Justin Stielstra a Mile From UNK Checkpoint
Rookie Justin Steilstra is just 300 miles from earning the coveted Iditarod Finisher’s Belt Buckle. Justin was born in Texas but was raised in Michigan. Justin started mushing in 2014 by helping his Aunt and Uncle, Tasha and Ed Stielstra at Nature’s Kennel in the UP of Michigan. He helped Ed, an Iditarod veteran, train the kennel race team. He realized racing was what he wanted to do. Justin found his way to Alaska and worked with dogs for three years before returning to the UP to work with and train a puppy team. Justin has those puppies on the trail. Justin is thrilled to be experiencing this adventure. He’s proud of the dogs and how they’ve matured over the first 700 miles of the race. Last night on the run from Kaltag to Unalakleet, Stielstra camped with four other mushers at Old Woman Cabin. The temperature fell below zero so it felt very good to be inside the safety cabin with a fire in the woodstove. Stielstra, born in Texas and transplanted to Alaska via Michigan, seems to be managing the cold pretty well.
Trent Herbst with a Nature’s Kennel Puppy Team
Trent Herbst is also running a puppy team from Nature’s Kennel. Trent has been the puppy team driver for the Stielstra’s for seven of his eight previous Iditarod runs. Herbst is a 4th grade teacher. That was easy to tell after he parked his team here as the kids flocked around him with many questions and while he did dog chores, Trent answered question after question. In past years, Trent has involved his students in preparing for the race. They built his sled from hockey sticks. They built the frames for his snowshoes and laced them. They planed his menu, cooked his food, sealed and froze it. They measured dog kibble and bagged it. They packed his drop bags. All of that went pretty well until he opened a drop bag at a checkpoint to find 6 left hand gloves instead of 3 pairs of gloves. One year when the route went north, Trent’s students made a pair of snowshoes and sent them with Trent to personally present to George Alberts, a traditional Athabascan snowshoe maker who lives in Ruby.
Larry Daugherty Snacks Dogs in Unalakleet
Larry Daugherty is and Oncologist by profession but an adventurer at heart. Larry practiced in Jacksonville, Florida before coming to Alaska to practice at Alaska Cancer Treatment Center in Anchorage. The sides of Larry’s sled are adorned with Tibetan prayer flags. He is carrying them to Nome in honor of his patients in Nome. Later in April Larry will carry them as he summits Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. The flags symbolize hope, strength and well-being which Larry sends to all who are afflicted with cancer anywhere in the world. If Larry summits Everest this year, he’ll be the first person to complete Iditarod and summit the tallest mountain in the world in the same year. As Larry tended to his dog chores, I couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing the coveted Iditarod Finisher’ Belt Buckle. His knife was hanging from the belt he wore around his waste. Larry is excited about running Iditarod again after finishing in 63rd place last year. Along with training his team for the Iditarod, he’s also been training for the climb.
Yashinomi with Kristin Bacon
Kristin Bacon was an Iditarod volunteer for a number of years and now she’s racing the trail from Anchorage to Nome. While working as one of the Skwentna Sweeties at Skwentna Checkpoint, she was introduced to Ryan Redington and they talked about Kristin getting into sled dogs. She acquired a pregnant female following Iditarod. Once the puppies were born, Kristin began training them with an eye on Iditarod. Kristin has added other dogs to her kennel and is now running her second race to Nome. Bacon is very intent on running her own race. She knows the abilities of her dogs and will maximize their success on the trail by running at their best pace and resting them according to their needs. She’s not on a competitive schedule. Her team looked very spirited and energetic arriving in Unalakleet. She broke the 90 miles from Kaltag into two forty-five mile runs which suited her dogs very well. While cooking a hot meal for her athletes, Bacon gave them water that contained kibble and fat. Yashinomi, a large yellow dog was sporting a special reflective canine buff. Yashi is one of the puppies from Bacon’s first litter.
