With the Champion, 2nd and 3rd place mushers in Nome and nobody expected for the next few hours, it’s a perfect time to consider the action at the back of the pack. Unalakleet has said goodbye to Jenny Roddewig while four teams – McMahon, Daugherty, Pedersen and Baker rest in Shaktoolik.
In Red Lantern position, rookie Jenny Roddewig has found her way from Kaltag checkpoint on the Yukon River to the coastal village of Unalakleet via the Old Kaltag Portage. The portage trail was used by Athabascans of the interior to meet up with Inupiaq from the coast for trading. Western goods from Russia came to the Yukon River villages through the same route. There are two cabins along the portage that mushers use for shelter – Tripod Flats and Old Woman Cabin. Jenny stopped at both.
Roddewig of Fairbanks has been mushing for twenty years. This second generation musher rode in her father’s sled on his training runs when she was just a baby. As she grew older, she raced a few of her dad’s dogs in short kid’s races. As a teenager she acquired her own dogs and started running longer distance junior races. She’s a veteran of the Jr. Iditarod, earning rookie of the year honors in 2011 with 5th place, winning the 2012 and 2013 Humanitarian award with 5th and 3rd place respectively.
Jenny took a break from competitive mushing while in college where she met and married her husband, Michael Roddewig. The couple left Montana for Fairbanks in 2022 and established Sage Mountain Racing Kennel. They have a young racing team and enjoy camping and traveling with their canine family.
Jenny’s career racing accomplishments include winning the Race to the Sky 350 and 100, Eagle Cap Extreme along with numerous 100 mile races. She also earned 5th in the John Beargrease Marathon and has been honored with numerous humanitarian awards. Focusing on the next few days her goal is to conquer the final 300 miles of coastal trail to Nome and stand under the burled arch as an Iditarod finisher. Jenny has departed Unalakleet for Shaktoolik and has the Blueberry Hills to look forward to.
Rookie Dane Baker is parked in Shaktoolik after making the run from Unalakleet through the Blueberry Hills and into the village on the coast known for wind. Baker grew up in Michigan and became interested in the canine athlete and the sport of mushing after his mother gifted him a Siberian husky named Koa. Dane started mushing in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan after high school, taking a gap year before attending college. He now finds himself in Alaska working at Alaskan Husky Adventures. Dane is apprenticing with Iditarod veteran Matthew Failor who only a few years back apprenticed with Martin Buser.
Baker is directing the Failor yearling team to Nome. With yearlings, it’s never a speedy run but it’s a run that pays great dividends as the dogs mature. It’s almost like they were in kindergarten when leaving Fairbanks and in just short of two weeks have matured to be high school seniors. For the young dogs, it’s all about teaching them the trail and making sure they are having fun.
For his Iditarod qualifiers, Dane completed the Copper Basin 300, Willow 300 and Knik 200. His plan of taking a single gap year between high school and college has turned into a mushing career. Dane is very grateful to the Failors for their trust and the opportunity to experience the Iditarod trail with the yearlings.
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. 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’s running their young dogs and is on the trail with his mentor Travis Beals albeit, a different section of the trail. It’s Ebbe’s job to get the young dogs to Nome while teaching them the nuances of long distance racing and creating a fun and stimulating experience for them as they cover the miles. Dogs from Ebbe’s team this year may well make Travis’ race team next year. Ebbe is also parked in Shaktoolik.
Rookie Calvin Daugherty arrived in Shaktoolik with 12 dogs in harness. Daugherty, of Eagle River was just 12 years old when he helped his father train for the Iditarod and he’s been mushing ever since. In 2020 at the age of 17 he ran his rookie Jr. Iditarod with a team of Northern Whites under the tutelage of his father, Larry Daugherty ,and veteran musher, Jim Lanier. He’s wanted to do the Iditarod ever since reading about it as a kid.
Watching his father leave the start line on his Iditarod runs has really fueled Calvin’s desire to make the 1,000 mile run to Nome himself. He says, “I love the sport of mushing. It’s all about the dogs for me.” Daugherty entered the 2024 Iditarod but scratched in Shaktoolik so in 2025, he’s a second year rookie again running Mitch Seavey’s two-year-old team. While Calvin is at the back of the pack with the puppies, Mitch is holding a place in the top ten and has departed White Mountain for Nome.
Connor McMahon is the fourth of four mushers currently in Shaktoolik. He arrived in Shaktoolik with 13 dogs in harness. McMahon is a Yukoner and operates Feral Racing Dog Sled Tours. Connor grew up in southern Ontario and was introduced to working dogs at the age of fifteen. While managing a kennel of security dogs he learned the importance of proper training and happy dogs. Early on he learned how to instill confidence in dogs through positive reinforcement. He says, “Through carefully observing the dogs in their environment, I can see the world through their eyes and learn how they relate to their surroundings.”
Connor acquired a Malamute named Chumie. Together they explored mushing and soon realized they were hooked on the sport. His kennel, Feral Racing Dogs and Tours is home for twenty-plus dogs. Connor has been racing 5 years completing the Yukon Quest, Percy DeWolfe Memorial Mail Run, Canadian Challenge and Caledonia Classic. McMahon has handled for Canadian musher Aaron Peck and appreciates his mentorship. McMahon, after scratching in Galena in 2024 is a second year rookie hungry to reach Nome.
