From Peru to Polson to Iditarod

By Paul Fugleberg

Anne Millbrooke, who was a guest speaker at the Polson Rotary Club meeting a few weeks ago, headed for Alaska a few days after telling local Rotarians what Rotary was doing in Peru American countries.

As she had for many years, Anne took part in some of the ceremonies at the Iditarod dog sled race commemorating the 1925 lifesaving transport of anti-Diptheria serum to Nome when other forms of transportation couldn't get make the trek due to sub-zero cold, wind and blizzards. She got back home to Bozeman last week and sent this email account of her 2008 Iditarod adventure.

Some readers may recall when she visited Polson Rotarians a few years ago and spoke about Will Rogers in Montana.

Here's what she had to say about Iditarod.

"The Iditarod was great! A real race to the end between the ultimate winner Lance Mackey and the second finisher Jeff King, both of whom came in during the wee hours: 2:46 a.m. for Mackey and King a bit later. Street was crowded for Mackey's arrival. I confess: I then went back to my bed in the Park Service bunkhouse. Although I missed King and some other mushers arrive, I also saw plenty of mushers finish during the week. They were still coming in Saturday night when I flew out.

"Mackey and his team of sled dogs are changing what we think dogs can do. He not only thought they could run two 1,000-plus-mile races within a month's timespan, he demonstrated that the same team could win both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod — in 2007 and now in 2008.

"In addition to giving my five talks and collecting urine from 12 dog teams (the latter for drug testing), I enjoyed attending a muskox skinning and butchering. Also viewing the last surviving herd of reindeer on the Seward Peninsula, about 700 head; the last because other herds mixed with caribou and the loss of the Asian market for the one cash-producing product of reindeer — the horns, no longer marketable because Viagra actually works.

"Moderate weather this year: maybe five below zero in the wee hours, little breeze. The photo is of Dee Dee Jonrowe, is a popular musher who has run the Iditarod since 1980. She consistently finishes in the money, but has not yet taken home the winner's pickup truck. She is one of the strong mushers who make the winners work harder and faster to reach the arch. She finished 15th this year. She has finished second three times (in 1993, 1996, and 1998), and fourth four times, including as recently as 2006 (in 1990, 1995, 1997, and 2006). Jonrowe still holds the record for the fastest time of any woman in the history of the Iditarod (09:08:26:10 in 1998)."