Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

After leaving McGrath, Paulsen and the team begin the 700-mile journey through the Alaskan interior, bound for the Bering coast. Paulsen notices the sled is dragging and stops to clean dog feces off its runners. Despite this unpleasant task, the segment is going smoothly. Paulsen is feeling confident and enjoying “the harsh beauty of the woods” (203).

This lull in the tension is short-lived. The wind picks up dramatically, reaching “70, 80 miles an hour” (206), the temperature drops, and a swirling snowstorm makes continuing impossible. Paulsen has no choice but to camp out with the dogs in the middle of the wilderness.

When he awakens, Paulsen encounters another musher who has camped near him. The man shares doughnuts with Paulsen and suggests they “convoy over to Iditarod” (209), a ghost town that is the eponym of the race. Paulsen recalls thinking what a nice guy the man seemed to be but then reveals that the doughnut man later turned out to be a murderer.

Paulsen and the team arrive at Don’s Cabin, an old trapper’s hut that is not an official checkpoint. Outside the cabin, Paulsen witnesses a man kick a dog to death.