Alaska Wilderness Mom

The 2021 Iditarod Sled Dog Race is underway and yesterday the teams started sliding into McGrath. Dallas Seavey was the first musher into the McGrath checkpoint at 4:00 pm. His team looked strong as he glided across the snowy, ice covered Kuskokwim River and up the bank into the checkpoint. Here his team has rested the past day where he declared his mandatory 24 hour layover.

Due to Covid, the checkpoint in McGrath is in a new location-situated on the outskirts of town to minimize contact with the community. Visitors and tourist numbers are of course down considerably; typically this is one of our busiest tourist seasons where our population size temporarily can swell two or three times in size.

But the change has been welcomed. Fewer people means the the atmosphere is much calmer and more peaceful than usual. The mushers aren’t mobbed as badly by the press and they are able to efficiently take care of their teams and themselves with little interference from interviewers hoping to get a story of their adventures. Most mushers are good sports at patiently answering and interacting with fans and the crowds, but I’m happy to see them have more time to rest themselves. In a race where they average hardly any sleep for over 10 days, it’s a wonder they can even form a sentence due to sleep deprivation!

This year the race does not go to Nome, but mushers will head out of McGrath and through Ophir checkpoint and onto Old Historic Iditarod, the half-way point as well as the turn around point for this years race.

If you are looking for information related to the race, Iditarod.com is a great website to gain current intel on the race and race standings. Channel 2 news out of Anchorage is here filming regular updates and they have information as well. Alaska Geographic has historical information of interest on the Iditarod Trail, and Innoko National Wildlife Refuge has Iditarod Trail, fish and wildlife information about the section of trail north and west of McGrath. A google search will reveal lots of popular options for teachers and students to study the many adventurous aspect of Alaska’s “last great race”. An entertaining article from the Iditarod Insider detailing the history of Old Iditarod can be found here.

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March 2021, Race Summary and Updates: This year, Dallas Seavey won first place while Aaron Burmeister was a close 2nd. Race enthusiasts and fans were sad to hear Ali Zirckle has retired but were glad to hear she is recovering after getting helicoptered to safety following a nasty fall off her dog sled.

I have watched mushers come through McGrath and have traveled along portions of the trail now for about fifteen years. Some years I volunteer to cook and help prepare the McGrath checkpoint. It never ceases to amaze me- that 60 plus teams and mushers drive along miles upon miles of snow covered trail for days on end with little sleep (the mushers get little sleep, the dogs get a lot more). Mushers say mushing is addictive. It must be because few could physically tackle the rigors of bending over for endless hours feeding, booting up, checking, massaging and prepping their dogs, few could stand the up to -50 below temps and +80 mph winds that they at times encounter, few could stand the sleep deprivation, and mental challenge that goes along with day after day of endurance racing. But for those who do race- have a passion for it matched by little else. That is truly a wonder to behold.