BIG LAKE, Alaska — When Morgan Martens, 14, stepped off his sled
at the Junior Iditarod finish line after 16 hours, 40 minutes, 20 seconds of
mushing, his grin was barely visible beneath his warm layers.
اضافة اعلان
His winning time aside, he had completed a feat that few
14-year-olds attempt: leading a team of 10 sled dogs on a two-day race of
nearly 241km through the Alaskan wilderness.
The Junior Iditarod, the longest race in Alaska for competitors
younger than 18, is a chance for young mushers to demonstrate an unusual set of
skills. They need to know how to steer a sled, use survival equipment, brave
the icy winds and avoid hypothermia.
They need to know how to navigate the course, and what to do if
they get caught in a snowdrift or if the trail disappears. They need to know
their dogs well, too: Which ones prefer fish over beef? Do their feet need
bootees, or is the weather too warm?
Ten mushers, ages 14 to 17, accepted the challenge, a week before
this year’s Iditarod, an 1,371km race.
The junior mushers started at Knik Lake, an hour’s drive north
of Anchorage, and wound their way over 120km to a remote lodge, where they
camped outside overnight amid wind chills that went as low as single digits.
After a mandatory 10-hour stopover, they mushed some 105km to the finish line
at Big Lake.
Anna Coke, a 17-year-old musher, has been mushing for years.
She said she was inspired by watching the Iditarod as a child.
“When I was 10, I was like, ‘I’m going to pray every night that
I would become a musher,’” she said.
Two years later, she formed a friendship with Jessica Klejka, a
veteran Iditarod musher, and has been training with her since. Coke takes daily
trips from her home in nearby Wasilla to Klejka’s kennel in Knik and
practically lives there in February, spending all of her free time caring for
the dogs and going on training runs.
She has run Klejka’s dogs in the junior race for the past three
years.
“Nothing in the entire world can beat being out alone with your
dogs, with your team,” Coke said. “It brings you a lot of peace. And they push
you to become a better person through that. They’re relying on you and you’re
relying on them. It’s a really, really beautiful picture of teamwork and
endurance and hard work.”
Many junior mushers train for years to make it to race day, and
friends and family come out to support them at the start line before they
embark on their two-day journey.
“There’s a lot of work behind the scenes,” Coke said. “As high
school students, everyone mushing in the Junior, it’s a very, very big time
commitment.”
For some participants, the event would be the first time they
spent a night away from their parents.
Most of the competitors in the junior race were virtually born
into the sport. Ava Moore Smyth, 14, of Willow, is a third-generation musher:
Both of her parents have run the Iditarod, her grandfather ran the first
Iditarod, and her grandmother was one of the first female mushers to finish the
race.
Ellen Redington, 14, from Knik, is a fourth-generation musher.
Her great-grandfather Joe Redington Sr. was known as the founding father of the
Iditarod, and her parents met on the Junior Iditarod in 1991.
Martens, this year’s winner, was the only entrant not from
Alaska. But the sport runs in his family. His mother, Janet Martens, competes
in 32- to 64-km races near the family’s farm in Brule, Wisconsin.
Morgan Martens has the support of his classmates back home, too.
“The principal sent out an email, so my entire school is going
to be watching,” he said.
The Junior Iditarod has been run since 1978, just five years
after the first Iditarod. The race is supported by sponsors, which help provide
the prizes: The winner receives a new dog sled, a beaver fur hat and musher
mittens. There is also a $6,000 scholarship.
Before embarking on the two-day journey, each musher loaded
emergency gear and each dog was evaluated by a veterinarian. While there are
adults on the course, including a race marshal on a snowmobile, the young
athletes also have satellite trackers for their safety.
All of the mushers finished safely, some persevering through
more than 20 hours on the trail. They faced icy winds, snowdrifts, disappearing
trails and the occasional moose.
“It teaches them confidence and ability to take things that you
don’t foresee happening and figuring it out, not only for yourself, but you
have a team of dogs,” said Julia Redington, a Junior Iditarod board member and
Ellen Redington’s mother.
“They are all competitive, but it’s also about the journey and
just what they learn.”
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