Karen Land, 33, was born in Indiana. In 1995 she graduated from the University of Montana with a BFA degree. In 1999 she was working as a writer covering a rookie musher in Maine’s Can-Am Crown Sled Dog Race for a graduate program in non-fiction writing, when she “fell in love with the dogs and the competition.”
She met Terry Adkins there and has been working as a handler for him ever since. She says that after six months of “hanging out” with sled dogs and mushers, she knew what would come next for her “running dogs”.

Karen also enjoys backpacking, and in 1997 she spent six months hiking the Appalachian Trail with her best friend, her dog Kirby. “Kirby is why I am a musher,” says Karen. “I figured if I could have such a bond with one special dog, it would be great to explore the wilderness with 16.”

Karen, a freelance writer who contributes to the Outdoor Column in the Great Falls Tribune, is single. She lists her hobbies as long distance hiking and camping.