With Part V of Rookie Review you’ve met all of the Class of 2022. On Saturday, March 5th, downtown Anchorage will be rocking! The excitement will start tonight as crews dump and grade snow to create a trail on 4th Avenue and Cordova Street. Side streets will be prepared for mushers to park and stage their teams. The Ceremonial Start which begins at 10:00 am will be broadcast via Insider. Don’t miss the action!
Kailyn Davis – Fairbanks – Bib #41
Kailyn Davis, age 29, found her way to Iditarod through an innovative teacher who used Iditarod as a theme for education. Dogs and adventure are an unbeatable combination when it comes to motivating kids and capturing their attention. Add to all the exciting Iditarod learning activities a visit by musher John Baker and Davis decided right then and there to become a musher and someday run Iditarod.
Davis is the recipient of the Flyin Ryan Hawks Adventure Scholarship. The Scholarship helped Davis prepare and qualify for races to qualify for Iditarod. Completing 750 miles of qualifying races in good standing is a requirement for the Iditarod. Davis completed the Copper Basin 300 twice and the Goose Bay 150.
Kailyn has worked with a couple of rescue dogs that came from the Fairbanks shelter. Zeke is a very special dog that overcame significant health issues to first skijor with Davis, then run the Copper Basin and run Iditarod with Al Eischens. Zeke will be at the front of Davis’ team in the 2022 Iditarod.
Davis has worked with many mushers in her quest to become the best musher she can be. She is a guide at Trail Breaker Kennel run by David Monson. Since the age of 17, she’s worked with Christine Roalofs and has run Roalofs and Al Eischens dogs for her qualifiers.
Kailyn holds bachelor’s degrees in Music Education and Geology. Shortly after finishing her first year of teaching high school math in Fairbanks then accepted the offer of running a Wade Marrs Stump Jumpin’ Kennel team for Iditarod.
Bridget Watkins – Fairbanks – Bib #36
To say that Bridgett (Moore) Watkins comes from a mushing background would be an understatement. Bridgett is the daughter and step-daughter of Allen Moore and Aliy Zirkle. Bridgett moved to Alaska from Arkansas when she was just five. Shortly after, she acquired her first sled dog and started down the trail doing sprint races in Alaska and Canada. From there she took up mid and long-distance racing with a pair of the most revered mushers in the sport as coaches.
She stepped off the runners long enough to earn her nursing degree, marry her high-school sweetheart and raise a family. Her husband worked for Wells Fargo Bank in Nome and Bridgette worked at the regional hospital. Living under the burled arch for six years, Bridgett’s passion for mushing was re-ignited. The family now resides in Fairbanks at Kennel on a Hill, also known as KOAH. Husband Scotty is a Yukon Quest Veteran. Bridget completed the Covid shortened Summit Quest of 2021. Going back a few years to age 13, Bridgett raced in the Arctic Winter Games claiming a gold and two silver medals in the 6-dog race for the state of Alaska.
She helped at SP kennel for many years and assisted the SP team in training and racing. Since 2018, Watkins has been working toward her dream of running ‘The Last Great Race’ and experiencing the trail from the runners to create her own stories to share at family holiday events.
Being a mom, a musher, a wife, emergency room nurse and graduate student working toward her Master’s degree in nursing to become a nurse practitioner surely keeps her busy! In her spare time she likes being outdoors on the local rivers and lakes, picking berries, hunting, fishing, skiing and surfing. She enjoys spartan competitions to test her endurance and mental fortitude.
KattiJo Deeter – Fairbanks – Bib #19
Many mushers say they were born into the sport but not so for KattiJo Deeter, she married into the sport. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse with a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and not ready to settle down to a real job, KattiJo launched a Google search for summer jobs in Alaska. The result, working for a dog sledding tour company out of Juneau, changed her life immensely. While working in Juneau, KattiJo met Jeff Deeter and they were married three years later. Jeff had already earned the status of Iditarod veteran, completing his rookie run at the age of 19. On the Black Spruce web page Jeff says, “I suspect KattiJo first fell in love with Alaska, the with my dogs and then finally with me.”
The Deeters are owners of Black Spruce Dog Sledding. They offer tours both winter and summer around training, racing and exploring by dog team. While Iditarod is their main focus, they participate in mid-distance races to train up the younger dogs and themselves for the annual 1,000 mile ultimate sled dog journey. KattiJo says, “I am really passionate about educating people about dog mushing. The modern world has moved so far away from this sort of human and animal connection.”
KattiJo has been helping Jeff train his Iditarod team for years. While she loved training the dogs, Iditarod was not at the top of her to do list. She says, “It seemed like too much. I didn’t know if I’d ever have the skills to do that and I didn’t know if I wanted to either. But after all the training miles and experiences, Iditarod has become my goal. Alaska is so big and mushing is so complex, there is always something to learn.” KattiJo loves the adventure, the scenery and the challenge of racing and says, “My relationship with the dogs is and ALL-IN lifestyle commitment.”
