ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – A couple hundred miles into Iditarod 53, rookies are getting a taste of ‘The Last Great Race’.
Teams navigated through high winds near the mouth of the Tanana River Wednesday morning that sent silt through the air and led dogs searching for the trail.
“I went through the ‘sandstorm’ at about 2 a.m. and it kind of jumped up on me as I was going on the river, I was like, ‘this is different, this is not snow anymore.’” said Iditarod rookie Jenny Roddewig. “The wind was blowing so hard you could hardly see … I was able to stop and I got out in front of my dogs and walked them back to the trail, luckily I had my GPS.”
“I probably went half way through it and walked the other half and got to the other side, checked everyone out and hooked them up. They are very good dogs, I am very grateful for the time I have put into them, teaching them to be calm,” she said.
No matter the route, expect the unexpected in the Iditarod.
“I think we all thought this was going to be easy river running the whole way, so it was like, ‘what is this?!’ I guess we weren’t spared from things like the gorge, the burn and the steps, we had the 2025 sandstorm,” she said.
During the most challenging portions of the trail, you never know who may rise to the occasion.
”I thought I was going to have this nice, 30-mile cruise in, so I put a 2-year-old young leader who has never really been in lead before,” said rookie Sydnie Bahl.
“But he killed it out there. He was ‘geeing’ and ‘hawing’ and I didn’t have to get off and pull him, he took every command. That little guy is a stud muffin,” she said of her dog Hendrix.
Now that the dust has settled, dogs are resting while mushers are reorganizing before getting back on the trail.
“They all say I have the award for the most organized sled, so we are just organizing, getting ready for the three runs ahead of us,” Bahl said. “It looks like a disaster now, but in a few minutes it will be packed away.”
As mushers get on the Yukon River, they will be strategic in their schedule from Tanana to Ruby, with a distance of 117 miles between checkpoints.
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