Adventures on the Iditarod Trail: Fast Dogs, Freezing Mushers and the Alaska Wild

“Each time a musher sets out from Anchorage, pointed towards Nome in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, he or she writes a new story.” ~Lew Freedman, from the Introduction

Adventures on the Iditarod Trail: Fast Dogs, Freezing Mushers and the Alaska Wild, by Lew Freedman, features engaging interviews with mushers from several decades of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. In his introduction, Lew Freedman writes, “March in Alaska belongs to the Iditarod. The throwback nature of the event in a hurry-up world, the romance of the wilderness, the challenge of conquering the elements, all figure into why the Iditarod is so popular.”

This book is about the mushers who accepted the challenge. There’s the Old Guard who ran in the ’70s: Dick Mackey, Rod Perry, Raymie Redington, Bob Chlupach, Sonny Lindner, and Richard Burmeister. The first three were mushing pioneers in the inaugural race in 1973, when no one was even certain if they could make it to Nome over the old gold rush freighting trail.

There are the Champions and Respected Veterans who came after them in the ’80s: Libby Riddles, Martin Buser, Jeff King, Burt Bomhoff, Vern Halter, Dave Monson, and Frank Teasley. These early racers tell riveting stories about how they came to Alaska, when they began running dogs, why they entered the Last Great Race, and what happened on the trail to Nome. They tell what it was like to stay with the villagers, to travel minimally-groomed trails, and to brave the fiercest storms with old-school equipment, before the advent of headlamps, cookers, and other amenities.

Mushers who began running the Iditarod in the 1990s include John Baker, Ramey Smyth, Bruce Lee, and Susan Whiton, and then the early years of the 21st century saw Lance Mackey, Ryan Redington, and Dallas Seavey hit the Iditarod Trail, all three becoming future champions. And in the last decade or so we’ve seen the Young Guns, relatively speaking: Brent Sass, Nicholas Petit, Mille Porsild, Ritchie Diehl, Anna and Kristy Berington, Jessie Holmes, and Cindy Abbott.

Author Lew Freedman has been interviewing mushers since he was sports editor of the Anchorage Daily News many years ago. He truly knows the sport, the players, the trail, and the questions to ask. As he writes in the epilogue, which is a tribute to 1980 Iditarod Champion Joe May, a key component is “. . . how you become hooked on dogs, and racing, and how it can take over your life . . .”

In this book Lew explores that question as some of the race’s most interesting and compelling competitors share their adventures on the Iditarod Trail.