The first Saturday in March marks Iditarod season. Boisterous San Franciscans are preparing their shopping carts for the Urban Iditarod. Two thousand miles north, ninety-six mushers are taking their event a bit more seriously, as they ready their dogsleds and dog teams of twelve or sixteen.
In San Francisco, mushers will pull their carts through the city’s touristy areas in a three-mile tour, armed with kegs and wearing costumes. In Alaska, the stakes are much higher—traveling 1,100 miles over the course of ten to seventeen days, across barren tundra while enduring below-zero temperatures. There are two routes (which vary by year) from the start in Anchorage to the finish line in Nome, Alaska. Mushers pack eight mandatory items to get there: a sleeping bag, an axe, a Vet notebook, snowshoes, dog food, a dog food cooker, ritual letters stamped in Anchorage and postmarked for Nome, and extra booties for the dogs. (In San Francisco, all you need is a costume, a good mood, and some spirits.)
The word Iditarod comes from the Ingalik and Holikachuk word for the Iditarod River, “hidedhod.” This name means “distant” or “distant place.” This word is still known by elders in the villages of Shageluk, Anvik, Grayling, and Holy Cross. Mushers first traveled the long trail carrying mail and supplies to the Nome settlement, and returned home with gold. The trail’s purpose shifted gears in 1925, when a diphtheria epidemic isolated the city of Nome. One hundred dogs pulled twenty musher teams to transport medicine from Nenana (near Anchorage) to Nome in just over five days.
Now Alaska’s “Last Great Race”—first held in 1973 to mark the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia—follows the Iditarod trail from south central Alaska to the Bering Sea. Although the course is over 1,100 miles long, the actual race is 1,049 miles long—celebrating Alaska’s history in becoming the 49th state. Mushers travel through mountain ranges and forests, through windy tundra and frozen rivers; the final leg runs along a windswept coast.
Veteran mushers include Rachel Scdoris, twenty-two, who started mushing at eleven and who, in 2006, became the first blind contender to finish the Iditarod. In 2003, Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation honored her for her athletic efforts. This year Scdoris asked veteran musher Joe Runyan, fifty-seven, to join her team as her visual guide. Joe, who started mushing in 1971 and won the Iditarod in 1989, will also help veteran Timmy Osmar, who suffers from a serious ankle and leg injury this year. Joe shared his excitement for both invitations on the Iditarod Web site.
