As the Iditarod prepares to shift into reverse, mushers dread what’s ahead
Wait 1 second to continue. OPHIR Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race mushers are contending with an unprecedented situation this year, one that is stirring anxiety as racers ruminated during their 24-hour mandatory rests on Wednesday. For the first time, the Iditarod is following an out-and-back route. That means competitors now have a clear idea what’s in store when they go back over daunting sections of trail. “On a normal year, you just go and you hit a bad spot, and you’re through it and you just forget about it,” said race veteran Paige Drobny of Cantwell, wearing a billowy white jacket as she inspected the inside of a dog’s nostril.
As the leader of the Iditarod pack in McGrath, Seavey draws a lot of attention but his focus stays on his dogs Published March 9
Share on Facebook
Print article McGRATH Dallas Seavey pulled off the Kuskokwim River and into the checkpoint here at exactly 4 p.m. Tuesday. For the next hour and a half, he methodically worked through an elaborate set of essential chores with the kind of focus that he’s hoping will win him a fifth Iditarod title. It began with a swab jabbed up his nose by a stranger, a mandatory COVID-19 testing precaution for every musher coming into McGrath. Even with a foreign object swirling halfway up his nasal cavity, cameras and questions hovered around him like mosquitoes in June.
Eagle River musher is carrying hope in a box on the Iditarod Trail Published March 8
Larry Daugherty, a musher from Eagle River, will carry empty packages of COVID-19 vaccine with him on the trail this year. Forty-six mushers began the 2021 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog race from Deshka Landing in Willow on March 7, 2021. (Marc Lester / ADN)
Share on Facebook
Print article Larry Daugherty of Eagle River is carrying hope on the Iditarod Trail. It comes in a box. Daugherty, a radiation oncologist, is carrying empty packages of the COVID-19 vaccine as a symbol of the hope he sees a year into a global pandemic that gained full force during last year’s Iditarod.