Welcome to the third post of the Rookie Review series. One of today’s musher’s is seeking an ancestral style of living, one calls Norway home and the third runs rescue dogs. The people who embrace a mushing lifestyle have unique stories and are infinitely interesting! If you’re an Insider, you can view interviews of the three mushers introduced in this review. If you’re not an insider, think about it. The videos created by Greg Heister and his Insider crew bring the mushers, the dogs and the race to life.
Daniel Klein of Eagle, Wisconsin has always been interested in sports. He’s spent many hours practicing and competing in baseball, basketball, football and wrestling. Then his focus shifted to long distance sports. He’s done the Boston Marathon, triathlons, the Wisconsin Ironman and the American Birkebeiner 34 mile classic ski. With all the long distance events he’s undertaken, he says he wanted to experience a TERRIFIC long distance event. That’s how he decided to pursue The Last Great Race on Earth. Staying with the distance theme, he’s now gone to the dogs, albeit his mushing career started later in life.
Klein’s passion for mushing evolved from a desire to relive a simpler more rugged time when sled dogs were used for transportation and delivery of goods to remote areas be it in Alaska or northern Minnesota. Klein’s short term goals were to participate in the Beargrease Marathon, the Kobuk 440, the Copper Basin and in so doing, qualify for Iditarod, his ultimate goal. Daniel has trained with Ryan Redington both in Wisconsin and in Knik. He appreciates the mentorship of the entire Redington family.
Ebbe Pedersen of Alta, Norway has had Iditarod on his mind ever since 2004. He came to Takotna with an outdoor school to help with the race and kept coming back and coming back – 18 years-worth of coming back to help with the race. Ebbe shared his most memorable Iditarod experience with Jeff Schultz and Faces of Iditarod. Pedersen was part of a crew putting trail in from Takotna to Iditarod. Normally they worked about 3 days on that project but they ran out of gas when they got to Iditarod. Due to a snowstorm they spent a week at Iditarod before they got any help. He says, “ It was a lot of fun, so that was my best experience.”
He’s been helping friends prepare for and train for Iditarod for many years. Since the first time he saw the race, he’s wanted to do it. Ebbe is a part of the Turning Heads Kennel team for the 2024-2025 racing season. He’ll be running their young dogs and joining his mentor Travis Beals on the Iditarod Trail.
Pedersen calls himself an outdoor man. He’s familiar with portions of the southern route because he runs a trap line between Takotna and Iditarod. While he won’t see that part of the trail in 2025, his life in Norway has prepared him for the winds of the coast. BTW, Ebbe was the lucky winner of the week 26 Iditarod Lotto, claiming a prize of $1,494.50!
Justin Olnes originally from Boise, Idaho moved to Fairbanks in 2013 to work on his graduate degree in Wildlife Biology. It turns out that his advisor had a beautiful trapline team and he became inspired to build his own team. He adopted a few dogs to begin building a team. In 2021, Justin met Kailyn Davis who would become his wife and together they established Re-run Kennel a year later. The majority of dogs at Re-run come from local shelters or are rescues. They are dedicated to giving sled dogs a second chance and providing an environment for them to do what they were born to do – pull and run.
Through genetic testing, they have delved into the “unknown” lineage of their Re-runs to find that many, if not most of their rescue dogs have genetics linking them to successful long distance dogs. To round out his team, Justin will bring a Brent Sass dog and a Wade Marrs dog to round out his team.
Justin helped his wife, Kailyn, get to the Iditarod trail in 2022 running mostly Wade Marrs dogs. She finished her rookie run in 35th place. Now in 2025, It’s Kailyn helping Justin get to the trail. They realize their race team will likely reach its peak performance this year or next so the time to go, is now. While Justin never expected to run Iditarod, this is his year. He says working with shelter and rescue dogs is very rewarding, they have unknown backgrounds, no known bloodlines and many have never been in harness before but it’s very rewarding to watch then develop individually and turn into a strong team. He’s excited to take the Re-runs down the trail.
Today, being Wednesday of race week, mushers are at Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla for Vet Check. Veterinarians are on hand for the final pre-race physical – Heart, Hydration, Attitude, Appetite, Weight, Legs and Lungs are assed on each and every dog. The dogs have previously gone through blood work and EKGs. These highly trained and enthusiastic canine athletes who are born to run and love nothing more than running, receive top notch care from mushers and veterinarians prior to the race and while on the trail.
Come back tomorrow for another installment of Rookie Review.
