Iditarod Air support Pilots are instrumental to Last Great Race

Anchorage Daily News ^ | March 3, 2006 | KATIE PESZNECKER

[skeptoid]

The Iditarod couldn't happen without them.

The volunteer pilots of the Iditarod Air Force are roadies on a trek without roads, chewing through rough winds and winter storms in Cessnas to lay track for The Last Great Race. As teams start the push to Nome this weekend, pilots will leapfrog between checkpoints, hauling veterinarians and volunteers, and later transporting dogs that are out of the running. snip....

The pilots move more than 75,000 pounds of dog food, 800 bales of straw and 15,000 trail-marker stakes. They fly nearly 50 veterinarians plus judges, marshals, managers, photographers, production crews and dog handlers between checkpoints. They haul lumber for tent camps -- and the carpenters to build them.

They also transport about 650 dogs that are weak or sick or whose musher scratches. snip....

[skeptoid]

Photo by BILL ROTH / Anchorage Daily News George Murphy has been an Iditarod pilot since 1981 and is one of the longest flying members of the Iditarod Air Force. He is unloading cases of heet from his Aeronca Sedan at the Yentna Station Roadhouse that will be used by Iditarod mushers to fuel their dog food cookers.

See the source for more pics and links.

...snip.. "If those mushers had to carry all their own stuff, I don't know how it would even work," Davidson said. "It would be a way different race."

[ansel12]

I have a friend that goes there sometimes for the Iditarod and has helped on some of the teams, (teams low in resources will accept help from volunteers)I e-mailed her the article, thanks.

[skeptoid]

Photo by BILL ROTH /Anchorage Daily News

"Iditarod Air Force logo on a side window of Bob Elliott's Cessna 180."

[fizziwig]

Rod Rod Ditarod Iditarod yeah
Ditarod rod rod rod Iditarod

I'm getting bugged mushing up and down the same old strip
I gotta find a new place where I don't get the whip
My buddies and me are getting real well known
Yeah the bad dogs know us and they leave us alone

Iditarod....

Ruh Roh....

[thackney]

I'll be there for the start tomorrow.


BTTT

[Moose4]

Iditarod bush flying ping.

}:-)4

[RoadTest]

Fabulous race and great dogs!

After it's over the mountain bikers hold their race on the same or an approximately similar course.

[Hot Tabasco]

I'll be there for the start tomorrow.

Don't forget the sunscreen and mosquito repellant....... ;)

[Moonmad27]

Thanks for posting that. I emailed it to a pal in Texas who loves the Iditarod.

[Flyer]

I'll be there for the start tomorrow

Show off.

[Dashing Dasher]

Alaska Friend meet Alaska Friend.

Have a great time - I expect a full report and pictures!

Stay warm!

[hattend]

They're taking the southern route this year so they won't be coming near Galena although some of the support planes may use our airport facilities.

[thackney]

Jim Lanier, 64, was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in North Dakota. A pathologist for the last 30 years, Jim studied at the University of North Dakota and Washington University Medical School in St. Louis. He came to Alaska in 1967 for a job with the United States Public Health Service. He began mushing in 1977 and said he became interested in the Iditarod because he was “bumming around with Ron Gould, Jerry Riley and Dinah Knight in 1978." As well as running the Iditarod a number of times, Jim has also raced in Russia. He enjoys singing baritone in groups , commercial fishing, hunting, hiking and kids. He is married to Anna Bondarenko, also an Iditarod veteran and is the father of four, three adult children, Margaret, Kim and Willy, and Jimmy, 7. Sponsors: Drs. Joe & Julie Grohs/Alaska Equine and Small Animal Hospital

[thackney]

Jessie Royer, 29, lived her first 21 years in Montana where she grew up on a cattle ranch. She started mushing in 1991 and says her first dog team was her border collie and her Billie goat and she got her first “real” dog team when she was 15. When she started out she learned a lot from Doug Swingley. She came to Alaska in 1991 after having successfully completed a number of races in the lower 48, including winning the Race to the Sky when she was only 18. This year she was invited to race over in France in La Grande Odyssee in the French Alps. “After racing 500 miles against 10 different countries, I won the race!” She says that having run the Iditarod four times now, she keeps coming back for the challenge and the adventure and to try and do better. “What better way to see this great state than with 16 powerful huskies out in front!” She has raised and trained most of her team from puppies. Jessie currently works as a dog musher and tour guide/speaker. She says she enjoys horses, hunting, drawing, braiding and photography.

You can learn more about Jessie at her personal website www.huskypower.com/jessie

Sponsors: Spirit of the North Sled Dog Adventures/Jim & Connie Sperry, MT; Bob & Ellie Baker, CO; Keystone Industries/Cy Sanders; Finnish Line Physical Therapy/Heini & Bill McDonald; Guests of the Riverboat Discovery; Jay Lewis; Phil Diesher; Bob & Vivien Herman, ID; Mrs. Karin Aaronson, GA; Mrs. Rands’ 3rd grade class/East Radford Elementary, PA; Ric Peterson, AZ; Carol & Daryl Visser, CA; David & Janet Conrad, CA; Holly Parrott, SC; Donald Ganley, MA; Thomas & Jean Harhai, PA; William & Mary Atkinson, OR; Karen Sistek, WA; Prentiss Carnell, NY; Sandra Barnes, NM; Fred & Suzanne Reisser, PA; Ray & Francis Parrack, MD; James C Wiley, VA; Betsey & Mary Zellman, NC; Dennis & Patricia Murphy, PA; Ron Higgins, FL; Mrs. Laverne Swank, TX;

[thackney]

John Barron, 57, was born in Texas. He moved to Alaska where he lived for many years before moving to Montana in 2000. He began mushing in 1978 and became interested in the Iditarod when reading an article in the Iditarod Trail Annual. He ran his first Iditarod in 1978 and is one of the mushers who has run more than twenty Iditarods. He and Kathleen are the parents of three adult sons, Laird, Jason and Will. Both Laird and Jason are Iditarod veterans and Will is a sprint musher. John is a member of the IOFC and says his hobbies and interests are horses, dogs and enjoying the outdoors.

Sponsors: Grossman Chevy; Blackwood Dog Food, Inc.; Sip Uevdoovn; Northwind Sleds; Craig Taylor Equipment; Dogbootie.com; Bob Sept, DVM;

[thackney]

Aaron Burmeister, 30, was born and raised in Nome, Alaska. He graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1998 and is a certified teacher. However, he is currently a project superintendent for Quality Asphalt & Paving. Aaron says, “Mushing has been a part of my life since I was born, with my parents and family all actively involved in the sport for my entire life, growing up in Nome. My father raced the Iditarod when I was four years old and from that day on I wanted to race it! I race the Iditarod because I believe it is the ultimate challenge in the sport of dog mushing and the proving ground for our dogs, gear and new innovations in our sport. The country and weather that we pass through in this great race are indescribable and must be seen and experienced to give it justice. It is not just the Iditarod that is so awesome. It is raising pups, building a team and the bond we share with the dogs in training and conditioning for the race and working together as a team to cross the vast expanse of Alaska. Why did I enter the Iditarod? Just because!” Aaron is a member of the IUOE, the Nome Kennel Club, and the IOFC. He lists his hobbies and interests as hunting, fishing, training dogs and working. Aaron married Mandy in September.

Sponsors: Pendergrass Cattle Company, Charleston, AR; The Outdoor Channel; G.P.A.A.; Ophir Gold Products; Joe Cocquit/Eagle Pet Food; Pike Legal Group; Union YES!; Fairbanks Building Trades Council; Central Labor Union; The All Alaska Alliance;

[thackney]

Born in Alaska in 1953 and raised in Minnesota, Ed Iten’s childhood dream was to return to Alaska. After graduating from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks with a major in art and minor in biology, Ed lived on the upper Kobuk River with Inupiaq Joseph Harvey. It was a sparse but rewarding time learning the ways of survival in the arctic. Ed’s years have evolved into working carpentry in the summers in Kotzebue and spending his winters on the Maniilaq River. It was during a trip to Kotzebue for work that a friend talked Ed into running his team in the Kobuk 220 mile sled dog race. In 1986 Ed’s rookie team finished minutes behind champion Herbie Nayukpuk. From then on the two racers shared a special relationship and “I was hooked,” Ed says. That same year Ed met his wife Ruth who shares his love for the country and the dogs. They spent the next ten years living “up river”, raising their two children, Katie, 15 and Quinn, 13, and sending Ed off to the races. He has won the Kobuk 440 seven times and the Kuskokwim 300 in 2004. In 1996 Ed and his family built their home twenty-five miles from Kotzebue on Kobuk Lake. No roads lead to their kennel, they travel winter trails by dog team and cross the lake in the summer by boat. From their home they work on breeding and training a team that has what it takes to become Iditarod champions. He lists his hobbies as horses and dogs.

You can learn more about Ed at his personal website www.editen.com

Sponsors: Lyndon Air Cargo; H Watt & Scott; Drake Construction; Northwest Arctic Borough; F.B.X.; 7-Up Alaska; Tiaga Harnesses;

[thackney]

Eric Rogers, 58, was born in California and spent his first 11 years there before moving to Colorado. He grew up reading Jack London, watching Sgt. Preston and dreaming of the North Country. As a teenager he read everything he could find about Alaska. In 1970, while I graduate school, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and trained as a navigator in KC-135’s for the Strategic Air Command. In 1972, as a graduation exercise from Navigator School, he flew to Anchorage for the first time and says, “Alaska was everything I had dreamed.” He served a brief tour in Southeast Asia in 1973 and made his second trip to Alaska, TDY to Fairbanks in September of that year. He left the Air Force with sinus problems in 1975 and returned to graduate school and finished his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics at the University of Washington in 1981. He then joined Shell Oil in Houston as a geophysicist. In 1983 he made his third and fourth trips to Alaska to supervise seismic acquisition in the Beaufort Sea. In 1988, he and his wife, Marti, took a “second honeymoon” to Alaska and sampled a large part of the state. He says Marti fell in love with it just like he had. He left Shell in 1991 and they moved to Alaska where he started skijoring. But he wanted more than that so the next winter he added another dog and the next winter another and in 1994 he jumped at an opportunity to buy an old toboggan sled and a couple of retired sled dogs. He has run a number of Alaska races and finishes with a strong and happy team. His three-year plan, he put together in 1994 to run the Iditarod in 1997 didn’t happen. But he’s thrilled to be finally running the Race in 2006, after qualifying in the last two years. He is a member of the American Physical Society, Instruction of Electric and Electronic Engineers, Chugiak Dog Mushers, Iditarod and P.R.I.D.E. His hobbies are dogs, history of the North Country, mountains, weather, geology, cosmology, physics and ….. He and Marti are the parents of Delphine, 31, Dawn, 28, Andi, 24, and Liz, 23.

You can learn more about Eric at his personal website www.rnorthbounddogs.com

Sponsors: Checkpoint Mortgage, Bill & Brenda Bordon; Garrett Bookkeeping; Daily's Web Design/Theresa Daily;

[thackney]

Melanie Gould, 28, was born in Alaska, left the state and spent six years in Colorado as a massage therapist and then came back to live in 1998 because she “wanted to live the Alaskan lifestyle.” In 1998, she met her partner, Iditarod veteran, Jerome Longo, who she says “got me into mushing.” “I’ve always loved winter sports and traveling through the wilderness. Mushing dogs is all of this. I’ve enjoyed raising my own dogs the last five years and progressing together as a team. She says, “I return to the Iditarod Trail for the love of my dogs and traveling with them through Alaska. I enjoy the many challenges and the healthy competition.” Melanie studied in Colorado to be a massage therapist and has been doing that the last nine years. She says her hobbies and special interests are outdoors, animals, music, building and yoga.

You can learn more about Melanie at her personal website www.melaniegould.org

[thackney]

Clint Warnke, 35, was born in Saskatchewan. He began mushing in 1996 and says he got two huskies as pups and it “snowballed from there.” Before moving to Alaska in 2004 he lived and trained dogs in Montana. He ran his first Iditarod with a yearling team from Doug Swingley. The next time he ran his own dogs and received the award for being the most improved musher. This year he will run a yearling team for Sonny Lindner. He is married to Lisa.

Sponsors: Johnson River Enterprises, LLC; Gores Gifts/Lisa & Brad Gore; Malcolm & Lorraine Bailey, WA; Pathology Consultants, Inc.; Tracey Morrow, VA; James Latourette, CT; USAF Major James Bailey, WA;