Iditapod: First to the Yukon, Alaska Native mushers and a bison encounter

Denali musher Jeff King mushing into the ghost town checkpoint of Iditarod Thursday, March 8, 2018 in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (Zachariah Hughes/Alaska Public Media photo)

Friday morning saw Girdwood musher Nicolas Petit charge ahead leading the 2018 Iditarod to Anvik after passing teams resting in the ghost town checkpoint of Iditarod. As the first to reach the Yukon River, Petit is treated to a five-course meal. The main course is bison, which is an animal Whitehorse’s Marcelle Fressineau encountered very much alive and not on a dinner plate farther back on the trail. We talk to Fressineau about how she fended off the bison with an axe, as well as some of the Alaska Native mushers in the race.

Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here

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