John "The Flying Scotsman" is now the youngest UK
competitor in the history of the Iditarod
The Last Great Race on Earth
You can’t compare it to any other competitive event in the world! A race over
1150 miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Mother Nature has to offer.
She throws jagged mountain ranges, frozen river, dense forest, desolate tundra
and miles of windswept coast at the mushers and their dog teams. Add to that
temperatures far below zero, winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility,
the hazards of overflow, long hours of darkness and treacherous climbs and side
hills, and you have the Iditarod. A race extraordinaire, a race only possible in
Alaska.
From Anchorage, in south central Alaska, to Nome on the western Bering Sea
coast, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their musher cover over 1150 miles in 10
to 17 days.
It has been called the “Last Great Race on Earth” and it has won worldwide
acclaim and interest. German, Spanish, British, Japanese and American film crews
have covered the event. Journalists from outdoor magazines, adventure magazines,
newspapers and wire services flock to Anchorage and Nome to record the
excitement. It’s not just a dog sled race, it’s a race in which unique men and
woman compete. Mushers enter from all walks of life. Fishermen, lawyers,
doctors, miners, artists, natives, Canadians, Swiss, French and others; men and
women each with their own story, each with their own reasons for going the
distance. It’s a race organized and run primarily by volunteers, thousands of
volunteers, men and women, students and village residents. They man headquarters
at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Nome and Wasilla. They fly volunteers,
veterinarians, dog food and supplies. They act as checkers, coordinators, and
family supporters of each musher.
The Spirit of Alaska! More Than a Race… a Commemoration
The race pits man and animal against nature, against
wild Alaska at her best and as each mile is covered, a tribute to Alaska’s past
is issued. The Iditarod is a tie to — a commemoration of — that colorful past.
The Iditarod Trail, now a National Historic Trail, had its beginnings as a mail
and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior
mining camps at Flat, Ophir, Ruby and beyond to the west coast communities of
Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain and Nome. Mail and supplies went in.
Gold came out. All via dog sled. Heroes were made, legends were born.
In 1925, part of the Iditarod Trail became a life saving highway for
epidemic-stricken Nome. Diphtheria threatened and serum had to be brought in;
again by intrepid dog mushers and their faithful hard-driving dogs.
The Iditarod is a commemoration of those yesterdays, a not-so-distant past that
Alaskans honor and are proud of.
An Event for All Alaska
Anchorage is the starting line — a city of over 250,000 people, street lights,
freeways and traffic. From there the field of dog teams which grow in number
each year, runs to Eagle River, Checkpoint # 1. After a restart in the Matanuska
Valley at Wasilla, the mushers leave the land of highways and bustling activity
and head out to the Yentna Station Roadhouse and Skwentna and then up! Through
Finger Lake, Rainy Pass, over the Alaska Range and down the other side to the
Kuskokwim River — Rohn Roadhouse, Nikolai, McGrath, Ophir, Cripple, Iditarod and
on to the mighty Yukon — a river highway that takes the teams west through the
arctic tundra.
The race route is alternated every other year, one year going north through
Cripple, Ruby and Galena, the next year south through Iditarod, Shageluk, Anvik.
Finally, they’re on the coast — Unalakleet, Shaktoolik, Koyuk, Elim, Golovin,
White Mountain and into Nome where a hero’s welcome is the custom for musher
number 1 or 61!
The route encompasses large metropolitan areas and small native villages. It
causes a yearly spurt of activity, increased airplane traffic and excitement to
areas otherwise quiet and dormant during the long Alaskan winter. Everyone gets
involved, from very young school children to the old timers who relive the
colorful Alaskan past they’ve known as they watch each musher and his team. The
race is an educational opportunity and an economic stimulus to these small
Alaskan outposts.
The “I” logo, a trademark of the Iditarod Trail Committee, Inc. and the Iditarod
Race, was designed by Alaskan artist Bill DeVine in the early years of the race.
The design is done on a white background with blue thread for the dog and inner
outline. The Outer outline is done in red. The design is used on a shield in
some instances and that variation was used on wooden trail markers in the
earlier races.
On the Trail
Every musher has a different tactic. Each one has a special menu for feeding and
snacking the dogs. Each one has a different strategy — some run in the daylight,
some run at night. Each one has a different training schedule and his own ideas
on dog care, dog stamina and his own personal ability.
The rules of the race lay out certain regulations which each musher must abide
by. There are certain pieces of equipment each team must have — an arctic parka,
a heavy sleeping bag, an ax, snowshoes, musher food, dog food and boots for each
dog’s feet to protect against cutting ice and hard packed snow injuries.
Some mushers spend an entire year getting ready and raising the money needed to
get to Nome. Some prepare around a full-time job. In addition to planning the
equipment and feeding needs for up to three weeks on the trail, hundreds of
hours and hundreds of miles of training have to be put on each team.
There are names which are automatically associated with the race — Joe Redington,
Sr., co-founder of the classic and affectionately know as “Father of the
Iditarod.” Rick Swenson from Two River, Alaska, the only five time winner, the
only musher to have entered 20 Iditarod races and never finished out of the top
ten. Dick Mackey from Nenana who beat Swenson by one second in 1978 to achieve
the impossible photo finish after two weeks on the trail. Norman Vaughan who at
the age of 88 has finished the race four times and led an expedition to
Antarctica in the winter of 93–94. Four time winner, Susan Butcher, was the
first woman to ever place in the top 10. And of course, Libby Riddles, the first
woman to win the Iditarod in 1985.
There are others — Herbie Nayokpuk, Shishmaref; Emmitt Peters, Ruby, whose
record set in 1975 was not broken until 1980, when Joe May, Trapper Creek,
knocked seven hours off the record… the flying Anderson’s, Babe and Eep, from
McGrath.. Rick Mackey, who wearing his father Dick’s winning #13, crossed the
finish line first in 1983, making them the only father and son to have both won
an Iditarod… Joe Runyan, 1989 champion and the only musher to have won the
Alpirod (European long distance race), the Yukon Quest, (long distance race
between Fairbanks and Whitehorse, YT) and the Iditarod… Terry Adkins, retired
from the United States Air Force, the only veterinarian on the first Iditarod
and one of the two musher to have completed 20 out of 23 Iditarods. (The other
is Rick Swenson.) The list goes on, each name bringing with it a tale of
adventure, a feeling of accomplishment, a touch of hero. Each musher, whether in
the top ten, or winner of the Red Lantern (last place) has accomplished a feat
few dare to attempt. Each has gone the distance and established a place for
their team in the annals of Iditarod lore.
