Iditarod Adventures: Tales from Mushers Along the Trail, by Lew Freedman, illustrations by Jon Van Zyle (Alaska Northwest Books, 2015).
In this splendid collection of profiles and ‘tales of the trail,’ written by the mushers themselves, twenty-three top Iditarod and Yukon Quest mushers explain why they have chosen this rugged lifestyle, sharing stories and experiences they have endured along the trails.
Through bone-chilling cold, across countless frozen rivers and lakes, over mountain ranges and across the icy Bering Sea, their most exciting – and sometimes frightening – moments are shared with clarity and honesty in this book. Also featured are profiles of several key race officials, administrators, volunteers, and a few classic Iditarod characters.
“From Unalakleet it normally takes like six hours to Koyuk. I think it took me nine and a half and I already had a long run into Shaktoolik before. It was a monster long run. When I got to Koyuk Lance was already there. The only other thing moving behind me was John Baker. Nobody else wanted to start out. I’m in second place and that was pretty cool. But that’s when my racing instinct wasn’t there enough. I thought I could win it because Lance was still there. Actually, Lance came out and talked to me. With the experience he had he probably knew I wasn’t trying hard to catch him. Lance stayed another three and a half hours, I think, but I ended up staying there for twelve hours.” ~Sebastian Schnuelle
Northern Light Media 
Slim Williams is such a fascinating story. I have read Alaska Sourdough several times. Being a lifelong endurance athlete and Labrador Retriever fan and trainer, I admire such accounts of human and canine endurance. I often wondered about Mr. Williams and his account as documented by Richard Morenus and published. How much exaggeration is there in his account? I would suspect not much if any.
Years after reading the book, I attended a meeting of Gideons International in Libby, MT. That evening a special speaker was featured and being a member of the Libby Camp, I attended. Upon arriving I received a program and looked at the speaker’s name of Donald McDonald III. I became very excited at the name remembering the name of the Alaskan engineer in the 30’s who had an interest in road connection to the rest of the US. All through his talk, I lost much of the receipt of Gideon subject matter while thinking who Mr. McDonald might be. After the meeting, I confronted him and asked about his relationship to a Donald McDonald in Alaska in the 1930’s. His reply, “Oh yes, he was my grandfather. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Williams when I was about 10 years old.” Small world sometimes and I shall never forget. The year of that encounter was 1981.
Richard Young
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