Friends recall Bowers' energy, heart

(June 25, 2000) Montana Creek -- Yesterday was to have been the day Don Bowers signed up for his sixth Iditarod. The 2001 race, he hoped, would mark his breakthrough as a competitive musher.

Iditarod, Iron Dog fields filled

(Dec. 2, 2000) The snow has yet to come to the Susitna Valley, but Alaska's big-time snow sports are ready to roll.

Wells Fargo chips in

(Jan. 27, 2001) The National Bank of Alaska has extended its sponsorship of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Group of 4 trading Yukon Quest lead

Circle -- A rough trail was preventing any of the front-runners in the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog race from breaking from the pack Wednesday.

Addicted

(Jan. 7, 2001) For eight years, Ted English stood on the sidelines of the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race without a dog team, wondering if he'd ever race again. After finishing 24th in 1988 -- his seventh race for Nome at that point -- a divorce forced him to sell his team and he moved from Chugiak to Anchorage for odd carpentry jobs.

Bowers a man of many parts

(June 26, 2000) The inscription Don Bowers wrote for me in his mushing book read, ''We're all crazy in some way up here (some more than others, I guess). See you on the trail.''

Jonrowe best in Basin

(Jan. 16, 2001) Not rain or wind or lack of snow could stay Willow's DeeDee Jonrowe from her first victory in the Copper Basin 300 Sled Dog Race on Monday.

Making iditarod proud

Wasilla -- Ryan Redington had the home-field advantage. He lives a few miles down the road from Iditarod headquarters. He works with dad Raymie giving tourists sled-dog rides at Iditarod headquarters. Wednesday at 1 p.m. he simply set up a tent and camped at Iditarod headquarters.

Ohio teenager lives a dream in junior race

Five years ago, 17-year-old Jennifer Ramsey set a goal to run the Junior Iditarod.

Musher preps for Quest-Iditarod doubleheader

(Jan. 9, 2001) Kenai -- Veteran musher Tim Osmar is putting himself to the ultimate test.

The Michael Jordan of Kotzebue

Kotzebue -- If things had gone the way John Baker planned, he wouldn't be lining up his dog team at the start of this year's Iditarod.

Aliy Zirkle is a woman to watch

(Feb. 4, 2001) The most underreported sports story of the new millennium?

Alaska musher moves on

(Dec. 24, 2000) John Barron, a fixture in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race since 1979, and an Alaska resident for 43 years, moved from Montana Creek to Lincoln, Mont., last spring, making him a new neighbor of three-time Iditarod champ Doug Swingley.

Tough Sledding

(Jan. 13, 2001) Before this year's Yukon Quest, there is likely to be a Yukon Chain Saw Massacre.

Trails beckon

(Feb. 8, 2001) Tim Osmar is a pretty mellow guy. You have to be easygoing when you've got four kids and 80 sled dogs to deal with every day.

Hike, you devil dogs

The first musher to sign up for the 2001 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race will be the first out of the starting chute today when the 1,000-mile race from Whitehorse, Yukon, to Fairbanks gets under way at 1 p.m.

Making a career of adaptation

Nenana -- Rick Mackey was a city boy. And the city-boy rookie in the 1975 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race had a lousy sense of direction in the wilderness.

Montana mountain musher

Lincoln, Mont. - The route from Great Falls to Doug Swingley's sturdy, stone house erected here amid towering 300-year-old Ponderosa Pines, crosses 5,600-foot Rogers Pass and the Continental Divide.

The 2001 Race Route

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race launches from Alaska's populated core at the upper end of Cook Inlet and ends along the frozen Bering Sea in a final dash to Nome. In between, the race annually alternates between two historic routes that bridge the vast, uninhabited Interior.

Swenson grabs Kusko lead

(Jan. 12, 2001) An hour-long break early in the Kusko 300 Sled Dog Race appears to be paying off for Rick Swenson's swift-moving team as the race heads into its final stretch.

Fit for Nome

Wasilla -- Inside a cozy log cabin at the Iditarod Trail Committee headquarters, Big Lake musher Martin Buser held firmly to one of his dogs while a vet technician slid a needle into the animal's neck to draw blood.