Brady ‘Chad’ Stoddard, 34, was born in Anchorage Alaska and grew up in the small island town of Friday Harbor, Washington. He grew up adventuring in the North Cascades with family and was an all-state basketball player in high school. After graduating from Western Washington University he moved back to Alaska and got his first job working with sled dogs for Alaska Icefield Expeditions in Juneau. Chad also spent several years giving dog tours in the mountains of Wyoming . Chad has been fortunate to learn from several accomplished Iditarod mushers including Billy Snodgrass, Lance Mackey, Sven Haltmann and now Dallas Seavey. Chad’s great-grandpa William Burk Sr. delivered mail around the time of the 1925 Serum Run and has family ties to Nenana. Chad says, “it would be a great privilege to travel the Iditarod trail again this year and honor those dogs and mushers who have come before me. The love of the simple and strong life, the dogs, the challenge, the connection to the land and its people are what has brought me home to Alaska and Iditarod.”