Iditarod Champions, Christmas and snow in August

August 17, 2009
Yukon Quest & Iditerod Champion
There’s still no internet – but there’s cell coverage!
Today my job was to pick up a park ranger and two “mushers” at the train depot. The musher turned out to be Aliy Zirkle and her mother, Mickey. Aliy is a young lady who was a college student in 1998 when she decided she needed a big change. She came to Alaska and lived in a small town of 35 people – on a good day – living with an Athabascan family and their dogs. Aliy adopted six of their dogs and moved to a somewhat larger community – Two Rivers, somewhere east of Fairbanks. There she and her dogs lived and she began mushing in the winters because, as she said, in the winter in Alaska, you just tend to start looking for ways to get outside sometimes. She started with a snow machine but it was noisy and greasy and she didn’t like that. She did like the dogs. She says the way to make money in Alaska is certainly not to find a job – it’s to help construct something – that’s where the $$$ are – and so she hired out to do construction. On that job she met a man from Arkansas who also loved dogs and was mushing. They have married and now have 51 dogs – their life, livelihood and love is mushing. I was taking her and the ranger down south to Hurricane Ridge where we would meet the Princess train coming in from Whittier, north to Denali. The train would stop briefly at Hurricane and they would load on. I would transfer some papers I’d brought and receive an envelope from the onboard travel guides. Then, after depositing them on the train, I would simply drive back to Denali (about 50 miles of incredible scenery I never get used to) and they, being on the train, would go from car to car on the train and explain about Denali National Park and about dog mushing. I asked to listen and have them talk about their lives. Aliy will compete in her 10th Iditarod this coming March. She has won the Yukon Quest three times. Both are races of about 1,049 miles. The Yukon Quest is actually colder and more remote than the Iditarod which is more famous. Aliy and her husband, Allen Moore, train with their dogs as soon as there is snow each fall. The 51 dogs they currently have are descendents of those first six dogs that Aliy adopted. There are sponsors and events that keep them going all year long. I was touched by the heart that Aliy has for her dogs and she shared stories of the dogs and how they love to run, are sensitive even to the moods of the musher and are often more competitive than the human behind the sled. Aliy is a lovely, tall woman with determination which could only be explained by her story of living with her dogs and loving to mush during the winter – and feeling that there are far more dangerous things – and few things more beautiful or full of adventure.
I got a chance to talk with Aliy’s mom. Aliy came by her sense of adventure by parents who moved to Puerto Rico when she was small because a job waited there and they sensed adventure. After Puerto Rico with its diverse cultures and ethnicities, St. Louis, Missouri struck the girls as dull. Her mother always encouraged Aliy to do what her own heart led her toward – but Aliy used to write letters on the back of paper targets – Aliy was practicing with her gun and was taking bear safety classes for mushers. Her mother says she just tried not to think about it. Now Aliy’s sister has moved to Two Rivers to serve as kennel manager for Aliy. Aliy’s parents are building a cabin to live in near their two daughters – but for the summers only. This past winter they spent in Florida when they weren’t sailing through the Great Lakes and down the Atlantic.
I don’t think I’m telling this well. It was SO exciting to hear about the Yukon Quest from a real live woman who mushes it EVERY year!
I got an autographed postcard from Aliy and I told her I’d be writing about her in tonight’s blog. She shared her blog with me
www.SPKDogLog.com
I wish I could check into it – but of course, there’s no internet here – still.
It’s 10:30 and I’ll be back on the bus to work at 7:30 tomorrow morning. I have TWO days off this week. I’m planning some hiking and some tours – just need to keep planning till there’s a real plan. I got pictures of the train, Aliy and the rest of us. I hope I can post them when I post THIS
G’nite,
Love,
barb

Blog 8.19.09

I sit here listening to great Christmas music, looking at mistletoe and garlands AND a huge Christmas tree surrounded by gifts – because it’s almost August 25th! A few years ago, employees at Yellowstone National Park received an early snow and found themselves snowbound – unable to leave their living quarters – and created a Christmas then. Since then, each national park celebrates Christmas starting on August 21st. I have my secret person to whom I will be a secret Santa.
Not only THAT, but last night it SNOWED on Mt Healy – the trail I’ve planned to hike on Friday is covered in snow!
Autumn is nearly over here. Winter isn’t far off. Sometimes I can’t get warm. I keep the heat on in my room – it’s a relief to return to that at the end of each work day – but I would never leave the heat on at home – except for the woodstove –
Here, though – when it rains there is a very crisp wind attached (one that leaves snow on the nearby hillside!)
Back, though, to Aily and her mother, Mickey. Mickey has never seen interior Alaska in the “summertime” (not recognizing that we staff members do not equate this weather with summer but with late, late fall)
Mickey says she has driven the George Parks Highway – only in winter-when getting the dogs to the Iditarod – and there is only snow and ice in every direction. It is very green now and lovely. Aily and her husband generally take about 30 dogs to the Iditarod – a job which requires two pickups. One, the larger, is a Ford 450 Diesel. On the back flatbed of that truck, they’ve constructed a maze of dog homes, each with its own door and can carry 20 racing dogs. On the smaller pickup, a Ford 350, the can carry 10 more dogs. A luxury hotel in Anchorage sponsors their team and that involves, among other things, fencing off a large section of their parking lot for the dogs – an area directly beneath their suite’s windows – so that they can be in contact with the dogs. The other dogs? Too young, too old or just resting a while. One man from Michigan got in touch with Aily and offered to sponsor a particular dog he just fell in love with. He sends $1,000 each year just to cover any special needs that dog may have….and when the dog grew too old to race, Aily contacted that sponsor who gladly flew out, made acquaintance with the dog and adopted him – flew him home to live a retired life. He still sends Aily pictures of the retired dog having a dog’s life with him and his family.
Then there’s the hoopla of the Iditarod. There’s a classic START. TV cameras, reporters and thousands of people and many entrants who just want to be able to say they’ve participated in the Iditarod. So, there is a START (in downtown Anchorage) and now there is a “restart”! That used to be held later on the same day but now it’s actually on the NEXT day and not advertised. The teams meet AGAIN and actually START the race – without all the hoopla.
There’s absolutely no internet here. Oh well, who cares? It’s Christmas!!!! Because I’m sitting here in the living room typing, at least a dozen people have gotten excited – they think we have internet today – but I tell them I’m just typing into Word to process later – long looks. Even guests at the lodge are craving internet – not sure why it’s so totally gone but it sure is.
I found an incredible book, The Cruelest Miles. A guest put me onto it. It’s the story of the Diptheria Epidemic in Nome that the Iditarod remembers each year. It’s impossible to put down. I’ll want to be sharing that book when I get home – it’s so, so Alaska! There are so many things about Alaska that just defy description and are simply incredible. The book is factual and supported by footnotes and kept me up most of last night reading.
Oh my gosh! We have internet. I’ll see if I can upload this!