Sue and Dan’s Iditarod 2022 Adventure

We spent the morning on the trails perfecting our Snowshoe and Cross Country Skiing skills. Still need a bit more practice on the skis. Lots of animal tracks… Read More

Our lodge was co-located with the Bettles Airfield. During our stay we saw some interesting aircraft, both civilian and military visit. Besides the Cesena 208B aircraft we flew… Read More

We spent Thursday snowmobiling from Bettles, AK to Evansville AK and back. It was a perfect clear, beautiful, and cold Arctic day. As it had snowed for several… Read More

One of the reasons we came to Bettles Alaska, 35 miles above the Arctic Circle, was to experience the Aurora, and experience it we did. Each night we… Read More

On Wednesday morning we suited up for a cold, snowing Dog Sledding day in Bettles. Our guide was 4 time Iditarod musher Sven Haltmann who put our enthusiastic… Read More

We’re flying from Fairbanks to the Bettles Lodge in Bettles, Alaska today on a Wrights Air Cesena in search for the Aroura Borealis. The plan is to play… Read More

We flew from Anchorage to Fairbanks today with a 1 day layover before flying North to Bettles. We spent the evening at the World Ice Championship. This is… Read More

The Restart is over, all 49 teams are on their way to Nome (~1,000 miles)…. A few random photos from today, Dan was dog handler for #16 Lev… Read More

Today was the Ceremonial Start to the 50th Iditarod! We woke up early and made our way at 7:30AM to the check-in point to collect our armbands that… Read More

Sue and I certified as Iditarod Dog Handlers in 2018, but as luck would have it we forgot to bring our credentials with us on this trip so… Read More

We decided to skip the organized bus tour to the Alyeska Ski Resort and take the opportunity walk down the icy hill toward the Alaska Railroad Station to… Read More

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… Read More

Ah, the 1st day of March. Today started with an icy walk to one of our favorite downtown Anchorage coffee shops, Dark Horse Coffee. We indulged in a… Read More

Our day started out with breakfast at our traditional Anchorage breakfast spot: Snow City Café. Their portions are huge and the food is good (Biscuits and Gravy for… Read More

Absolutely gorgeous approach and landing at Anchorage Airport. The fun is just beginning! Read More

Made it to Seattle. The second half of the quick 1 hour 40 minute flight was very bumpy. We were on an Embraer ERJ 175, cute small plane.… Read More

All checked in. 1st flight leaves at 7am. Let the adventure begin! Read More

Even though we had 5:10 pm and 5:20 pm appointments for C-19 PCR testing tonight at local CVS drive through for our upcoming trip, we got there 10… Read More

Tuesday night happenings: Knee deep in Alaska travel planning and Iditarod C-19 testing requirements to be volunteer dog handlers for ceremonial start and real race restart the next… Read More

Friday night happenings: I love paper maps, marking up our Alaska Iditarod trip (maybe in a past or future life I was/will be a navigator .LOL). Dan is… Read More

Prepping for being volunteer dog handlers for the Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage next month and real race start in Willow Alaska. In 2018, the last time we… Read More

Something to research this weekend, changes to Covid testing for our volunteer Alaska Iditarod dog handler role for ceremonial start and restart… More to follow! Lots of details… Read More

Our next planned trip will be late February/early March as dog handler volunteers for the Iditarod for the ceremonial start and real Race start followed by 4 days… Read More

Friday night happenings at land base house: Full planning mode for volunteering to be dog handlers again for 2022 50th anniversary of the Iditarod for ceremonial start in… Read More