Cindy Abbott booted her athletes chatting with every dog, offering praise and a little preview of the next part of the trail. Her reward was often a cool wet canine nose nudge and just as often, a big canine, too quick to dodge lick across the face. These dogs are affectionate and don’t mind showing it.

Her wheel dog is named Drool. He’s really an observant, gotta know it all kind of dog. Drool seemed to always have one eye open and looked like he could sleep sitting like a statue. He was into having his photo taken and liked to make eye contact with anyone who looked his way.

Abbott has always been drawn to extreme sports and now she’s adding Iditarod to her list of accomplishments.  Once she’d had her first ride behind dogs nine years ago, she knew where her life was headed.  Prior to letting her life go to the dogs, she climbed Mount Everest.   Did Cindy have an idea about what her next extreme adventure might be?  Her answer was, “The only adventure I have on my mind right now is getting to Nome.”

Born to Run,

Sanka