March 1st and the start of the Junior Iditarod was the kind of day that makes folks who are visiting Alaska want to stay for the rest of their lives. Crisp, sunny and windless with the temperatures eventually rising into the 20’s. The action for the Junior Iditarod began at 8:00 in the morning when …

Well, if you’re into checking Map Quest the distance from Anchorage to Cantwell is listed as 210 miles taking about 3 and a half hours. As visibility decreased coming out of Anchorage and snow flurries blew across the road, we knew the miles would seem longer and the time would be more than predicted. After …

Mushers drew their bib numbers tonight for the 38th running of the Junior Iditarod. Parents, board members and volunteers were on hand to share in the festivities of the pizza party and musher meeting. Mushers drew their bib number in the order they signed up for the race. Six rookies and five veterans will take …

Junior Iditarod Rookies gathered at Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla for their Rookie Meeting on Thursday evening prior to the race. A variety of presenters talked about every thing from dog care to ski poles. As has been a tradition for many Junior Iditarod Rookie meetings, Dr. Jayne Hempstead discussed dog care. She emphasized that winning …

Junior Iditarod is her passion and this year Jayne Hempstead, DVM has been honored for her dedication to the race and the young mushers. The Junior Iditarod Board of Directors chose Hempstead to wear Bib 1 for the start of the Junior race. Hempstead could take her own team of sled dogs down the trail …

After landing in Anchorage early this week, the real deal of NO SNOW is staring me right in the face. There’s no snow! It’s been warm and it’s even rained so that lakes aren’t looking too solidly frozen either. Driving north to Wasilla doesn’t improve the situation. I even heard someone comment, “Our winter is …

Registration for the 2015 Junior Iditarod opened on the last Saturday of June at Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla. While adult mushers signed up for the 1,000 mile trip to Nome on one end of the table, teens between the ages of 14 and 17 signed up for the 150 mile round trip race on the …

The thrill is not in victory but in the courage to join the race! Nowhere could this be more evident than at the Junior Iditarod banquet. These young mushers dreamed one day of running dogs. Later they dreamed of camping with their dogs. Even later these juniors dreamed of racing. They DARED to dream and …

From the Yentna Station end of the Junior Iditarod, it was clear that the race would come down to the wire and it did. Conway Seavey left the layover stop two-minutes ahead of Ben Harper, his closest competitor. IAF planes aren’t air born before daylight so there was little chance that Yentna officials would see …

With ninety-four sled dogs parked at the Yentna Station Roadhouse on the big bend of the Yentna River, the silence of the bush country was anything but silent. Likened to a slumber party or teenage lock in for canine athletes, there was lots of barking and howling. First the dogs greeted each new team that …