Nikolai Buser, 17, says he has been mushing as “long as I can remember. I’m told dad would work in the lot with me in a back pack, and now I’m standing on my own runners.” He has completed the Jr. Iditarod three times, finishing third, fifth and seventh. He was the rookie of the year in his first Jr. Iditarod. He wants to run the Iditarod at least once. A senior at Wasilla High School, he will be attending the University of Washington in Seattle this fall. At school he runs track and cross-country. He enjoys paintball in the summer and snowboarding in the winter, or he says, “any other outside activities.”