We had a blast at Martin Buser’s Happy Trails Kennel on Wednesday! The day began with an early morning 1.5 hour bus ride to Big Lake, Alaska where Martin maintains his kennel and training site for his sled dog team. There were several other current and former Iditarod mushers there today working their teams, including DeeDee Jonrowe as well Michael Baker and Tim Pappas who live and work at Martin’s kennel. In true Alaska fashion, the place was very informal and the mushers were down to earth happy to speak one on one about their life and experiences on the trail.
This will be Martins 39th Iditarod (he’s won 4 times) and we were surprised to see him back at the kennel, working the yard, fresh from vet-check for his teams. He even took his turn running the register at the gift shop.
Sue had a long conversation with DeeDee about her current, post Iditarod retirement endeavor of training search and rescue dogs with the military.
After meeting the dogs and speaking with the mushers, we suited up for an amazing 5 mile sled through the snow covered tundra with Tim and dog team. It was an experience not to be forgotten!
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