Justin & I spent March 9-12th in the tiny village of Shageluk volunteering as “trail crew” for the Iditarod, and it was fascinating as last year’s experience, which I chronicled here and here.
I think no two experiences while volunteering for the Iditarod will ever be the same. That’s actually our goal, and why we want to try to get to as many checkpoints along the trail as we can. There’s diversity in the volunteer assignments, native village, mushers, dog yard, etc. Of course as as second-year volunteers, it was less of the out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire feeling. But you are still putting several strangers together to work together under a hint of crisis with a sense of wild living! The unknown plot is part of the adventure!
This year’s gig felt extremely quick—we were there and back within 4 days versus 7 days last year. Part of it has to do with the fact that we flew out 2 days later than we were supposed to (because of us not being able to get down to Anchorage earlier than planned followed by weather delays). Then there’s the fact that there were only 33 mushers competing this year (lowest number ever). And lastly, the temps were extremely mild—almost too warm for the dogs at first. Regardless, teams were moving smoothly and quickly at least through the beginning of the trail. Our first dog team arrived at our Shageluk checkpoint at 11:45pm on Thurs 3/9 and the last team left our checkpoint on Sat 3/11 at 4pm. We basically stayed up that entire time on dog yard detail—parking the teams and cleaning up after they left, catching 2-hour cat naps here and there.
Perched on the hills above the Innoko River, Shageluk was a much smaller village than Galena (83 people versus 500), so definitely had a different vibe. The checkpoint hub was divided into 3 separate buildings: our sleeping/cooking area in the tribal community center, the musher sleeping/cooking area in the tribal funeral hall and communications in the teen center. In Galena, everything was in one building (the community center) with makeshift walls separating sleeping from activity. We liked that a bit better, as we just felt we didn’t get as much of a chance to interact with the mushers this time around.
We started with only a 3-person trail crew (versus 4 last year), but there was a couple from Belgium stationed in Shageluk to switch out batteries on the trackers—a simple 1-minute job. So they were happy to be adopted into our trail crew, and we definitely needed them! We also had 4 veterinarians, 2 people in charge of communications (tracking mushers and reporting back to race headquarters) and a race judge (which is actually the same race judge who was with us last year). Basically, we had a bad-ass group of dedicated volunteers contributing to the success behind the scenes of the 1000-mile race!
Justin & I played our role of sleep-deprived dog whisperers and pooper-scoopers, and came away again with so much admiration for the tenacious canines running through the ferocious weather across the desolate arctic tundra of Alaska.
Can’t forget the extraordinary humans behind the dog teams, who are part navigator, part meteorologist, part mechanic, part chef, part cheerleader and basically the best doggie parents anyone could have. During the last 50 years, only 823 teams have made it to the finish line. To put that tidbit into perspective, that’s 8 times less than the number of people who have summited Everest! Add to it the fact that this is the only sport where men and woman are on equal playing field.
I also want to mention the 25+ pilots, who are all volunteers for the Iditarod, just like us. Justin is a little more weary of small planes than I am (even though he’s been in plenty). So when we took off from Anchorage in our 4-seater plane (I don’t know plane types—too many in Alaska), and he noticed fuel pouring out from the wing, he was a tad nervous to say the least. Then our pilot had to circle a few times to find the airstrip in the remote village in Shageluk. My theory: if the pilot isn’t nervous, I shouldn’t be nervous. Also, I carry snacks and wear all my layers when flying across Alaska …. just sayin.
Perhaps one of my favorite experiences from this time was when Justin & I helped the vets load 8 returned dogs into one of the smaller planes. The dogs were separated from their team for various health reasons, but are so dang trusting and go with the flow.
I think each year we volunteer, we become slightly more invested and obsessed with the Iditarod. The race is over now, with Ryan Redington winning in 8 days, 21 hours, 12 minutes and 58 seconds. This was a historic win, as the Redingtons come from a long line of racers and Ryan’s grandfather was one of the pioneers behind the race. Also, the top 3 were indigenous Alaskan Native mushers! When we came home from our checkpoint, we continued to follow all the footage of our favorite mushers crossing the finish line (even waking in the middle of the night to watch them come in). Can’t wait for next year!
Instead of saying you took a cat nap, you should call it a dog nap!