Travel and Adventure by Various Travel Authors

By Sharon Whitley Larsen

JUNEAU, Alaska — We heard them before we saw them. A team of friendly young Alaskan huskies, obviously excited to have visitors, loudly barked as our van pulled up. Our small group from a Royal Caribbean shore excursion climbed out and approached the yipping dogs.

"Please don't touch them without permission," admonished our guide.

Earlier my husband, Carl, and I had attended an onboard lecture titled "The Last Great Race on Earth" about the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Covering more than 1,150 miles across a former mail and supply route, it starts this year on March 6 in Anchorage and ends in Nome.

I was curious about the daring men and women who submit themselves to this risky venture that demands amazing physical and emotional endurance, trekking with their beloved dogs through some of Alaska's most beautiful and roughest country in bitterly cold weather — sometimes 50 below zero with a wind chill factor of even colder still. Blizzards are sometimes so fierce that the dogs can't even be seen.

Moose and other wildlife can quickly attack the dogs and kill them, disabling the team and traumatizing the musher. There are also the dangers associated with hanging tree branches, thin ice, frostbite, hypothermia, getting completely lost and perhaps starving.

"Nobody sane would do this," wrote Iditarod veteran Gary Paulsen in "Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod."

Those who are unable to attend the actual race still have an opportunity to have an Alaskan sled-dog experience year-round, especially during May to September via cruise ship shore excursions. My husband and I turned up on a sunny spring day at a musher's camp outside Juneau, ready to meet these special canines, learn about their training and experience a fast-wheeled sled-dog ride — a summer version of the real thing.

Iditarod musher Jeff Deeter, 21, introduced the dogs to us.

"They all have names and unique personalities; we have serious dogs and class clowns," he said, showing us some huskies and letting us hold 2-week-old puppies. A few excited children petted them as their parents shot photos. Deeter explained that the dogs start training at 6 months — and in one to two years they're ready to race.

The Iditarod can take 10 to 17 days or more. The record is 32. It usually starts with 16 dogs and normally finishes with 10 to 12 (injured, ill or tired dogs are left behind to be checked out by volunteer veterinarians and then flown home).

"Normally we retire them at nine to 10 years," Deeter said. "The lead dog usually is calm and easygoing, not aggressive. As soon as the dogs are moving, they are quiet. The dogs love it."

The dog team can run 60 to 100 miles in a stretch and then rests for several hours, often sleeping on straw over the snow and ice. During the winter the dogs wear booties on their paws to protect the pads from cuts and sores. Musher gear includes an arctic sleeping bag, axe, snowshoes, cooker and handbook.

Anxious to sample the sled-dog ride, four of us climbed aboard a six-passenger wheeled cart led by a team of 16 and strapped in. Musher Nina Schwinghammer commanded the dogs to take off — and they did. We held on tightly as the dogs happily trotted around bends for more than a mile through the forest where remnants of snow had been shoveled to the side of the trail. We learned that the command "gee" means "right" and "haw" means "left."

Halfway through the ride Schwinghammer commanded the dogs to stop and she hopped off, asking if we'd like to have our picture taken. Sure, we said, handing her our camera as the dogs patiently waited.

Then we were off again to return to the starting area and were directed to join others who were sitting on wooden benches.

Wade Marrs, 19, another Iditarod musher — the youngest participant last year —passed around a musher's hat, mittens, and gigantic boots for us to hold and closely observe.

"They look like moon boots," someone commented.

Standing in front of Iditarod posters, Marrs told our group about the history, process and experience. It costs $4,000 just to enter, and participants can easily spend $30,000 (sponsors can help).

The Iditarod (the word is apparently derived from the Ingalik Indian word "Haiditarod," which means "distant place") traces some of its history to 1925. That year there was a serious diphtheria outbreak in Nome, especially among children, with the only available serum more than 1,000 miles away in Anchorage. A group of courageous mushers organized a relay of several hundred miles to get the valuable serum to Nome. Today's Iditarod honors the men and dogs from that heroic run, which included Balto, the lead dog, who has been honored with a statue in New York's Central Park and has been the subject of children's books and a movie.

The idea for the current Iditarod is attributed to Dorothy Page, "Mother of the Iditarod," who during the 1960s desired "a spectacular dog race to wake Alaskans up to what mushers and their dogs had done for Alaska." It wasn't until 1973, however, that musher Joe Redington Sr., "Father of the Iditarod," helped launch today's race. Various cash prizes are awarded; last year's champion, Lance Mackey, received $69,000 and a new Dodge truck. Some 75 mushers have entered this year's race.

Along the two alternating routes used are 26 or 27 checkpoints, staffed by volunteers, that can include Iditarod, a former gold-mining town of several thousand and today a ghost town. Food for the mushers and the dogs is sent out ahead of time via shipping or air drop in color-coded heavy-duty bags.

The Iditarod mushers can spend six to 15 hours on the trail, noted Marrs. "Moose can be very dangerous; they look at us like we're a pack of wolves and come at us."

As Paulsen described in his book, "Alaska truly is wonderfully, viciously, terrifyingly and joyously extreme."

The Iditarod's stars have included Martin Buser, who holds the fastest record (less than nine days), and Mary Shields, the first woman to finish the race. Libby Riddles was the first woman to win, and DeeDee Jonrowe holds the title as the fastest female musher in Iditarod history. Col. Norman Vaughan, in his 80s, was the oldest musher to compete; the youngest musher, Dallas Seavey, had just turned 18.

Today mushers have satellite tracking devices and can be followed by Iditarod fans around the world on the Internet.

When this year's race ends, The Widow's Lamp, a long-standing tradition, will remain lit at the finish line in Nome until the very last musher has come in off the trail.

So why do they do it?

"Despite all the suffering," Riddles explained in her book (with Tim Jones), "Race Across Alaska: First Woman to Win the Iditarod Tells Her Story," it comes down to "this intimacy I had with those fine animals ... and with the magnificent land of Alaska."

IF YOU GO

For general information: www.iditarod.com

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race Headquarters is in Wasilla. Sled-dog wheeled rides are available during summers only, weather permitting. The museum includes trophies, photos, displays, race video and a gift shop. Admission is free. www.iditarod.com/aboutus/headquarters.html

www.travelalaska.com

www.traveljuneau.com

www.skagway.com

www.serumrun.org

Royal Caribbean International, www.royalcaribbean.com

Sharon Whitley Larsen is a freelance travel writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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