Jerry moved to Alaska in 1975 with dog breath on the brain. He finally got his first team of scruffy old has beens in 1981 after moving to Palmer. He started off with 6 dogs and never looked back. He joined the Aurora Dog mushers, built a cabin on the Yentna River and spent all the spare time he could muster on the runners. He dreamed about doing the Iditarod but when the Serum Run came along, he just had to go. He took part in two Serum Runs and was planning a third when the cancer took him out of the running.

He ran the Artic Arrow 200, Aurora’s 25/25 and the Serum Run the last year Col. Norman Vaughan was able to participate. He spent a couple summers helping his buddy Linwood Fiedler put together his dog tour business out of Juneau. But his greatest joy was just recreating with his dogs on the Willow area trails. He was there at Erin & Paul’s house for the first meeting to establish the Willow Area Dog Musher Assoc. (WADMA). He wanted the already popular dog mushing area to have a club of their own to represent the Willow area and was eager to help make that a reality. He is running on new trails now and probably still has dog breath on his brain.