Hi from Alaska,
Stephen went to visit a friend Dino, who lives in Wasila,
Alaska. The first of competing races for the Iditarod was just happening. He got
to see the sleds and the beautiful huskies, and their “mushers” or the guys that
drive the sleds on a very long race across Alaska. Here’s the story about
it:
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The Iditarod Dog Sled
Race
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The Iditarod is a dog sled race
that takes place every March in Alaska. It is sometimes called the "Last Great Race." Although
the race is over 1150 miles long, the race is officially 1,049 miles, since
Alaska is the 49th state in the USA . The Iditarod trail goes from Anchorage to
Nome. There is a northern route and a southern route; these are used on
alternate years (north in even-numbered years). The race starts on the first
Saturday in March and takes about 10 days to complete. The winning musher (dog
sled racer) takes home a large cash prize; the last musher to finish the race
extinguishes (and wins) a red lantern at the finish
line.
Hardy sled dogs pull the sled
and musher (the name for the human guiding the sled) across frozen rivers,
barren tundra, and steep mountains. Alaskan
malamutes and Siberian
huskies are two types of sled dogs that are often used on
mushing teams (although other breeds are also on
teams).
The first Iditarod race was run in 1973, on the 100th
anniversary of the purchase of Alaska by the USA from Russia. The dog sled race
commemorates the "Great Race of Mercy," a real race against time that saved
lives threatened by disease.
In February 1925, a diphtheria epidemic threatened the
isolated city of Nome, Alaska (diphtheria is a contagious and potentially deadly
disease that is now rare because of childhood vaccinations). The lives of many
children in Nome were threatened by this terrible disease, especially those of
the native Inuit children, who had no previous contact with diphtheria, and
therefore, no immunity to it. The only way available to save the children was to
transport the medicine 674 miles across land from Nenana (near Anchorage) to
Nome, using dog sleds. Twenty teams of mushers and over 100 dogs delivered the
medicine to Nome in about 5 1/2 days.
The lead dog of the final team
of dogs was Balto (a Siberian
husky),
who became quite famous; the lead dog of the team that braved the toughest and
longest part of the journey was called Togo. There are statues of Balto in
Anchorage, Alaska, and in Central Park, NY, New
York; a
movie (called Balto) was made about the tortuous sled journey (but accounts
of the race in the movie were not very accurate). Balto died on March 14, 1933
at the age of 14 (which is quite old for a dog), and is now mounted and on display at the Cleveland
Museum of Natural History (in Cleveland, Ohio).
The word Iditarod is comes from an Athabaskan Indian
word pronounced "Hi-dit-a-rod." It means "a distant
place."
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| Joe Reddington, son of the founder of the Iditarod |
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| Stephen and the team of huskies |
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| Stephen making friends |
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| One of the trainers with a Mad Hatter hat |
Here are more pictures of the huskies, and Stephen
participating in their preparation. Then he passed a moose on the way home, and
then got to hang out by the fire cozying up to Scarlett, a most beautiful Huskie
at the home of his friend who lives in a huge log cabin in
Wasila.
So much fun and such a new
experience!
Brendan’s Aunt,
Ramona
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| Stephen being lead dog on the gag line |
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| Stephen on the sled resting up |
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| Stephen with the team in their cages |
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| Moose on the way home |
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| Stephen bonding with Scarlett, her hostess |
