Arctic Adventures: Volume 42 – 5th Year of Iditarod Volunteering

Justin went back for his 5th year volunteering on the Iditarod Sled Dog Race as trail crew (I’m pretty much semi-retired after 3 volunteer gigs, but who knows, maybe someday I’ll return). In any case, knowing I wasn’t joining him, he went all in on his flexibility and availability, which meant he ended up taking 8 small plane flights all over the Alaska map from 3/5-3/20!

Justin’s goal is always to try out trail crew in new villages, and has been to Galena in 2022 (me too), Shageluk in 2023 (me too), Kaltag in 2024 and Unalakleet in 2025 (me too). For 2026, Justin was originally assigned to be on the trail crew at Finger Lakes, which is a super intense checkpoint at mile 150 of the race because it’s basically 24 hours of mushers coming through since they aren’t spread out much yet. On 3/6, he & his team sat around waiting out weather in Anchorage that never cleared enough for flying. On 3/7, he & his team waited all day at the airport, again not able to fly out. On 3/8, they finally could fly. Justin was on the small plane with just the pilot & supplies. They were about to land on Finger Lakes, when a wind gust nearly turned the plane upside down. The pilot said “well, we’re not trying that again.” So they flew back to Anchorage & that was the end of Justin’s Finger Lakes assignment. Finger Lakes ended up operating on a skeleton crew because most people couldn’t get there in time.

Back in Anchorage, Justin got reassigned to Nikolai at mile 242 of the race, and flew there finally 3/9, and was there until 3/13. He really liked Nikolai! There were beautiful views of Denali & the native community was so welcoming & helpful. The accommodations were semi-rustic, operating out of arctic oven hot tents and they had to fetch water out of the river & boil it over a fire outside. The volunteers slept in inside (library). The big hiccup was the pipes were frozen in the WHOLE village of 80 people. There were 2 toilets available to the volunteers in the school, but you had to do a pioneer flush by dumping water. 

After about 4 days of hard work on trail crew in Nikolai, he had a 2-day break between checkpoints in one of the hubs (McGrath) where he could take a shower and have a fully-functioning toilet. Finally on 3/15, he flew to Koyuk at Mile 852, which is also beautiful because it’s on the sea ice. This ended up being a little more rustic because there was no running water at all, so folks had to “create” a bathroom with a bucket. Most people did not have experience with this kind of bathroom situation—cause most people live in a normal society—so Justin was designated the latrine king who got to empty the bucket most of the time. How lucky. (He really did have a great team there that worked together well, for the record!).

Anyway, Justin finally returned home 3/20, and once again thrived volunteering on the Iditarod. He is becoming one of the “veteran” volunteers & knows so many of the other volunteers. And as usual, the Iditarod is just amazing to witness. This year’s 37 teams (14 of which were rookies!) show a level of dedication to their dogs that is akin to moms & dads who feed their children before themselves. I still don’t understand where they find the stamina to battle a ruthless and frigid landscape, but one thing is clear. There is such striking beauty north of the Arctic Circle, and they and their dogs are in their element.