Iditarod: Day 4

Iditarod: Day 4

3/7/26

Anchorage

Sled Doggos Pet: a whole bunch

Last night was rough. There was anxiety of sleeping past my alarm (oh, the irony!). My eye was bothering me and the air was so dry I kept coughing. I had a single hotel room coffee left so I drowned that quickly. Trying to soothe the anxiety, I did some guided mediation and read my book. But I donned my layers and was out the door around 5am.

My volunteer day started out with musher parking. We needed to guide the trucks and rigs to their designed parking spots that correlated with their start numbers. The rigs are huge and the snow makes it impossible for them to start once they have stopped. We were told multiple times, “do not let them stop”. One of the volunteers in my area stated he has volunteered for over 20+ years. He also stopped every single rig at the corner to talk to the musher instead of calling out the number and waving them by. Another volunteer in my area was from Boston, he heard that my surgeon was a trail veterinarian and fan boyed for a very long minute, asking his name, if he could meet him. His energy was a lot to handle.

Overall, the parking went smoothly, especially after the coordinator told the guy stopping the rigs to move. The cold seeped in gradually. First the knees (least insulated area), then the toes and fingers. It almost felt like a trauma response of living in Minnesota where this nagging thought worms its way into your brain “I’m never going to be warm again.”

Once all the mushers were parked I headed to the dog handler coordinator to check in. I had a little bit of time so I wandered to the start and saw PETA protesting, some dressed as the grim reaper. A debate for another time perhaps.There was “classroom” training followed by "practical" training. The classroom portion was basically telling us to not step on the dogs, not to step on the expensive lines, not to get run over by the sled. Oh, and dress in layers. The practical session was started by reinforcing us to not get run over by the sled. Apparently it hurts, a lot. Point taken. If we fall, we must roll out of the way. Prior to this trip, falling flat on my face was a very real source of anxiety for me.

After regrouping with the dog handler volunteers, assignments started. The coordinator was asking people “are you healthy and active?”, “do you have a heart condition?”. What? What happened to the light jog yesterday? I replied that I did yoga occasionally but could I run five blocks without dying, not likely. As volunteers were sent to their assignments I watch the dogs get attached to the rigging. These dogs wanted nothing but to take off. They were jumping, barking, some on just their back legs trying to be released to run. What did I sign up for?

While watching the first mushers get going, I saw some of the vet tech volunteers doing their pre-start checks. The amount of respect the veterinary volunteers (doctors and techs) received from staff and other volunteers was astounding. I missed the deadline for vet tech volunteer, hence the general spot volunteer positions but maybe next year…

At the second block, I received my assignment, with the veteran volunteer who was stopping the rigs during parking. Lol. I was assigned to Jesse Terry’s group. When we arrived, he said they had plenty of dog handlers from their kennel (not uncommon) but they needed the extra help navigating the street corner (a rather tight turn for a dog sled). Thank god, I wouldn’t have to run, get dragged, fall flat on my face. We had time before he was scheduled to start since the race is a staggered start time for all mushers, one going every couple minutes. I got to meet one of the lead dogs, Oaken. He loved head scratches and butt scratches.

After navigating the team around the corner I followed to the starting line and watched them take off. Could I have stuck around longer and watched more teams go? Sure, but I had been outside since 5am and it was past noon at this point. I was cold and hungry. 49th State Brewing was one street over and attempted to get in, but the wait was over an hour. Looking at my phone, they had a smaller taproom a little distance farther that opened in an hour. I dropped some layers and changed clothes at the hotel and walked to the smaller taproom. I arrived prior to the rush and enjoyed their blonde and kolsch, which were so satisfying. The panini helped with the hunger that had set in.

By the time I had eaten, it was crowded and I was feeling claustrophobic so I headed back towards the hotel with a pit stop at Snow City Cafe for a last Kaladi latte, yummm.

I packed up, since the flight tomorrow is early (6am!) and pre-booked my uber. Dirsko had flown in this morning and was picking me up for dinner at a friend’s house. Dinner was muskox that his friend had hunted himself. The home was up in the foothills with a scenic view of Anchorage. We were up past my standard bedtime (Denver time) so I was ready for bed by the time I got back to the hotel. I will not include a “day 5” since my travel back to Denver was uneventful and long.