DeNure trains for rookie Iditarod run
KASILOF, Alaska — Some people toil with their dogs in obscurity for years before becoming a palpable part of the distance mushing community, while others seemingly have a gift of showing up and effortlessly emerging as a fixture, a mover and a shaker. Zoya DeNure is one such musher.
Since the former runway model and music promoter’s first introduction to sled dogs back in Wisconsin six years ago, DeNure has moved to Alaska, found herself in a relationship with one of the most respected distance drivers in the state, established a women’s race on her home trails near Paxson and, now, stands at the cusp of running her first Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. DeNure, 29, and her partner, John Schandelmeier, have carved a niche in the sport by rescuing rejects – Alaskan huskies from the animal shelter – and turning them into competitive athletes. She finished the 2006 Chantanika 200 in second place and has competed in several mid-distance races, placing in the top five of the field over the past three years.
DeNure cheerfully acknowledges that her life now is a far cry from the music and fashion industry she cast off when the vanity lost its allure. In her words: “I remember that I just got tired of that ‘beautiful girl’ stigma. I made a decision to ‘retire’ when I was 22, cut off all my hair, got a few tattoos and took a year to make some life-changing decisions. In the meantime, I rented a large home on the bay on Madison, got a dog named Ethan (Siberian husky) and started to do lots of hiking, taking trips to Canada to fish, camping, etc., with friends and my dog.”
By the summer of 2006, she was tending her kennel of 40-plus dogs and giving tours to hundreds of tourists a day at remote McLaren River Lodge, 42 miles from the nearest paved road, along the undulating gravel Denali Highway from the nearest paved road. “I created a small summer tour business three years ago,” DeNure wrote in an e-mail. (Phone access is difficult at McLaren, but DeNure can check e-mails twice a day with satellite Internet.) “No jobs in Paxson, and he (Schandelmeier) fishes every summer, so I had to get creative!” That creativity has blossomed. “I went from doing small bus presentations four days a week to now bus tours four times a week and custom tours for Trek America, European travel groups, families and couples, open daily from 8 to 8,” she said. “We have Princess bus tours four days a week, anywhere between 56-200 people each day coming in for lunch and a sled dog visit. I drive a team of dogs over the bridge to greet our guests at the lodge near our presentation gazebo as they arrive.”
Once the hoopla of the summer quiets down and the tundra turns red and brown on the hillsides near the river, DeNure and Schandelmeier will remain there, beginning the serious hard work of training their kennel for the 2007 Iditarod. Once the snow flies, the Denali Highway is not plowed, so they will be able to access the bright lights of Glennallen only by snowmachine and dog team.
DeNure’s goals are to finish in the top 25 – a high bar for a rookie, but achievable – and to bring awareness that consistent, positive training with a relatively small kennel of dogs can pay off.
Yes, the dirt, fur and strained muscles are a far cry from being merely an object of beauty, she said. “Dogs don’t care if I’ve got my best dress on,” she said. “I make or break my success by who I am and the decisions I make, not so much by what I look like. The focus makes me happy, and I do what I love in my life and we make a living doing what we love – granted it is hard work and there are certain things you sacrifice to live in a remote area at times with dogs. But with dogs, and training for these races, it’s a mushers dream.”
Lynda Plettner un-retires from racing
Lynda Plettner supposedly retired at the end of the 2006 Iditarod. Other aging mushers have made the same announcement, taken a year off and been right back in the thick of things the following
season. They just can’t seem to stay retired. Plettner didn’t even wait the customary one year. She signed up in June for the 2007 race.
“I’m probably never going to retire from anything until I die,” said the plainspoken musher from Big Lake, Alaska. Actually, her retirement was only supposed to be from racing. The wiry 56-year-old had intended to focus her considerable energy solely on teaching novices how to run the Iditarod. She has a kennel of 70 dogs and lodging for customers. But with eight nibbles and only one confirmed student for the coming winter, and a kennel of promising dogs, Plettner figured, why not? “This year, I have just my handler and just one client, and plenty of dogs. There’s no sense letting them sit here. They don’t become stars on a chain,” she said.
Plettner suffered a physical setback last year that nearly ended her career, and possibly her life. Halfway through the Knik 200, she was immobilized with severe gut cramps, and was in such agony that a helicopter was flown in to airlift her to a hospital. Doctors discovered that her intestines had bound up in scar tissue from an old operation. Doctors removed a section of her gut and stitched her back up. She recovered enough to run the race, but says she still wasn’t 100 percent in July, and may never be.
This will be Plettner’s 15th Iditarod since 1990. Her best finish, 13th, was in 2002 – a year in which she said everything came together beautifully. She even felt alert and physically strong coming across the finish line. She typically finishes in 30th through 50th position. She was 48th in 2006, and said the team performed beautifully through the high winds late in the race. She mentioned that in reference to her goals for 2007.
Another reason for her supposed retirement was that she hates the race’s southern route, which, in odd-numbered years, takes mushers from Ophir to the ghost town of Iditarod, then over to rugged hills to the Innoko River village of Shageluk, quickly upstream on the Yukon River to Anvik and Grayling, followed by a long slog into the wind to Eagle Island and Kaltag, where the race rejoins the route it shares every year.
Since her dogs seem to have hard heads for driving through wind, and the southern route traditionally has plenty of head winds, she said she may have a good run, even if she personally dislikes going that direction. “If I do well in the southern route, it’ll be because there’s some bad weather,” she said.