What musher is wearing Fullerton colors? What Musher is a 4th grade teacher? What Musher was raised near Liverpool, England? The thing they have in common is that they are all running in the back of the pack.
Aliy Zirkle has finished Iditarod fifteen times including three consecutive second place finishes. Zirkle makes it no secret that she wants to be the next woman to win the Iditarod and she’s willing to put forth the necessary effort to do so in training her dogs and herself. Zirkle is the only woman to have …
DeeDee Jonrowe, a breast cancer survivor dresses in pink and is very colorful on the trail. DeeDee is running in her 35th Iditarod. She’s like the energizer bunny, she keeps going and going. In less that a half mile, DeeDee will be checking into Nenana, turning in her bib for safe keeping until she reaches Safety …
Taking photos isn’t necessarily easy and it’s even more challenging when it’s cold out. There’s this thing about keeping the camera cold and the batteries warm. It’s good to keep the photographer warm too. To catch these shots, one finds a bend in the trail and lays down flat on your belly then waits for …
Iditarod teams left the starting line at one end of Pike’s Lodge, traveled in front of the Lodge then went down the boat ramp and out on the river. Locals call it the ice bridge. They explain that even with global warming and climate change, Alaska’s rivers still freeze hard and thick. In some places, …
The dogs have been in high gear for 5 blocks since leaving the starting line at 4th and “D”. Then it’s time for a sharp right onto Cordova. The dogs are loving the run and it’s like having twelve powerful diesel engines on a two car freight train. For some mushers, Iditarides and tag sled …
The big event of the Thursday evening Musher Banquet was drawing for bib numbers. After the mushers sign up at the summer picnic, their names are drawn from a hat to determine the order in which bib numbers will be drawn. Those mushers were in the first draw for bibs 2 through 45. The second …
The weather in Wasilla for Vet check provided a lesson in what it can be like on the trail. The temperature was 10 degrees with bright sun. The wind, sustained at 27 mph and gusting to 57 mph, gave everyone something to think and talk about. The wind chill ranged from minus 11 to minus …
When mushers arrived at the halfway point of the Jr. Iditarod, they rested for ten hours plus their start differential. To explain that, bib #14 was the last person to start so no time was added to his ten-hour rest. Bib #13 had 2 minutes added… all the way up to Bib #2 who had 24 …
Jr. Iditarod has crowned its 40th Champion. Andrew Nolan of Wasilla claimed the Championship by just 3 minutes over Colby Spears also of Wasilla. Emma Shawcroft of Fairbanks was the third team to cross the finish line. Nolan round out his 4 year Jr. Iditarod career with the victory. He’s been in the top five …
