Iditarod mushers share what they pack for a 1,000-mile journey by dog sled

BIG LAKE — With trans-Alaska racing just days away, two Big Lake mushers turned their attention to packing for the journey Monday. Kristin Bacon will start her third Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and Martin Buser is beginning his 36th, but both took care not to forget anything important.

“The next few days, I’ll pack and unpack the sled many, many times, just to make sure that everything is in there,” Buser said.

Buser, a four-time race champion, said he relies on packing lists that are pretty refined from his decades of driving dogs. But it improves each year, he said. Lately, his sled bag has included a 2.5-pound pop-up tent, a portable place to rest right next to his sled dogs that sets up in seconds.

“In my old age, I like my privacy a little more than I used to,” said Buser, 60.

Indoor space at the race checkpoints can get crowded with resting mushers, he said, and his portable shelter adequately blocks a light breeze or rain. That makes it worth bringing despite the extra weight.

“I just drop two and a half pounds of my flab, and this allows me to carry this tent,” he said at his Happy Trails Kennel on Monday afternoon.

Buser also puts a unique twist on one of the items that race officials require Iditarod mushers to carry: snowshoes. Buser’s snowshoes are handcrafted in a traditional Athabaskan style by artist George Albert in Ruby, he said.

“I have those proudly displayed at the back of my sled,” Buser said.

A few miles away, Kristin Bacon organized her belongings on the floor of her cabin. That included stacks of blankets and neck buffs for her dog team, a kit for making repairs to her sled, and a clock and a timer to wake herself from naps. And she keeps a lightweight set of spare boots in case her main ones get wet.

“It’s a fine balance between over-packing and forgetting something,” Bacon said.

Bacon, 45, has also refined her kit for this year’s Iditarod. She’s bringing super glue in case her fingers crack from the cold. And she’s also bringing a satellite-connected device for messaging and GPS information, though she has yet to learn how to use it, she said. Race rules allow mushers to carry and use “two-way communication” devices, including cellphones, satellite phones and satellite tracking devices.

With race time fast approaching, Bacon said she feels less anxious than she did in 2016 or 2017.

“I’d like to think I have this fairly under control,” said Bacon, who is also a pediatric physical therapist.

Buser said packing isn’t the final task. He said Monday afternoon that he has two more training runs to do and some important decisions to make.

“I have it narrowed down to 18 dogs. I haven’t decided who gets to go,” he said.

When the race finally gets underway, Buser said it will feel liberating from the many concerns and decisions that fill the rest of his year.

“For the nine or 10 days, I have no wife, I have no kids, I have no other dogs, I have no businesses,” he said. “I literally only have what’s in front of me.”

[Watch: Iditarod musher Kristin Bacon talks dog teams and sled steering]