Desk-jockey critics bark only malarkey about Iditarod

Almost a year has passed without so much as a peep from U.S. Today canine authority Jon Saraceno.

Determination, experience and wins have Copper Center's Jessica Hendricks racing with the top dogs

When Jessica Hendricks was just 5, growing up on her family's Copper Center homestead, she would hide in a snowbank to watch neighbor Kerry Babcock hook his trapline dogs to a sled. Babcock, now her stepfather, pretended not to see her, but he knew the little girl fascinated by sled dogs was watching.

Zack Steer may be on the Iditarod trail when his wife gives birth

Like all mushers competing in this year's Iditarod, Zack Steer will have much to think about on the trail: Where's the next checkpoint? Is his leader pulling as hard as it should? Could it get any colder?

Jonrowe, Swenson lead the way to Rainy Pass

Nine mushers arrived in Finger Lake this morning, the checkpoint about 130 miles from the Willow race start, and veterans DeeDee Jonrowe and Rick Swenson led a group of veterans pushing ahead toward the next checkpoint at Rainy Pass, high in the Alaska Range, as the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race heated up on its second day.

Five-time champion Swenson scratches

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was rocked Thursday by the withdrawal of five-time champion Rick Swenson of Two Rivers, an expected contender this year. It was the first scratch for the 54-year-old Swenson in 29 Iditarod races dating back to 1976.

Dog dies on Iditarod trail

Half an hour after a 24-hour rest in the checkpoint of Anvik, a dog in the team of musher Paul Gebhardt of Kasilof died on Saturday, the first to perish in this year's Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Sorlie maintains strong lead on way to Golovin

Cagey Norwegian Robert Sorlie led a pack of Alaskans down wind-blown the Seward Peninsula on Tuesday, trying to maintain the comfortable lead he's built in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Iditarod restart is in Willow

Wasilla may be dubbed "Home of the Iditarod," but for the third year in a row, it will not host next Sunday's restart of the 1,100-mile sled dog race to Nome.

Ready, set, enjoy start of Iditarod

Traditionally on ceremonial start day, each Iditarod team makes an untimed run from downtown Anchorage to Eagle River, passing thousands of spectators along the 20-mile trail. The 33rd installment of the Iditarod will kick off with its ceremonial start at 10 p.m. Saturday on Fourth Avenue, though a lack of snow has shortened this year's pass to 11 miles, ending at Campbell Airstrip.

And the race is on

In the quiet, early morning darkness blanketing the Innoko River country, former Iditarod champs Robert Sorlie, the Norwegian, and four-time Iditarod champ Martin Buser, the Swiss who has made America his adopted home, slipped out of the ghost town that gave The Last Great Race its official name to take the lead in the chase to Nome.

New York's Idiot-arod places a cart before the musher

Quick! Strike the set! ...

Alaska musher Hendricks, 22, beats Iditarod champs in Tustumena

A musher from Oregon seemed to get all the attention, but a homegrown Alaskan who lives for dogs sped through the Kenai Peninsula's Caribou Hills over the weekend to win the Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race.

Blind musher still running toward goal

How badly did Rachael Scdoris want to be a sled dog driver when she was growing up?

Nome eighth-grader wins Junior Iditarod

In a field full of some of the biggest family names in sled-dog racing -- including Buser, Seavey and Smyth -- a little-known 15-year-old from Nome walked away with the championship.

Final week before Iditarod

Rachael Scdoris, the Bend, Ore., musher who fought to be allowed to enter the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, trained with her team near Willow on Monday.

Iditarod draws more tourists, money

Thanks to an Alaska-size Christmas gift from her hubby, New Jersey's Jane TerLouw was enjoying the trip of her dreams Wednesday -- while contributing to the Anchorage economy.

Old faces, new celebrate race's start

Three major dramas unfolded at the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Saturday morning. Charlie Boulding said this would be his last Iditarod. Four-time champ Martin Buser nursed an injured hand right up to race start at 10 a.m. And Rachael Scdoris made history as the Iditarod's first legally blind musher.

Royer is leadoff musher

Jessie Royer of Fairbanks was the leadoff musher for the official restart of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Sunday in Willow, 70 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska.

Iditarod pumps up Nome's lean winter

Iditarod dog teams mushing under the finish-line arch in Nome are a welcome sight for race fans and a $1.1 million shot in the arm for Nome merchants.

Craig Medred: Scdoris is special, but so are other mushers (3-27-2005)

When Rachael Scdoris scratched at Eagle Island, one of the television networks labeled her the first handicapped musher to compete in the Iditarod. The claim managed to both demean what Rachael can do and overlook what others have done. Her father, Jerry Scdoris, made a big deal of his daughter's limited vision. It helped attract sponsors not only for his kennel but for a race he created and now runs in Oregon, the Atta Boy 300. But for many, selling a disability just doesn't seem right.

Charging moose kills lead dog of Iditarod musher

Even over a scratchy cell-phone connection, the emotion is obvious in Iditarod musher Ramey Smyth's voice when he begins to talk about how Fido was stomped to death on a moose-haunted trail along the Denali Highway earlier this month.