#iditarod trail

[tonichelleak]

2021 Iditarod Musher Roster

Reitter's Block focuses on Alaskan topics, such as Iditarod, tourism, and photography.

47 teams signed up for a very different Iditarod. Want to learn about each team, I’ve got you covered!

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Mugshot Monday - “Iditarod Trail” coffee mug with Morning Glory Signature Blend by Peace Coffee

The “Last Great Race” is a dog sledding competition where mushers and their dogs race nearly 1000 miles along the Iditarod Trail in Alaska.

That’s super impressive to me. I can struggle just getting my 2 dogs leashed up and behaving on walks in my neighborhood!

It’s difficult to imagine how someone can get 10-14 dogs all moving in the right direction!

This year’s race started on March 7 and the leaders are leaving Skwentna this morning which is the second to last checkpoint.

Back in 2019, my mother-in-law Sandy went sight-seeing in Alaska and picked up this coffee mug for me.

She stopped in Anchorage and learned about dog sledding legend Susan Butcher who was a four-time champion of the Iditarod Trail race. She died in 2006 of cancer at the age of 51.

What’s even cooler than this mug is a children’s book titled “Granite” which Susan and her husband David Monson wrote about their beloved sled dog who went by that name.

And maybe even cooler than the book is that Sandy heard Susan and David’s daughter Tekla talk about her mom’s legacy as a sled dog racer.

I got the rad mug and my son Milo got the signed book for Christmas. And we both learned a lot about this amazing race. So goooood. 😀

Who will win the 2021 Iditarod? We’ll find out soon enough. It’s so cool that this annual competition that started in 1973 is still going strong today. Cheers! 

See also my 550+ photos from the Mugshot Monday project here: www.MugshotMonday.com – Every Mug Has A Story

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'North Through Alaska'. Back page feature on The Iditarod Trail from the pages of The Crunch No. 52, dated 12 January 1980. .

DC Thomson.

[tonichelleak]

On this day 36 years ago, Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. March 20, 1985.

[ainawgsd]

*There’s a big myth and it’s time to bust it!  You can help!

Myth: Iditarod is run each year to commemorate the Serum Run.  

Truth: Although that event is an extremely important event in the history of Alaska, the fact is, the founders of the race did not take the Serum Run into account when creating the race.

For Joe Redington, Sr., often remembered as the “Father of the Iditarod” and his two closest founder partners, Tom Johnson and Gleo Huyck. both mushers and teachers, there were two most important reasons for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race.  He is quoted in Nan Elliot’s book, I’d Swap my Old Skidoo for You, “When I went out to the villages (in the 1950’s) where there were beautiful dogs once, a snow machine was sitting in front of a house and no dogs.  It wasn’t good.  I didn’t like that  I’ve seen snow machines break down and fellows freeze to death out there in the wilderness.  But dogs will always keep you warm and they’ll always get you there.”  He was determined to bring back the sled dog to Alaska and to get the Iditarod Trail declared as a National Historic Trail.

Because the Serum Run mushers were honored in the formative years of the Iditarod, misinformed articles Anchorage Times about the reasons for starting the Iditarod Race were written, and also an Iditarod Race Marshall not familiar with Alaska’s history made unfortunate statements about the reasons for starting the race. Every attempt Joe Redington Sr. made to correct this misinformation were not heeded, we have ended up with a big “myth” about the Iditarod Race.

Joe said to me a number of times that he would like people to know the real reason why he started the Iditarod Race.  He wanted to preserve the Iditarod Trail, the old freight and mail trail from Seward to Nome that brought gold out of the interior of Alaska.  He also wanted to save the Alaskan husky and the sled dog culture that had always been such an important part of Alaska’s history.  He said he tried and tried for years to get it straight with the media, but was never successful—mainly because the Diphtheria Epidemic and Serum Run was such a dramatic event and a real attention getter.  Maybe, Joe said, this book you are writing will help clear up history.

“The number one sled was an honorary position set aside in remembrance of Leonhard Seppala’s achievements as a dog musher.”  (Ibid, p. 173) For seven years they would honor Seppala and identify him as one of the men who in 1925 raced to Nome with the diphtheria serum.  (Seppala mushed his dogs 340 miles, 220 of those just getting to the serum. Togo was his leader, whose instincts took Seppala’s team through stormy weather and a 30 miles short cut across Norton Sound.  The ice broke up soon after they got back on the land heading back to Nome. Then Gunnar Kaasan, using 13 of Seppala’s “rejected dogs” including Balto, brought in the serum.)

The route the Serum Run took was over a centuries old northern route across Alaska, which was used by the indigenous people, and later trappers and gold seekers.  The Alaska Railroad took the serum to Nenana where it was then transferred to dog team to travel up the Tanana River to the Yukon River Trail [the Yukon River] to Kaltag, across the Kaltag Portage to Unalakleet, and along the Coastal Trail to Nome.

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Minor Magnitude 3.8 Earthquake Hits 12km SW of Big Lake, Alaska

Minor Magnitude 3.8 Earthquake Hits 12km SW of Big Lake, Alaska

A shallow magnitude 3.8 earthquake struck 12km SW of Big Lake, Alaska, near 25651 W Ayrshire Ave, Wasilla, AK 99654, USA at a depth of 20.5 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An earthquake of this magnitude is considered to be minor. (more…)

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Magnitude 3.3 Minor Earthquake Strikes 5km S of Big Lake, Alaska

Magnitude 3.3 Minor Earthquake Strikes 5km S of Big Lake, Alaska

A shallow earthquake of magnitude 3.3 struck 5km S of Big Lake, Alaska, near 9403 Burma Rd, Wasilla, AK 99654, USA at a depth of 20.1 km, according to the United States Geological Survey. An earthquake of this magnitude is considered to be minor. (more…)

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Magnitude 4 Light Earthquake Strikes 5km SE of Big Lake, Alaska

Magnitude 4 Light Earthquake Strikes 5km SE of Big Lake, Alaska

A shallow earthquake of magnitude 4 was reported 5km SE of Big Lake, Alaska, near Unnamed Road, Wasilla, AK 99654, USA at a depth of 30 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. An earthquake of this magnitude is considered to be light. (more…)

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