ibby Here!
“The Last Great Race on Earth®” — Iditarod.
You have seen those words before but are you wondering why Iditarod is called, “The Last Great Race® on Earth”?
The answer is pretty simple. It is called “The Last Great Race on Earth®” because in 1978, a reporter for the London ….. Ian Woolridge, wrote an article [...]
he fire siren sounds in Nome to announce that a dog team is approaching Front Street. Fans put on their coats, boots, hats and mittens and gather at the burled arch to welcome another Iditarod finisher Approaching the burled arch marks the end of a very personal journey for the mushers and dogs. There is [...]
ut in the middle of no where on the Nome to Council Highway sits the Safety Roadhouse. Looking back toward White Mountain, you see nothing but snow, looking toward Nome you see nothing but snow. Looking out over the Bering Sea, you see nothing except sea ice and jumble. The checkpoint is located in the [...]
eff King left Elim in 1994 with the feeling that he was being followed. Sure enough a young husky not more that 4 months old was close behind. For all of his short life, the Husky wanted to “play sports.” What the puppy needed most was a coach who would work with him and train [...]
lim, an Inupaig Eskimo village of 310 people is situated on the south shore of the Seward Peninsula or north shore of Norton Bay. Elim (EE-lum) is 100 miles east of Nome as the crow flies. Like all bush villages, Elim isn’t connected by road to the rest of Alaska. The only way to travel [...]
ver the years, the trail out of Shaktoolik toward Koyuk (COY-uk) has been the scene of significant mushing history. Dating all the way back to 1925 and the Serum Run, Leonard Seppala thought he was going to meet a Serum Runner somewhere on the Yukon River then take the antitoxin and head back to Nome. [...]
on Bowers, Jr. calls the 50 mile section of trail from Shaktoolik to Koyuk bleak, flat and monotonous. Just out of the Shaktolik, teams will run through rolling tundra. Some of the villagers have reindeer herds that graze there. Once out on the sea ice, some dogs may be overwhelmed by the great white expanse [...]
he village of Shaktoolik (shak-TOO-lick) is located on a little spit of land that juts out into the Norton Sound. There is one road that runs through town out to the air strip with houses, two stores, two churches, the school, the power plant, the city well, the clinic and the Armory spread along its [...]
he trail from Kaltag to Unalakleet (YOU-na-la-Kleet) follows a portage trail used by the Athabascans of the interior to travel to the Bering Coast to trade with the Inupiaq Eskimos. Russians also used the trail in their explorations and trading activities. Just 15 miles out of Kaltag, the mushers climb to 800 feet above sea [...]
he easiest way to describe the trail between Eagle Island and Kaltag (CAL-tag) would be to do a copy and paste of the trail from Grayling to Eagle Island. There’s nothing new, it’s just more of the same – islands, sandbars, sloughs, bluffs and river bends. After passing Eight Mile Point on the river, the [...]
hen teams reach Eagle Island, they have covered about half of the miles they will be traveling on the Yukon River. In his Trail Notes, Don Bowers, Jr. calls this section of trail that runs upstream and into the wind on the Yukon long and boring. He says, “There is nothing but wide-open river and [...]
eaving Shageluk and mushing on toward Anvik, the teams will have fewer miles to go than they have covered. No one would be so bold as to say that it’s downhill to Nome from Shageluk because the Yukon River and the Bering Sea Coast present many challenges for the mushers and dogs. Anvik (AN-vik) is [...]
t’s been many miles since the mushers and their teams have come to a populated place. Unlike Ophir and Iditarod, Shageluk is populated with people and not ghosts! Handler didn’t actually visit Shageluk as the 2006 Teacher on the Trail because ‘06 was an even year so the teams followed the northern route. [...]
OO again! Another ghostly greeting from ghost town and checkpoint, Iditarod. Have you ever wondered where the word or name Iditarod came from? I’ve heard 3 explanations so I’ll share them with you. First, Iditarod was a word used by Athabascans that meant FAR DISTANT PLACE. Second, Iditarod was a [...]
