Today, was simply an amazing day of firsts.

This year, the Junior Iditarod will be packing up and moving north to race in Cantwell, along the great Denali Highway. 

This is not the first time the race has been moved here, however this is the first time it will be run as a “stage race”. What this means, is that the junior mushers will leave from the starting line, do about a 30 mile run to a turnaround, and then return to the start to spend the night there. Then on Sunday, the same things will happen, but the starting line will then become the finish line. 

There are nine rookie mushers as well for this year’s race. These junior mushers come from all parts of Alaska (including a pair of rookies from Kotzebue) and “the lower 48” as well. States represented include Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota. After seeing the interactions with their dogs and each other, joking around with one another, and having fun; these junior athletes really are an incredible group. 

Juniors having a good time at the musher meeting.

For me personally, it was also a day of firsts. It was my first time to the amazing landscape of Denali National Park. I was able to go out on snow machines with the Junior Iditarod trail crew as they put in the stakes for the mushers to follow tomorrow. It was my first time on a snow machine and it was amazing. We ran the entire 60 mile loop, saw Caribou and a few (fortunately uninterested) Moose. I was able to talk with so many interesting people including both Matt and Tietje Paveglio (both first time Iditarod and Junior Iditarod mushers), multiple members of the Redington family, the trail crew members, veterinarians, and so many more.

The final first has to be when I got a ride in the truck with, then helped the Honorary Musher for this year’s race, Bob Morgan unload straw from the trailer. As always, the Honorary Musher wears, you guessed it, bib #1.

Jr. Iditarod XLV Honorary MusherBob Morgan (Photo Credit Jim Deprez)

Teachers: As I learned driving up to Denali, the Mat-Su school district here in Alaska is the same size as the entire state of West Virginia! This got me thinking about the size comparisons of other states relative to the state of Alaska. Here is a cool website to check out to see how many of your states fit inside of AK! https://www.alaska.org/how-big-is-alaska?query=1633c2d9ac1e8a5a27273ba33b8a10cf&id=51928