'You just hang on. It was a pretty exciting ride down.' Nose fixable; sleds fragile PUNTILLA LAKE - Long before the Iditarod Trail turned truly ugly, Minnesotan Kevin Kortuem was riding on a single sled runner and a prayer. Just miles out of Finger Lake before climbing 30 miles through brush-filled canyons into the Alaska Range, the rookie musher hit something that broke the left runner just in front of his foot. [See Story]

Mushers Jamie Nelson and Karen Ramstead, above, walk through the Rainy Pass checkpoint at Puntilla Lake on Tuesday. At right, Ramstead's sled was sporting inventive means to hold it together at the checkpoint.RICHARD J. MURPHY / Anchorage Daily News

Gebhardt still the lead dog Veteran Kasilof musher leads pack out of Nikolai NIKOLAI - Urge your dogs swiftly through the frigid air of night, bask them gently during afternoon's sloppy sun.  Then, as the sun slides toward the horizon, snow again freezing pavement hard, launch down the trail at the head of the pack. Following what has become a classic run-rest strategy for the thaw-freeze spring days of Alaska's Interior, Kasilof musher Paul Gebhardt led the 28th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for the second straight day on Tuesday. [See Story]

A musher drives his team across the flats out of the checkpoint at Puntilla Lake on the way to Rainy Pass and the crossing of the Alaska Range. From the pass, mushers drop into the Dalzell Gorge and head for the checkpoint at Rohn. (RICHARD J. MURPHY / Anchorage Daily News)

'N and N' twins run race

Mark Nordman is not Jack Niggemyer. Really. No matter how many people think so. Mark Nordman was not separated at birth from Jack Niggemyer. Really. No matter how many people confuse them.

"It happens every day," said Nordman.

[See Story]

Iditarod Notebook

Musher sex appeal

Out on the Iditarod Trail to Nome, there may be wanderlust and stardust. But on the not-so snowy paths leading through cyberspace, there's just plain musher lust.

Some of this year's Iditarod fans are starry eyed - and not just over the blue-eyed huskies. A few are picking favorites based on the musher's sex appeal.

[See Story]

GEBHARDT FIRST TO REACH ROHN JONROWE SECOND OUT OF RAINY PASS

After spending the sunny afternoon in the company of three former champions at frozen Puntilla Lake, Kasilof musher Paul Gebhardt lined out 15 dogs Monday evening and led the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race across the Alaska Range into the Alaska's Interior.

[See Story]

Trail renews Straub Musher lost 3 dogs to big rig YENTNA STATION - The long, exhausting buildup to Iditarod 2000 finally flattened musher Dave Straub in the Monday morning darkness on the hard-packed snow of the frozen Yentna River. Just 20 minutes out of this checkpoint, the Iditarod rookie pulled his team over and parked. There they rested for the next 10 hours. [See Story]

David Straub spends time with his leaders Monday morning just before leaving Yentna Station, where he spent 10 hours. In January, Straub questioned whether he would even be in this year's Iditarod after an accident killed three members of his dog team aned injured a fourth. (RICHARD J. MURPHY / Anchorage Daily News)

Get along, little doggies
Nebraska cowboy hits the Iditarod Trail, promises rope trick in Nome

He's got rodeo in his roots, climbing on his mind and mushing on the table.

Which means that you should not be surprised to see multitasking Bob Hempstead lasso the arch on Front Street in Nome when he finishes the 28th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

[See Story]

Mackey is ready this year

Rick Mackey of Nenana is racing in his 20th Iditarod, but the 1983 champion skipped the races in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Instead, he raced the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest those years, finishing second, first and third.

[See Story]

Mushers pull into Yentna Redington, Mackey first racers through the checkpoint Raymie Redington, the 13th musher to leave Wasilla, found smooth going on the familiar trails near his Knik home in the first portion of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Redington was the first musher into the Yenta checkpoint Sunday, arriving at 5:07 p.m. Rick Mackey of Nenana, who started 18th, also pulled in at 5:07. Perhaps most impressive was how quickly Willow's DeeDee Jonrowe moved to the front. Jonrowe, the 37th musher to leave Wasilla, was third into Yentna, 32 minutes behind Redington. She has characterized this Iditarod as a rebuilding year after her team refused to run on the Yukon River last year, forcing her to scratch for the first time. [See Story]

Musher Vickie Talbot of Talkeetna drives her team across the railroad tracks south of the Parks Highway in Wasilla on Sunday on her way to Knik following the Iditarod restart. She is part of a record field of 81 mushers in this year's race. (BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News)

History rides with "rookie" Peters WASILLA - With the launch of the 28th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race only a hour away, former champion and mushing legend Emmitt Peters strode through last-minute chores Sunday morning with a brisk, preoccupied air - sorting harnesses, digging through his sled bag and repairing his well-used gear. Wearing an old pair of wool work pants and a new windstopper vest over a flannel shirt, the 58-year-old Athabascan from Ruby stooped over a bulging pocket in the sled bag that just would not close. [See Story]

Emmitt Peters of Ruby gets a hug and kiss from his wife, Edna, before driving down the trail at the Iditarod restart in Wasilla.(STEPHEN NOWERS / Anchorage Daily News)

Middle of pack is Iditarod's backbone

WASILLA - They are the backbone of the Iditarod.

They are the Alaska mushers who race because the sport grabbed hold of their spirit and won't let go. They are not the stars whose names everyone knows. They are not the rookies who do it once and disappear. They are the regulars, the reliables, the repeat customers.

[See Story]

Ted English becomes first scratch after crash

Skittering around a sharp curve on the Iditarod Trail outside Eagle River Saturday afternoon, Willow musher Ted English flipped his sled and landed hard on a patch of glare ice. The 61-year-old part-time carpenter struck his head on the snow hook and slammed his right leg and hip. On Sunday morning, English decided his injuries were serious enough to force him to become the first musher to scratch from the 2000 Iditarod.

[See Story]

Mushers into Skwentna
Little leads four competitors through the checkpoint

Kasilof musher Jon Little led a group of four mushers into Skwentna on Sunday night to forge a narrow lead in the first 100 miles of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Little, a Daily News reporter, arrived at the small town at the confluence of the Yentna and Skwentna rivers at 9:50 p.m. with a full contingent of 16 dogs.

[See Story]

Festive Knik sees mushers off into the wild

KNIK - As dog team after dog team trotted through the checkpoint that heralds the end of civilization and the beginning of the wilderness in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Terry Miller's attention turned to the parking lot behind her.

[See Story]

The heat is on A thousand dogs, details head north Less than an hour before the ceremonial start of the 28th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, the stage in downtown Anchorage was set with yipping, howling vengeance. Up and down Fourth Avenue and its side streets, a record field of 81 mushers and nearly 1,000 huskies were parked at preselected sites. Some 120 dump trucks had spread snow on two miles of city streets. A mile and half of fences were up. Hundreds of volunteers stood ready. [See Story]

Iditarod musher Ross Adam of Grande Prairie, Alberta, rights his sled at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Cordova Street and keeps his Iditarider, Linda Yanke of Boise, Idaho, safe in the bag. Adam, making his third Iditarod run, was 46th out of the chute in a parade of 81 teams. (EVAN STEINHAUSER / Anchorage Daily News)

Swingley's swaggering Defending champ confident he'll be first to reach Nome Defending champion Doug Swingley, looking leaner and fitter than ever, pulled away from downtown Anchorage and headed to Nome on Saturday behind a dog team he said is the best he's ever been part of. That's right. Swingley, the two-time winner from Montana who is the only Outside musher to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, views himself as part of the gang, if not the gangline. [See Story]

Defending Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race champion Doug Swingley of Lincoln, Mont., chats with fans before Saturday's start. Swingley was the 17th musher to leave the starting chute on Fourth Avenue. (RICHARD J. MURPHY / Anchorage Daily News)

Iditarod's Anchorage 'start' is where myth and marketing meet

You could hear the dogs for blocks, a cacophony of barks and whines and yelps punctuated by an occasional howl. Five blocks of West Fourth Avenue were outlined in snow fence to keep the crowds at bay. The side streets were lined with fence too. The streets themselves were full of trucked-in snow and dog teams in various states of assemblage and people of all sorts putting dogs into booties or harnesses or just standing around waiting.

[See Story]

Precious Paul trades WWF for the Iditarod

Precious Paul competes in a different wardrobe these days.

He's gone from loincloth to lycra. From scanty pants to snowpants. From bare chest to bearskins.

Oh, yeah, he's also gone from the World Wrestling Federation to the Iditarod.

[See Story]

Iditarod
Good trail to ladies, gentlemen and dogs

Eighty-one mushers drive their dogs on a short ride out of downtown Anchorage this morning to start the 28th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to Nome.

Must be spring.

Even though the 81 may soon be riding runners into the teeth of winter, the Iditarod has become a sign of spring.

[See Story]

Only elite know road to victory Only five mushers were able to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the decade of the '90s. One of them, 1990 winner Susan Butcher from Eureka, won in 1990, then four years later, after finishing 10th, retired to become a mother. Another of them, Rick Swenson from Two Rivers, embraced a brutal storm on a death-defying march from the White Mountain checkpoint along the Bering Sea Coast to Nome in 1991. Victory No. 5 for Swenson crowned him the all-time Iditarod champ, putting him one up on Butcher, his archrival throughout the 1980s. [See Story]

Charlie Boulding, who will start last today, has a laugh during Friday's practice run at Tozier Track in Anchorage. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)

Leave those dogs alone
It's animal rights time again

All animal rights organizations are the enemies of all Alaskans.

Basically misinformed, they hate the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. They hate anyone connected to the race and they know nothing about the state's history, tradition and culture.

[See Story]

Happy to be here, ready to go State sponsor backs musher despite jitters of corporation Animal rights activists campaigning against the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race are getting personal this year. A group of them are focusing on one individual musher and waging an electronic war against one of his sponsors. Healy musher Ramy Brooks, who will be the first musher to leave the start line this morning in downtown Anchorage, is calling on family and friends to help him fight an e-mail battle against activists who are pressing the East Coast headquarters of one of his sponsors to pull its support. [See Story]

Iditarod rookie Bill McKee gets a kiss from Clint after an exercise run Friday afternoon at Tozier Track on Tudor Road. McKee, from Fairbanks, will be the sixth musher down Fourth Avenue this morning when 81 teams begin the 1,100-mile trek to Nome. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)

Technology helps TV boost Iditarod coverage

As television producer Peter Henning hits the Iditarod Trail, he isn't worried about finding a fresh way to tell a story he's already told 18 times. He'll let the past guide him.

As KIMO-Channel 13 prepares to cover the Iditarod for the 10th time as the race's official television station, it will let still-developing technology guide it.

[See Story]

Swingley looks like top dog
With 81 in the field, handicapping's tough

The field for the 28th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is the largest ever, with 81 mushers entered for the 1,100-mile mush from Anchorage to Nome.

The high quality of racers means I am going to be one lucky guy indeed if I correctly predict A) The winner of the 2000 race; and B) The top 20 finishers. But numbers alone aren't why I think this is the hardest race to handicap.

[See Story]

Brooks will be 1st to begin Iditarod Ramy Brooks of Healy will be the first musher to leave Fourth Avenue in Saturday's ceremonial start of the 28th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Brooks will wear bib No. 2 as he departs on the 1,100-mile wilderness journey to Nome. Bib No. 1 has been reserved for honorary mushers Joe Redington Sr., Edgar Nollner and John E. Schultz. [See Story]

Wolfman, one of Harry Caldwell's dogs, peers out of a truck as Dr. M.J. Wixsom of Ashland, Ky., checks the health of the rest of the team during Wednesday's veterinary check at Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla. All dogs in the race undergo the prerace check.�(AL GRILLO / The Associated Press)

Fast trail is possible for Iditarod
Officials are optimistic as heavy snowfall relents

The skies were clearing at Finger Lake on Wednesday, and the once-fast, then-snowed-under Iditarod Trail was looking like it might turn fast again.

"It's pretty nice here actually," said Kirsten Dixon at the Winter Lake Lodge. "It's almost blue skies ... about 30 degrees."

[See Story]

Native Sons
Corporations help mushers compete

Alaska Native corporations are giving money to Native mushers so they can compete at the top levels of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Musher John Baker of Kotzebue said the sponsorship money he receives from NANA Regional Corp. and the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. allows him to buy the best dogs and the finest equipment.

[See Story]

Veteran Boulding can whip the young pups

First of all, this birthday thing. Charlie Boulding goes around lying about his age. As soon as the calendar spills over into a new year, he figures he might as well roll over, too. Just round it off. What the hey.

[See Story]

Guard helicopter lifts 3 from trail

Just days before the start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, one rookie racer was already lost on the trail. 

Rookie musher Anna Bondarenko and her husband, James Lanier, were picked up by an Alaska Air National Guard Pavehawk helicopter Tuesday almost two days after they drove their snowmachine into a creek, Alaska State Troopers said.

[See Story]