Kotzebue musher always finds time for kids

"Why bother running a team of huskies when you can fire up a snow machine?"

Resurgence of native mushers

The 26th Iditarod continues a renaissance of competitive mushing among people with Alaska Native heritage. Returning for his 14th race after five-year absence is Joe Garnie, one of the top dog drivers in the history of the sport.

Musher follows dream from Baltimore to Nome

On rolling hills outside Baltimore, where the average winter temperature hovers near 40 degrees and snow is cause for a citywide shutdown, Dan Dent is doing his best to train for 1,100 miles of Alaska wilderness.

More than a dream

The man whose spic-and-span dog truck has the words "Dream a Dream Dog Farm" written on the back seemed as calm as still waters before what may be the grandest adventure of his life.

2 more dogs die, Iditarod reports

Two dogs that became ill during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race and were dropped from a rested, back-of-the-pack team at Ruby on March 14 died several days later in Anchorage while under private veterinary care.

Canine lust hampers trip to Nome

OPHIR - She wore a glossy black coat with a cunning white mark down the middle of her nose. Her slender front legs were dressed in leggings of white fur. A white belly. And sleepy, dog-yard eyes.

Love blooms under burled arch

Two couples put the mush in mushing at the Iditarod finish line Thursday. The terminus of the Anchorage-to-Nome sled dog race witnessed a wedding and a marriage proposal in quick order. Neither pair, it turned out, had an inkling of what the other was up to beneath the famed burled arch on Front Street.

Savvy veteran with a dream

Like other mushers training for the 26th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Chugiak musher James Lanier put his team of young, white huskies through all kinds of tests.

Redington runs his own race

Joe Redington sipped a can of Ensure through a straw and rocked gently in a chair at his Knik home. He wore gray winter overalls and light gray lobben boots. The 81-year-old musher, who's known wind chills of more than 100 degrees below zero, should have been too warm, but he wasn't.

Heavy Load

GALENA - With the lights of Galena glittering on the far bank of the Yukon River, Fairbanks musher Ramy Brooks was minutes away from arriving in 10th place Friday night during the 26th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race when a dog suddenly collapsed in its traces.

King makes it three

Pounded by fierce coastal winds, Jeff King of Denali Park saw his chances for a record Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race blow away on Tuesday, but his team persevered to claim a third victory.

Baker wakes up in time to be 5th

NOME - Out on the pre-dawn flats some 20 miles from the finish line in Nome, Kotzebue musher John Baker - driving for a fifth-place finish in the 26th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race - found his throbbing right ankle difficult to bear.

Another outdoor adventure

Most in the crowd will be cheering for the favorites as the field of 63 mushers takes off from Fourth Avenue this morning. But favorites aside, thousands of eyes will be watching a rookie named Sam Maxwell. He's the most well-known Iditarod "unknown" in town. Maxwell, 40, is one of four Anchorage mushers running in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Born and raised here, he seems to be everyone's acquaintance or friend-of-a-friend.

As blizzard brews, elite Kusko 300 field awaits word on start

Nervous officials with the $100,000 Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race were looking west Thursday night and wondering what Mother Nature might throw at them this year.

Lead dogs deal with a difference kind of endurance

Thought is a heavy burden to carry.

Dog's death mars race for three-time rookie

ELIM - Trim was the sled dog that always jumped up and down in excitement. He was always lunging forward, overcome with the passion to pull. He kept his tugline taut and loved the adventure of mushing the Iditarod Trail.

Top rookie nabs 20th

NOME - A chilly rain deepened the predawn dark as North Pole veterinarian Mark May followed his 10-dog team under the burled arch here early Thursday to seize the last paying position in the 26th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Red lantern awarded to Pozarnsky

The Associated Press

Tough and tougher: Iditarod vs. Quest

It's one of Alaska's great debates: Which 1,000-mile sled dog race is tougher -- the Yukon Quest or the Iditarod?

Swenson return spices up Iditarod

In the plush hallway of a Spenard hotel, 63 dog drivers hefted dainty crystal full of sparkling cider and champagne. They shook hands with fans, grinned and chattered as they lined up Thursday for the official group photograph of the 26th Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race to Nome.

Garnie embodies spirit of dog mushing's roots