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Mush Amarilloan getting set to participate in Iditarod By KATHIE GREER Ann Shofner is on the verge of marking off an entry on her own personal "bucket list."
She'll be boarding a plane in just over a week that will take her from Amarillo to Dallas, to Seattle and ultimately to Anchorage, Alaska. There she will be climbing into a dogsled to participate in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It all began in 2006 when Shofner and her family visited a Musher's Training Camp as part of an Alaskan vacation. "I just fell in love with the dogs," she said during an interview in her classroom at Tascosa High School. "They are so incredible and I was so impressed with them. They get so excited about the job they do and they love it." Shofner obviously loves what she does. The shelves in her class were filled with trophies from the speech tournaments and debate competitions she's taken teams to over the past 30 years. Her students have been to nationals on several occasions and she has a reputation for bringing out the very best in them. The sled-dog enthusiast is participating in a program called IditaRider that helps provide part of the $2 million that it takes to run the annual race. Bidding begins in November each year for the IditaRider Musher auction. Bidding this year continued through Jan. 18. Highest bidders get to ride in the sled of their favorite musher for the first 11 miles of the race. She'll participate in the Iditarod with Hugh Neff, who was the Iditarod Rookie of the Year in 2004. Bids begin at $500. Anyone who wants to avoid the anxiety of the auction can purchase a sled for $7,500. Shofner and her niece decided last year to enter the auction. Each of them set a budget and they both went through the bidding process. "I was out of town at a tournament on the auction's closing day," she said. "I'd made arrangements in advance to be sure I could connect to the internet. They started closing the bids at noon, and mine closed a little later in the afternoon." Shofner said her anxiety level increased as the minutes left in the bidding ticked away. "I actually managed to come in under my budget," she said. The money spent allows her to meet the mushers, attend the Musher's Banquet, attend a meeting of the Trail Committee where all of the auction winners will receive their credentials and some special "rider" training. She'll be in Neff's sled March 1, for the ceremonial start in Anchorage. After an 11-mile ride to Eagle River, she'll go into the secured area with her musher and assist him as he packs his sled and prepares his dogs for the historic race that will cover 1,150 miles from Anchorage to Nome on the Bering Sea. The mushers and their teams of 12 to 16 dogs will cover the distance in 10 to 17 days. The terrain includes mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forest, desolate tundra and miles of windswept coast. Temperatures are often far below zero and wind-blown snow can totally obscure visibility. Marked as a National Historic Trail, the Iditarod's path began as a mail and supply route from the coastal towns of Seward and Knik to the interior mining camps at Flat, Ophir, Ruby and beyond to the west coast communities of Unalakleet, Elim, Golovin, White Mountain and Nome. All traffic was by dog sled. The mushers and their four-footed partners carried mail and supplies in and brought the gold out. In 1925, part of the Iditarod Trail became a life saving highway when the residents of Nome fought a diphtheria epidemic. The dogs that carried the serum and the men who drove them became American heroes. Today, the race is a tribute to the fortitude of those mushers and to the unfaltering faithful performance of their dogs. When Neff and his dogs scramble to the line for the official start on March 1, Shofner will be there beside him. As he heads into the jaws of Mother Nature, she'll board a plane to begin the long trip back to Amarillo carrying a head and a heart full of memories and a "bucket list" with one less item. E-mail
comments about this story Posted: February 21, 2008
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