The Iditarod is known as the last great race on Earth. In January of 1925, a diphtheria epidemic threatened the small town of Nome, in Northwest Alaska, and the only way to deliver the life-saving serum to the isolated town during a blizzard was by dog sled. Nearly 50 years later, the first race was run to commemorate this event, and as a way to continue the tradition of dog mushing in the modern age of snowmobiles. The race is a grueling 1,049 miles from its ceremonial start in Anchorage all the way to the town of Nome. More people have climbed Mount Everest than have finished the Iditarod.
Vern Halter is a retired musher from Willow who has competed in the Iditarod 18 times. He never took first place, but he made it to the top ten nine times, and he also won what he claims is the more challenging race, the Yukon Quest. Vern’s last race was in 2005, and he now runs dream a dream dog kennel, an educational and tourism pursuit, and continues to raise and train sled dogs and Iditarod hopefuls.
Vern is incredible. He gave us a short presentation about the Iditarod and talked about his experiences in the race, showed us around the kennel, let us meet all of his dogs and play with the new litter of puppies and gave us a ride on the summer training rig, essentially a jeep with the dogs hooked up to it.
At first I was really nervous and skeptical about the Iditarod and animal rights issues, but after visiting Vern’s I’m less worried. The dogs are treated really well, and their treatment is carefully monitored throughout the race, every dog needed to pass inspection at every checkpoint by a veterinarian. What really did it though, was seeing how incredibly excited they were to do the training run. Scary loud off-the-wall excited.
Today was the first day I saw the Alaskan sun. Despite the fact that it never gets dark this far north, it wasn’t until today that I actually saw the sun and not just the light.
Before Vern’s we were in Seward. It rained in Seward. It was a place I could tell would be phenomenally beautiful if only the fog would lift and the sun would come out. The fog was a really cool effect (literally), but after a while the mystery and the intrigue wore off and I just wanted to be able to see all of Resurrection Bay. Our last day there was particularly good, even though it was really cold. We hiked to Exit Glacier and were even allowed to touch it, which visitors usually aren’t able to do, and later we hiked to Lowell Point, where we had to wade through a freezing cold stream and do lessons and make art on the beach in the rain. (I got distracted and just took pictures instead of making beach art.) The weather was pretty miserable, but it could have been way worse. I’m excited to go again and kayak and maybe see the sun, and therefore the scenery.
We went out to eat a few times, hung out in the hotel rooms enjoying the cable tv, and took a few short walks. We also caught two bald eagles getting it on on the power lines right outside our hotel room. There’s something so incredibly entertaining about watching animals mating, and even more entertaining watching everyone watching cheer them on.
