Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

“But the beauty of the woods, the incredible joy of it is too alluring to be ignored, and I could not stand to be away from it—indeed, still can’t—and so I ran dogs simply to run dogs; to be in and part of the forest, the woods.”

In the first chapter, Paulsen describes how his relationship with the dogs changes. He starts out running the dogs to gather firewood and hunt. He ends up running them for the sheer joy of being out in nature.

“Each dog had made a bed, scratching down through the snow to the grass beneath and then digging up the grass to make it fluffy and warm.”

Paulsen often refers to the human-like habits of the dogs. He even notes that one of the dogs is fussy about making its bed just right.

“I had thoughts of ghost dogs, dream dogs, vision dogs—dogs I’d read about in books on ancient dog runners, before history knew of dog runners […].”

Paulsen thinks he is dreaming or hallucinating when he sees nine dogs near the campfire instead of the eight canines he brought there with him. The extra dog turns out to be a coyote.