is that?The 40th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.The race officially began on Sunday afternoon in Willow,…
Neff Leads a Pack of Top Iditarod Racers Out of the Alaska Range
Amid snowfall, the top dozen mushers in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race yanked their snow hooks Monday afternoon and began a steep 40-mile descent to Rohn River. Yukon Quest champion Hugh Neff was the first to leave Rainy Pass at 2:58 p.m. Within an hour, nine racers had given…
Iditarod Day 2: Neff First to Rohn
Hugh Neff and a team of 16 dogs, many of them coming off a Yukon Quest victory last month, led the way into Rohn on Monday night, arriving at 7:02 p.m.Neff was the first musher to leave Rainy Pass, 35 miles away on the other side of the Alaska Range….
Mushers stream out of Willow as the real Iditarod racing gets going
When gasoline-powered machines that buzzed above the snow began replacing sled dogs as the preferable mode of transport across wintertime Alaska in the latter half of last century, something of a revolt against technology began to germinate. Founders of the modern Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race decided 40 years ago…
Sled Dog Race Draws a Crowd
The dogs were let loose in East Burke this weekend. Nearly 50 teams, which included 1-thousand dogs from all across the country and Canada, participated in the sixth annual Sled Dog Dash.”You never see it anywhere else — kind of unique. Something you don’t see on TV or anywhere else,”…
Mush! Iditarod Sled Dog Race Underway in Alaska
Sixty-six mushers began their quest to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race with the competition’s official start Sunday in Willow.The mushers and their dog teams will spend about the next eight days traveling across nearly a thousand miles of Alaska wilderness in a sled, all trying to be the…
Copper Dog 150
Huge crowds lined up on the sides of the finish line at today’s third annual Copper Dog 150 dog sled race. Officials said around 750 people showed up compared to a couple hundred from previous years.Mushers raced back from Copper Harbor to cross the line in Calumet. Todd Brassard, the…
Can Am Race Update
If Laura Daugereau of Kingston, Wash., holds on to the lead, she could be the first-ever female winner of the 250-mile trek in the 20th Can Am Crown International Sled Dog Races.The final leg of that race is expected to bring finishers in early Monday morning. But experienced mushers said…
Junior Mushers Learn Their Lessons
Junior mushers are learning quickly, anything can happen in a dog race.Close finishes, sportsmanship, lost teams, lead changes and more have all been part of the first two days of the Junior North American Championships at the Jeff Studdert Racegrounds.All of that should make things interesting when the final day…
Odyssey Begins for 66 Iditarod Mushers
Three years ago, doctors told Chicago native Pat Moon he had cancer.Two years ago, Moon found himself more than 3,000 miles from home, lying unconscious along the Iditarod Trail. He’d smashed into a tree in the Dalzell Gorge, an injury that forced an early end to the rookie musher’s bucket-list…