Balladeer’s Blog welcomes my sister Rosemary as a guest commentator to share her enthusiasm for the upcoming Iditarod Race. She is a terrific Good Will Ambassador for the event and has gotten me and several other people into following the event each year.
Balladeer’s Blog will once again offer updates on the race as it progresses, complete with each competitor’s Official Balladeer’s Blog Nickname. For instance in the photo at right is four-time Iditarod Champion Lance Mackey, known to my readers as “The Mad Musher”. Now over to Rosemary, after this reminder that the 2012 race will begin on March 4th.
Rosemary: Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be alone in the Alaska wilderness…just you and maybe 18 well-trained sled dogs pulling your sled? Well, I have. I have been a fan and a follower of the Iditarod Race since the early 1990s and since around 2004 I’ve been able to virtually experience the thrills and spills of the race; admire the fortitude of the mushers and the excitement of the competition; watch the well-trained dogs excitedly and happily travel the approximately 1,200 miles; and enjoy the beauty of Alaska. Every year they have an auction where you can actually take a ride with one of the mushers entered to compete in the ceremonial start to the race…usually the day before the actual start. THAT is number one on my Bucket List. Everything else on my list pales in comparison.
Here is a taste of what the race involves, directly from their website:
“The race is really a reconstruction of the freight route to Nome and commemorates the part that sled dogs played in the settlement of Alaska. The mushers travel from checkpoint to checkpoint much as the freight mushers did eighty years ago—although some modern dog drivers like Doug Swingley, Martin Buser, Jeff King, Susan Butcher, and Rick Swenson move at a pace that would have been incomprehensible to their old-time counterparts, making the trip to Nome in under ten days.”
Please take a look at the website and I think you will fall just as much in love with this wonderful and historical commemoration of a part of Alaska’s great past as I have.
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WOW. Sounds like fun!
Yep! Thanks for commenting!
L’gradne sigho… oh how I miss life in the arctic!!!
Before I left Nunavut, one of the things I really wanted to do but never got around to it was travel from Clyde to Greenland. My ex and I used to make the trip from Cambridge to his home town in Kugluktuk on skiidoo’s and only once did we do it by dog sled.
I’m homesick!!!
I could read an entire book about your experiences when you were living like that. You are always so fascinating.
Darling, my life is no more interesting than the next person’s. I just see the world differently than everyone else is all!!
In the last 24 hours I have suddenly become a spammer it seems so you will need to approve me again…
Great haering about this! I had no idea they still raced sled dogs! I’ll check it out!
Thanks for stopping by and for commenting! Hope you enjoy the Iditarod!
This race sounds bomb. I want one of those dogs.
I’ll let my sister know you liked it! I agree, huskies are great dogs.
Hi! Iditarod sounds really fun! There’s a movie about Balto that dog.
Thanks! Yes there is. Check out my Iditarod posts from last year for a list of movies about the event.
The frozen north and some faithful dog companions. That would make a nice adventure.
You said it. That’s why those documentary looks at each year’s Iditarod race are so enjoyable.
I’m a winter sports fan and I think the Iditarod never gets the attention it deserves.
I agree! Thanks for stopping by!
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You’ve sold me on the iditarod Rosemary I’ll be watching for it next year.
I’ll let her know you said so!
Long live the Iditarod!
Thanks for stopping by!
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速度の増加に呼応してヘルメットのビシッとした安定感が増し釣れているという武茂川に行ってみた帰りはグリーンバレーランチでバフェ http://heelless.org/coach/ 日本全国から買い物客が訪れるのも分かりますね最近では目が不自由な人や
Very nice article about the Iditarod!
Rosemary wrote a great piece! Thanks!
Wow! How long have they been doing this race?
I’ll have Rosemary get back with you on that.