Al Lundbeck
- Snow Machine Support
I think Animal
Planet is my favorite television show. I'm especially attracted
to, fascinated with, and amazed by dogs. I cannot pass by a dog
without stopping to say Hi and give a little ear scratch. Unfortunately
my job as a pilot hauling Fedex boxes for Empire Airlines doesn't
allow me the time at home to have even a single dog, let alone
a sled-dog team. I've tried to harness my three cats, Sammie Pup,
Scooter McÁGruder and Mr. Boots, but the results were disappointing.
Scooter bravely tried her best to please me, Sammie just walked
away, and Mr. Boots looked at me and said, try putting that harness
on me and you'll be making a trip to the emergency room for sutures!
Now why don't you do something useful like opening a can of tuna!
As a kid I read all the usual animal, Alaska & adventure stories.
I first became fascinated with sled-dogs when I heard about this
Iditarod thing in the late 70's. The idea of racing across the
Alaska wilderness, just you and your best-buddy dogs against the
elements entranced me. I saw my first sled-dog race in Northern
Idaho in 1980. I can't explain what happened to me when I saw
that first event, but the noise, chaos, excitement, enthusiasm,
the dedication of dog to musher and musher to dog, the reciprocal
love, the dogs pure desire to do the musher's bidding, the beauty
of it all overwhelmed me with emotion and brought me to tears.
I think musher Barry Lopez, writing in Artic Dreams came closest
to describing what I was feeling when he wrote, I have driven
dogs a time or two, enough to know what a driver means when he
says the dogs exuberance can get up inside you, that you can take
on their abandonment and their great generosity of spirit... A
person would have to be a fool to abuse such heart. Anyone would
have to be callous, nearly finished as a human being not to want
to raise his arms in salute as such animals roar past, a fury
of hot breathing gone like a shot down the trail.
I
was back at the North Idaho race the following year and when a
local T.V. Weatherman failed to show for his celebrity challenge
race, the race announcer asked if there were any media celebrities
in the crowd who could fill in. No one immediately responded,
so I offered that I was no media celebrity, but was a medical
photographer. Good enough! was the answer. I can still clearly
see the whole event. They harnessed three dogs, stood me on the
runners, and I got my first mushing lesson, Whatever happens,
do not let go. I still remember the frenzy, noise and power of
those three screaming dogs. And then, the snow hook was pulled.
Nothing I could have imagined could have prepared me for the power
and instant rocket launch that followed. And then I was gone,
the crowd and noise behind me, and suddenly everything was quiet
and serene. I remember the sudden silence, the soft shishing of
the runners, the barely audible rhythmic padding of the dogs feet,
the hypnotic motion of the running dogs and the wind and snowflakes
soft on my face. And I was tearing up again. I thought, ÒThis
is an amazing experience. I've got to find a way to do this! Two
hundred yards later a handler caught my team and turned us around.
We flew even faster to the finish line to wild cheers and just
like that I had won my first sled dog race. I remain undefeated
to this day.
Now twenty-five years later, my poor old body all beat up and
half crippled by skiing, motorcycle racing and skydiving, I'm
finally getting around to mushing. The last few years
I've been fortunate enough to work as a handler at the Iditarod
and also a number of mid-distance races. Through friends I've
been able to get out a few times and get a few miles on the runners.
Last winter I got to run a 12-dog race team on a 25 mile training
run. In 2005, I did my longest mushing trip, a 100 mile trip out
of St. Michael, Alaska with Iditarod veteran Jerry Austin. So
this trip will be by far my biggest adventure. I feel so fortunate
to be on this years Serum Run and I'm looking forward to meeting
all the participants, spending time with the dogs and travelling
down the historic trail and seeing all the villages and residents.
