Hello Boys and Girls,
Wow! What interesting comments on the blog and email we got this year! We are always glad to hear from you and are now enjoying your letters and comments even more because it is so much fun to hear about the awesome projects that classrooms were involved in during the [...]
Libby Here!
Lots of the email that boys and girls sent us this year asked about what the dogs wore during the race. Here is a sample of one of our letters:
Dear K-9 Reporters,
Our class is following the race. We saw on the Insider Video that the mushers wear winter gear that keeps them [...]
Hello Boys and Girls!
The race went so fast, didn’t it? It seems like it just gets started and suddenly it is all over!
Are you wondering what the dogs do once they get to Nome?
First, it is very exciting when a musher arrives in Nome. Fans line the street and take pictures of the [...]
Boys and Girls,
Did you know that there are several awards that are given out to mushers?
Each year, you can read about the awards and what a musher needs to do in order to win the award. That information is always listed in the Media Guide. (Look in the Press and Media tab found [...]
Libby Here!
What is the average age of the dogs? Are they retired after a certain age? These are questions that a lot of you have asked.
Well, students, do you think I’m going to tell you my age? Some of us don’t like to tell those details, (hee hee!)
A musher doesn’t always tell us [...]
Hello Boys and Girls,
A lot of you have written asking about the purse or the prize money that mushers get when they finish the race. That is a very important question.
First, you should remember that there are awards that are also given out to the mushers. To read the complete list of awards, [...]
Libby Here!
Are you wondering how long the checkpoint breaks are? When you follow the race and watch the Internet for information, you can ’see’ how long a musher stays in a checkpoint. Looking back at the race information, you can see, some stay short amount of times, some stay longer amount of [...]
Libby Here!
Listen to this great question! “Do they ever get lost?”
The Iditarod Trail is a marked trail. People on snowmobiles— or snowmachines which is what they are called in Alaska, travel the race trail before the mushers and make sure that the trail markers are in place. The markers are sticks with a florescent paint, [...]
Skwentna – Checkpoint #2
By Sanka W. Dog
You can’t believe how exciting and noisy it is to have 96 dog teams come through a checkpoint. As the race goes further down the trail, it spreads out but in the early checkpoints of Yentna Station, Skwentna and Finger Lake, all the teams are still pretty close [...]
Hello Boys and Girls,
I’m getting awesome and incredible email and comments from students and race fans! It is great to hear from all of you. Keep reading and writing! You are going to get better grades in school because you are working so hard! I am very impressed!
I wanted to share this [...]
Libby Here!
How many dogs are allowed for each sled and musher?
Each musher can start the race with 16 dogs. When arriving in Nome, each musher must have at least 6 dogs pulling the sled.
Not every dog that starts the race gets to finish the race. Most of the time, there are little details that help [...]
Libby Here!
Do the same team of dogs do the whole race?
This is another great question.
Yes. The team of dogs that a musher has selected and have passed their medical exams are the only dogs that can be in the race.
The musher starts with his selected team of dogs and cannot add different [...]
Some of my best friends are on the Iditarod Dog Sled Trail right now. I am so proud of them. My human sees my feet moving in rhythmic harmony as I dream of running next to a famous lead dog like Lance Mackey’s Larry or Jeff King’s Salem. We really love to run and get [...]
t’s no exaggeration to say that Iditarod Sled Dogs are the best cared for animal athletes in the world. Vet check is always scheduled for the Wednesday prior to the race. That day, Iditarod Headquarters is a busy place – dogs, mushers, vets and spectators.
This year there were 96 teams that [...]
