Iditarod

Photos and Story by Tim Bodony, APRN - Kaltag The race continues to roll along at a record pace.  John Baker was the first to...

Cody Strathe of Fairbanks will be the first musher out on the trail for the start of the 2018 Iditarod sled dog race. Listen now

For these fans, "trailgating" is a chance to share a moment, and maybe a hotdog, with their favorite mushers.

Martin Buser and his son, Rohn, stopped for only a few minutes in Takotna and bolted into the Iditarod lead Wednesday morning. Martin Buser arrived in Takotna about 8:30 am, stopped a few minutes and then headed towards the ghost town of Ophir. Rohn, who won the Kusko 300 earlier this year, reached Takotna about 9:45 am and left almost immediately. As of 11:30 Wednesday morning, Aliy Zirkle, who had led much of the race, was still in Takotna.

Teams are making their way into Rainy Pass as they head trough the Alaska Range. It’s arguably the toughest stretch of trail. Many say they’re ready for the challenge, including a contingent of Norwegians who are in Alaska to find out how their dog teams fare on this side of the world.

The lives of the 1,300 sled dogs running now to Nome have led up to this moment as they race to against the world’s best dogs and wiliest mushers. Years of training come down to a couple short weeks of elite performance, sometimes running more than 100 miles per day.

Denali musher Jeff King, so far, is the lone musher to push through Cripple toward the Ruby. The 4-time Iditarod champion spent four hours in the Cripple checkpoint, before heading down the trail at 3:05 a.m. today.

Mushers have been travelling this year’ Iditarod trail from Fairbanks with few complains, but after the left Tanana Wednesday, they found a slow, soft trail.

Friday morning saw Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit charge ahead leading the 2018 Iditarod to Anvik after passing teams resting in the ghost town checkpoint of Iditarod. As the first to reach the Yukon River, Petit is treated to a five-course meal. The main course is bison, which is an animal Whitehorse's Marcelle Fressineau encountered very much alive and not on a dinner plate farther back on the trail. We talk to Fressineau about how she fended off the bison with an axe, as well as some of the Alaska Native mushers in the race.

Mushers slept. Dogs slept. And sled repairs got underway.

For his first-place arrival, Burmeister won a pair of locally-made musher mitts and a musher hat.

Dallas Seavey has won the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, tying Rick Swenson's five first-place finishes for the most ever. Will he be back next year to vie for a sixth? That is the question... Also, a sleepless but not tired Alaska Public Media reporter Tegan Hanlon fills us in on the scene at the finish, including interviews with Seavey and Aaron Burmeister, who took second.

The veteran musher is also the owner of Willow-based Smyth Logwork and Construction, with a family history of building log homes.

On Saturday, mushers lined out their dog teams in downtown Anchorage for the Ceremonial Start of the race. This year's race includes six former champions and at least 20 mushers vying for a top-10 finish.

The Iditarod trail continued to claim victims through Tuesday. Reports of everything from broken ankles to broken hands came filtering back from Rohn and Nikolai. It will take a combination of resilience and persistence for mushers to keep moving down the trail.

Meet Moose, the “heart dog” for KattiJo Deeter.