Page 101 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE 2020 SPRING EDITION INTERACTIVE

Debbie and Mark, both Iditarod veterans, each travel four
hours (one way) weekly between Anchorage, where they work
and have community and family commitments, and Denali,
where their dogs live and train with the handlers. So what
compels them, as well as the dozens of other racers each
year, to live in temperatures that would drop to fifty degrees
below zero during our visit? To answer that, we would have to
meet the dogs.

I quickly bonded with the „house“ dog who would accompany
us on the drive, sweet Cheddar, one of the Cheese Dogs, so
named to enable the kennel staff to quickly recall the year of

their litter. All Cheese Dogs, like Gouda, who receives daily
anti-seizure medication and who, we would quickly learn,
receives the same abundant amount of love the Moderows
shower on all their dogs, were born in the same year, while
Triscuit and Ritz were from another litter, etc.

Our itinerary included four nights at Salty Dog Kennel to meet
the dogs and learn more about their daily lives and training,
followed by four nights in Anchorage, where we were to cel-
ebrate the start of the Iditarod on the first Saturday in March,
when it has started every year since 1973. But I was most
curious about the daily life of the dogs and their owners who
choose this way of life.

With the assistance of the Moderow’s former lead handler,
Joe Meyer, who now organizes custom Alaskan tours as his
primary occupation, together with seasonal handlers Josh and
Val, we were plunged into a world unknown to most of the
rest of the world. To get to the kennel, we drove over frozen
roads along one of the most breathtaking scenic drives in the
world, past quaint towns like Palmer and Talkeetna, making
a stop at Willow, the official starting point for the Iditarod in
years when there is abundant snow.

Top: Mike and Debbie Moderow with Truffle.
Left: Debbie and Susan McBeth with sled and
dogs at camp.:

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