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Musher Stories
This question comes from Mrs. Dagenais’ Class in Baltimore: How does a musher stop their team of sled dogs? Gary Paulsen describes in Dogteam the beauty of a winter night run with a team of dogs pulling the sled taking you on a wonderful ride along a trail. Paulsen shares the beauty of the energy …
This Month’s Question: How do you decide which dog goes where in a team? Can they change places? The sled dogs make a team. A team includes the leaders, the team dogs, and the wheel dogs. Like a coach of a team like soccer or basketball, I as the musher want to know my dogs …
One of the special benefits of the Jr. Iditarod is that the young mushers bond with each other in a unique and lasting way. In the woods at Yentna Station, after taking great care of their dogs for the night, they bonded over a campfire and shared trail stories. It was remarkable to see, …
We had a chance to take a virtual fieldtrip to Windy Creek Kennel, home and kennel of Ken Anderson. Ken completed his rookie race in 1999 and has run consecutively since 2002. He’s had five top ten finishes and has finished twelfth in the last two races. He has always finished in the top twenty …
We had the chance to catch up with Monica Zappa via Skype last week! She joined us from her home to tell us about “life after Iditarod!” The boys were so excited to talk to her and had some great questions for her. She even introduced us to Dweezil, the superstar puppy! Dweezil has become …
The Ceremonial Start of the 2014 Iditarod has been completed. Mushers and teams are doing their last minute chores and hopefully getting a good night’s rest before tomorrow’s restart. Tomorrow it starts for real, but today was all about the atmosphere, the fans, the celebration and the fun – for mushers, friends, family, fans, and …
Today I will check another item off of my Bucket List: being an Idita-rider in the Ceremonial Start of the Iditarod. I’m riding with Nathan Schroeder from Minnesota. My students have been very concerned about the idea of me riding eleven miles in a dog sled. It may be my fault; I may have filled …
I got a chance to check in with Dallas Seavey at the ExxonMobil Welcoming reception for the Winter Conference for Educators last evening. The question on everyone’s mind? The trail conditions. Dallas’ point of view is that it’s the Iditarod and it’s not supposed to be easy. He says this isn’t the first time the …
This year, two mushers will be carrying special packages on their sleds to make a special delivery in Nome. In order to promote vaccine awareness, Martin Buser and Aliy Zirkle will carry vaccine from Anchorage to Nome. Vaccines are given to children to help prevent various diseases. This event is being organized by Lisa Schobert, …