by David Flint
The famed Iditarod sled dog race kicked off last Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska. One of the 65 starting mushers this year in the grueling thousand mile run to Nome through the rugged Alaskan wilderness is former Stephentown resident Mike Ellis.
[private]Ellis graduated in 1988 from Berlin High School and later earned a degree in geography at Plymouth State College in central New Hampshire. That’s where he met his wife Susan, who is also an accomplished musher. They both gave up skiing for the dogs in the early 90s and have been at it ever since. They now reside in Alaska where they raise and train all their own dogs which are AKC registered Siberian Huskies.
Mike said that running the Iditarod has been a dream since he started working with the dogs. Although a “rookie” in the Iditarod, Mike is no novice to sled dog racing. He is a veteran of the thousand mile Yukon Quest, a race from Fairbanks, AK, to Whitehorse in the Yukon, having run in that one every year since 2008. He had a disappointing and frustrating experience last year in that race when he fell and injured his shoulder and had to drop out. He spent the rest of the race assisting on a support team for another musher. He has the distinction, however, of having previously finished in the Quest over a day faster than any other Siberian team. Mike occasionally takes some disparaging remarks from other mushers who race the mixed breed Alaskan Huskies and consider the Siberians too slow for the big time races. But it’s not always about winning. Mike promised one interviewer that, “This will be the fastest Siberian team ever, to reach Nome.”
The start on Saturday in downtown Anchorage was just the ceremonial start. The race actually got under way on Sunday at Willow Lake, about 40 miles north of Anchorage. The winner gets a new truck and $50,000. The next 29 finishers split another $600,000 in prize money.
On Wednesday morning Ellis pulled in to the checkpoint at McGrath, 300 miles from the start. He was in 39th place with an average speed of 6.9 mph from the previous checkpoint. He had started out with 16 dogs but was now down to 14 as two of them, Stinson and Bebee, began hurting 142 miles into the race and had to be taken out at Rainy Pass to prevent injuries. They are being cared for by Mike’s brother, one of the Team Tsuga support team.
Mike and Susan Ellis take good care of their dogs and are proud to have won multiple Vet’s Choice and Humanitarian awards for dog care in previous races. Dogs that are dropped from the Iditarod cannot be replaced and a team must have at least six dogs pulling the sled at the finish in Nome.
The race will not end until sometime next week. John Baker set the Iditarod record in 2011, completing the course in 8 days, 19 hours, 46 minutes and 29 seconds. You can track Mike’s progress on this adventure at www.iditarod.com.
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