The day was quiet in Kaltag, as most mushers left and are moving through the double checkpoints. All the mushers will come through Kaltag again before heading out to Unalakleet and the coast. Did you notice that on the GPS tracker, the color for each musher changes after they reach Shageluk? The resting color changes from dark orange to light orange when a musher is resting. When a musher is running, their color will change from green to dark blue.
Did you know that there are many different special awards that mushers can get throughout the race? Some of the awards are given to the first musher to enter a checkpoint. Last night, as the first musher to reach the Grayling 1 checkpoint, Jessie Holmes won the GCI Dorothy G. Page Halfway Award, which is his choice of either $3,000 in gold nuggets or a smart phone with a year of free service provided by GCI. Jessie also won the Alaska Air Transit Spirit of Iditarod Award for being the first musher to reach the Grayling 2 checkpoint, which is a handmade set of beaver mittens and a matching hat. For a full list of the 2025 awards and the recipients (updated throughout the race), click here.
Lesson Idea: Students could do a brief research report on one of the special awards, including the history and cultural significance of the award. In the race archives, students can select a year, scroll to the bottom and see the recipients of that year OR they can select a specific musher (perhaps the one they have been following!), view their full career in the archives and scroll to the bottom to see any awards that the musher may have won over the years. Note: If the musher is a rookie, they will not have any information in the race archives.
Questions? Reach out! emailtheteacher@iditarod.com
