In 1925, the remote village of Nome, Alaska was struck with an epidemic of diphtheria, an infection that spreads easily and one that in those days was often deadly.The only hope for the small town was an antitoxin, or serum, that was not readily available since ship access to the town was shut off due to ice.Dog sled teams set out from Nenana, which received the vital shipment of serum via railroad, and a relay team from Nome dispatched to meet them. Within days, the serum was delivered to Nome, helping the village stave off disaster.
The dramatic story made the lead sled dog Balto a national celebrity; a statue of him can be found in New York City’s Central Park — commemorating all the dogs involved in the Serum Run. In Alaska, the heroic efforts are commemorated each winter with the Serum Run, a dog sled run from Nenana to Nome with stops along the way to teach villagers modern day health care tips.
Enter Ricky Klement, a Norwood man who works in the area as a handyman. After several years of following the dog sled world from this pocket of the country, he will be part of a two-person, 14-dog team that will participate in this year’s run, which begins Feb. 20. Several years ago, Klement met Jan Steves, sister of travel author Rick Steves, who was getting started in the world of mushing. Steves will be the musher, running the dog sled itself, and Klement will run the snowmobile that supports the team.
“My job is to carry the support sled with 700 pounds of gear,” Klement said. Steves and Klement represent one of 15 teams chosen to run in this year’s expedition, and Klement couldn’t be more excited.“For me, it’s an adventure and an experience of a lifetime,” Klement said. “There are a lot of things I’m looking forward to.”
He calls the run a “commemorative medical mission,” which celebrates the spirit of the original run by bringing doctors to provide health lectures for the small villages along the route. For both Steves and Klement, the race is all about the 14 dogs tasked with pulling Steves’ sled across the Alaskan wilderness. They will be fed fresh cooked beef, chicken and salmon, while the two humans eat meager camp provisions.
“They’re dogs that get a whole lot of love and they get very good treatment,” Klement said. He also said that contrary to the belief that all sled dogs are huskies, there is no specific bloodline for the dog team. “They’re [mostly] mutts that have been adopted because of their size and their big hearts,” he said.
Klement estimates they will be running 35 and 50 miles a day but the medical clinics and lectures will give them rest days along the way. “The dogs are used to running every day,” he said.
The snowmobile is meant to alleviate a lot of the weight involved with the dog sled and Klement will haul everything from kennels for dogs that need a day off to about 1,500 booties for the dogs to run with. Vets will be on hand during the expedition to evaluate dogs and send them home on a helicopter if they get seriously injured. The expedition and challenge comes with a cost, and Klement said they are looking for sponsors and donations in the coming months.
“Everything is out of our own pocket,” he said. “We’re not trying to make money on this thing … just cover the expense.”Klement heads to Alaska in the middle of January and expects to stay there for at least eight weeks. He will spend the next month and a half gathering supplies, finding gear to help him bear the potential negative 80-degree weather and a snow machine (snow mobile) that can pull their 700 pounds of support gear. And Steves will run the team of dogs around 70 months a day and run them in smaller races.
“This is a big commitment, I’m really looking forward to it,” he said.
Telluride Daily Planet
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→Mush!...Dog race teams commemorate Alaskan heroics.
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→https://national-grid-news.blogspot.com/2011/01/mushdog-race-teams-commemorate-alaskan.html
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