By Abigail W. Adams
Wiscasset native Heidi Sutter gives a hug to an Alaskan husky. Sutter now lives in Christochina, Alaska where she raises and races huskies. On March 7, she will race in the Iditarod. (Photo courtesy Heidi Sutter) |
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Experienced musher Heidi Sutter on the trail in Alaska with a team of Alaskan huskies. Sutter, a Wiscasset native, will race in the Iditarod Great Sled Race scheduled to begin Saturday, March 7. (Photo courtesy Heidi Sutter) |
The Iditarod Great Sled Race is called “the last great race on earth.” Mushers and their teams of 16 dogs cross 1,000 miles of practically untouched Alaskan terrain – from
jagged mountain cliffs to forests to tundra – in the annual dog sled race.
This year, Heidi Sutter, a Wiscasset native, will be among the competitors. On March 7, Sutter and her team of 16 dogs, many of which she personally raised at her
kennel, KMA Kennel in Chistochina, Alaska, will begin the famous journey from Anchorage to Nome.
Sutter said her goal is to finish the Iditarod in preparation for the Yukon Quest, a 1,000 mile race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse in the Yukon, known as the
toughest dog sled race in the world.
Sutter was born and raised in Wiscasset. She graduated from Wiscasset High School in 1994 and moved to Alaska to attend Sheldon Jackson College where she earned a
degree in outdoor recreation and elementary education.
Sutter said she got off the plane and never looked back. The close knit community she found in Alaska was reminiscent of her community in Wiscasset. She felt right
at home.
Sutter would go on to earn her master’s in special education from the University of Alaska Anchorage and work as an educator specializing in teaching children
diagnosed with autism.
Her life outside the classroom took on a course of its own when she responded to an advertisement in the local newspaper. A musher was in search of a handler, a
musher term for an apprentice.
From Yukon Quest musher Andrew Lesh, Sutter learned the ins and outs of mushing. She learned how to train and run Alaskan Huskies, the quintessential sled dogs. She
learned how to take care of herself and her team of dogs on the trail.
Sutter met her husband, Darrin Lee, at a checkpoint in Chistochina during the Copper Basin 300 sled dog race. One of their first conversations was about how people
come to live in a place like Christochina, a small Alaskan village with a population of approximately 50.
Years later, Lee and Sutter married and, through a fluke, settled in Chistochina where they would raise their daughter and a slew of Alaskan Huskies at their kennel.
“One thing led to another and it all just snowballed,” Sutter said about the life she found after taking to the dog sled trail.
Sutter is now an experienced musher with over 1,200 race miles beneath her belt. Her participation in the Iditarod comes after years of preparation. All mushers in
the Iditarod must complete 750 race miles before applying, Sutter said.
After each race, a report card documenting how the musher responded to sleep deprivation, how they cared for the dogs’ on the trail, the racer’s demeanor, and how
they cared for other racers on the trail, is submitted to the Iditarod committee.
The committee determines who is qualified to race in the Iditarod. Many are turned away. Those who qualify pay a $3,000 entrance fee and must get their dogs
medically checked and cleared to run the 1,000 mile trail.
Unlike other competitive races, dog sled racers are close knit and rely on each other on the trail. There are 18 checkpoints along the Iditarod trail this year,
Sutter said, some with over 100 miles in between them.
Checkpoints offer an opportunity for racers to feed and care for their dogs and take quick naps. Outside of checkpoints, racers set up temporary camps along the
trail to allow their dogs and themselves a chance to rest. Sutter said she carries hay with her to lay down for warmth for the dogs and often times curls up with them to briefly
rest before taking to the trail again.
Sutter said the experience on the trail, in some of the most remote places on Earth, is like no other. With no signs of human life, the natural world reveals itself.
The sights, Sutter said, are breathtaking.
She has seen wolves emerge to run alongside her huskies, like they were of the same pack. She has seen moose and coyotes in their natural habitat. She has traveled
through mountains under the full moon and seen a northern lights display so mesmerizing four mushers stopped mid-race to watch the colors flash across the sky.
Musher and sled dog quickly become family out on the trail, Sutter said. “You take care of them and they take care of you,” Sutter said. “The bond is phenomenal.”
Many of the Alaskan Huskies Sutter will race with in the Iditarod were raised at KMA Kennel. Others were from friends. The dogs have their own personalities and
pecking order, Sutter said, with some dogs in the lead and some by the sled to help steer.
The Huskies are light-boned and nimble, Sutter said, and weigh between 40 to 78 pounds. Together they travel on average eight miles per hour during races – a pace
that prevents exhaustion or medical problems for the huskies.
“They really are just like pets,” Sutter said. “They’re all big doobers. They like to hop up on the couch and curl up in blankets. These pets just happen to be
really hard workers.”
On March 7, Sutter and her team of huskies will embark on their journey across the Alaskan wilderness. Her personal goal is to finish the trail in 10 to 11 days and
then, in the future, take on the Yukon Quest. For the duration of the race, Sutter said, she will be immersed in an experience that rivals what people think about only in their
wildest dreams.
She credits the strong role models that surrounded her in Wiscasset for teaching her to be independent and care for herself – skills that serve her well out on the
trail.
