John Stewart, 23 years of age from Scotland, will be running to Nome as a rookie in Iditarod XXXVIII. Having grown up in Scotland, very near to where the king of dog team drivers, Scotty Allan lived, John is thrilled to have the opportunity to travel the trails that made his hero, Scotty, famous. To learn more about the legendary Scotty Allan and his famous lead dog, Baldy, read my previous stories – Scotland to Nome, Scotty Allan and Baldy of Nome – Hero.

Since the age of six, John has been around sled dogs. He started out by going on training trips and overnight camping adventures with his father, Alan. At the age of 10, John accompanied his father to remote mountainous Argentina where he helped during races by handling dogs. Now here’s where coincidence takes over. John and Alan met a fellow in Argentina by the name of Mark Nordman. Nordman is the Iditarod Trail Boss. From that moment on, it was young John’s dream to run the Iditarod! So how did John make it to the threshold of accomplishing this great dream?

When he finished school, he lived in Alaska and trained with Egil Ellis. He’s also worked/trained and raced with current Yukon Quest champion Hans Gatt. For the past couple of years, he’s been training and racing dogs out of four-time Iditarod Champion, Doug Swingley’s Montana Kennel. With a great team of Swingley dogs in front of the sled, John has already done well in Montana races this season.

John’s father, Alan took him to the USA, Argentina, Chili and other European countries as a handler for the race team because he was good with dogs, not because John was his son. So to speak, John earned his position as a dog handler because of his talents, not just by inheritance. Now Alan says that John has far more experience with racing than he has and he’s thrilled to switch roles and be a handler for John’s racing activities.

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn a little about Iditarod rookie, John Stewart, I hope you’ll be watching him and cheering him on as he heads to Nome. Handler leaves for the race in just a couple of days. She’ll get to actually meet John and his father. Stay tuned, as I’ll be sharing more about John, his life with dogs and his run to Nome. I also predict that there will be a more recent picture of John and Iditarod Trail Boss, Mark Nordman coming soon.

Born to Run,
Sanka