Two friends on the Iditarod trail

MANAWA – Five airplanes and two days later long-time friends, Dave Sarna and Tom Handschke, landed in Alaska to work as volunteers at the 52nd Iditarod.
The race started on March 3 in Fairbanks this year, due to lack of snow in Anchorage, the typical starting point. It ends 1,128 miles later in Nome.
The lack of snow created difficulty with some of the race checkpoints as well as adding an additional 150 miles to the race, Sarna said.
There are checkpoints throughout along trail and at each checkpoint there is a veterinarian and volunteers to assist with food and water and check equipment.
The closer racers get to the finish line, the longer the racers have to stay as it is a resting period for the health and safety of the dogs and racers. The early checkpoints don’t require racers to stay for any amount of time. One checkpoint requires mushers to stay for a full 24 hours.

With the race starting point being moved, a lot of the early checkpoints had to be adjusted in order to accommodate the new trail. Sarna said theirs did not have to be changed.
Sarna and Handschke worked the checkpoint at mile 820, which was complete with makeshift bunks for the mushers to sleep and straw for their dogs to rest on.

The race dogs
The dogs wear little boots that are changed at every checkpoint to protect their paws from getting hurt or chafed during the race. Veterinarians also check them at this time.
“They have this black book they carry with them, and every dog is inspected at every checkpoint,” Sarna said. “State of health, heart, lungs, they check their respiratory … look over their limbs.”

If the veterinarian finds that the dog has got a bad leg or is suffering, that dog is pulled and flown back to Anchorage.
Sarna said the dogs stand at about 18 inches and their bloodlines go back generations, and while they look like Alaskan huskies they are actually mutts.
With a mix of genetics, the dogs that are bred and raised are to create a dog perfect for racing with a smaller stature to be built for speed.
Mushers are allowed to start with 16 dogs, but must cross the finish line with at least six dogs.
Along the trail there are markers about every 100 feet that have fluorescent paint so the dogs can see where they are going during the dark Alaskan nights.
Sarna said the landscape is pitch black and there are no lights, other than the musher’s headlamp. There is no light pollution from a city, it’s just pure darkness.

Whale for dinner
Handschke and Sarna stayed in Elim and their accommodations were at a school where they slept on the floor.
“They tell you up front, they make you aware this isn’t a picnic, that this isn’t going to be Holiday Inn,” Sarna said.
Elim has no roads and in the winter the only way in is by plane and in the summer it is by barge. The roads are nonexistent in the winter months and the only reliable transportation is flying to get around to different cities.

Alaska has federal subsidies for oil, so there are not really any jobs to speak of, some of the natives may fish, but for the most part they live off the land as has been done for several generations.
Meals were supplied for Sarna and Handschke, one of which was whale and when they asked where the whale came from they were told it may have been the one that washed up onshore five weeks ago.
“It was terrible, and they said it takes a little getting used to and these locals, they’re like smiling. ‘Isn’t it good?’ and Tom and I are looking at each other … it was bitter and hard to chew,” Sarna said.
The native children enjoyed it as they have grown up eating whale and chewing whale gum, a delicacy.
“When they kill a moose or a whale, everything shuts down. School closes, everybody goes out to the beach or goes wherever,” Sarna said. “They harvest the whale and every one of them gets a share of the meat … so what you hear in storybooks, it’s still the same way they live to this very day.”
The natives live in shacks and Sarna described it as a shantytown, saying some of them live in pretty crude conditions. Every shack has a large satellite dish on top of it. They are only able to get things like new appliances or snowmobiles (called snow machines) or any larger items twice a year, which is when the barge drops off the large-ticket items.
Handschke said the native people they met were all nice and happy, and excited to talk.

How it started
Sarna said he has been going to the Iditarod for the last six years and it started when he decided to go on a mission trip which he found through St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Sarna had not been to Alaska and was interested in seeing the majestic Alaskan countryside as well as interested in volunteering with the Iditarod which he found out was an option with this mission.

Sarna kept returning and proving his ability to work hard in the Alaskan winters, as he was used to working outside for long hours as director of the Manawa Snodeo. Eventually he moved to working on the trails.
Handschke approached Sarna about joining him for the Iditarod after hearing all of Sarna’s stories over the past years.
Sarna called his contacts within the Iditarod and asked if Handschke could join him on the trail this year, they asked if Hanschke had what it takes.
“‘I’ll sum it up in one word, Tom is very durable,” Sarna said.
Durability was the key and Handschke was able to secure a place alongside Sarna.
Handschke said this was the trip of a lifetime and was able to take a trail ride through the backcountry which was the highlight of his trip.