Report Content.....A-4 Report Content -- Amplification.....A-5 Enclosure B -- COMMANDERâS OPERATIONAL REPORT (OPREP).....B-1
It's a competition that pits one dog driver, called a musher, and a team of dogs not only against other racers but against the (often cruel) forces of Â­Mother Nature. Named for a town in Alaska, the race ceremonially sets off from downtown Anchorage, Alaska, on the first Saturday in March.
Ed Stielstra and a couple of friends will hit the road in late February, driving from McMillan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula to Alaska. With them for the 2,000-mile trip will be 18 dogs, Stielstra's team for the 2011 Iditarod, the two-week, 1,000-mile sled-dog race through Alaska.