Al Batt, Tales from Exit 22

Located between the Tanana and the Nenana Rivers, the town of Nenana, Alaska, was the starting point of the diphtheria run in 1925 that saved the lives of hundreds of people in Nome. This run became the model for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Susan Butcher won the Iditarod four times.

The 1,100-mile Iditarod that runs from Anchorage to Nome each March is a grueling endeavor that takes nine to 15 days to finish. Mushers can encounter whiteout conditions so bad that they are unable to see the other ends of their sleds. They have to rely on the dogs. The dogs have to rely on their mushers. They rely on one another. Susan Butcher was given silk roses at the finish line because real roses would have quickly frozen. Her team was once attacked by a moose.

The dogsled has no reins or steering wheel. Everything is done by voice command. &8220;Gee&8221; means turn right and &8220;haw&8221; signals a left turn. It&8217;s a ballet with the dogs dancing to music that only they can hear.

Susan Butcher was the woman who caused someone to coin the phrase, &8220;Alaska, where men are men and women win the Iditarod.&8221; Susan Butcher died of leukemia at the age of 51. She left a husband and two children (ages 6 and 11) to both mourn her passing and to celebrate her life.

I have visited Susan Butcher&8217;s Trail Breaker Kennels near Fairbanks. I was greeted by a chorus of barking dogs that was silenced only by the pull. The dogs are so anxious to go to work that it takes two minutes to teach a dog to go and two years to teach them to whoa. They don&8217;t ask,

&8220;Who let the dogs out?&8221; They&8217;re just happy to be out. The dogs love to pull a sled. They approach the prospect of pulling a sled with the enthusiasm of a third-grader being released to recess.

Puppies have their eyes closed for the first 10 days of their lives. Susan believed it was important to bond with a puppy while its eyes were still closed. The retired dogs retire to the kennel. They teach. Experienced dogs become professors for puppies. The dogs are forever in need of cleaning up after. This provides job security for a musher. Jessie Royer, the 2001 Iditarod Rookie of the Year, who worked with Susan, said the movie &8220;Snow Dogs&8221; did a good job of depicting dog sledding while &8220;Iron Will&8221; did not.

Huskies are the dog of choice for mushers. They are not purebred dogs. They are bred for speed and endurance. When compared to Malamutes, it would be like comparing a racehorse to a draft horse or a marathon runner to a weightlifter. They have thick fur that keeps them warm. A chilly dog in Alaska is not a good thing.

A vacation brought about a great change in Lisa Frederic&8217;s life. She was a commercial fisher on Kodiak Island, the home of the world&8217;s largest brown bears. She and her husband traveled as tourists to Nome, Alaska, to see the end of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. At an age when her life felt fairly settled, she found herself obsessed with a whole new world. The Iditarod and sled dogs had been vague concepts before the vacation, but very quickly dog mushing and a dream to run the Iditarod, became both a goal and a constant commitment. Never described as graceful, learning to drive a team of huskies at 40 years of age was both humorous and terrifying.

The puppy team she trained went on to become champions &8212; winning the 2006 Iditarod with Jeff King. She wrote a self-effacing book about her misadventures called &8220;Running With Champions.&8221;

It is an inspiring story about setting goals, facing fears, accepting challenges and realizing dreams. She ran the 1,100-mile Iditarod with a team of 16

huskies. It&8217;s a story to make anyone wag his or her tail.

It was a delight to have met both Susan and Lisa. I shall remember Susan’s smile.

Cool

We had no air conditioning. We&8217;d sit in a circle of shade provided by a large, leafy tree. We&8217;d eat watermelon and drink iced Kool-Aid. Spitting the melon seeds for distance and accuracy seemed to keep us cool. A pan of ice in front of an oscillating fan kept us cool in bed.

How did you stay cool before you had air conditioning?

And while I&8217;m asking a question, who was your favorite cowboy? Roy Rogers or Gene Autry? And why?

Let me know at snoeowl@aol.com.

(Hartland resident Al Batt&8217;s columns appear every Wednesday and Sunday in the Albert Lea Tribune.)