Ballad of the Northland

The son of respected longtime musher John Barron, Jason Barron and his brothers Laird and Will grew up around sled dogs, helping train their father’s champion teams and doing chores in the family dog lot in Alaska. Their father’s racing history not only included close to 30 Iditarods between 1978 and 2006, but two first-place wins at the grueling 400-mile John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, two firsts at the 350-mile Race to the Sky in Montana, and several first place wins at the Klondike 300 and the Canuck 200. He also won the 1994 Yukon Quest Sportsmanship Award.

Jason ran his first Iditarod in 1993 at the age of twenty-one, claiming Rookie of the Year and cementing his future as a professional dog musher. While handling for his father and younger brother Will at the 1995 Knik 200, Jason met a lovely young musher, Harmony Kanavle, who was running her first professional race. They fell in love, and in 2002 they ran the 30th Iditarod together, and finishing with a historic wedding under the burled arch in Nome.

In the spring of 2000, Jason and Harmony moved to the Rocky Mountains of Montana and started their own kennel, KanaBear Enterprises, which joins their last names and represents the teamwork involved in running their business. During the past decade they’ve won numerous middle distance races, including back to back wins in both Montana’s Race to the Sky and Minnesota’s John Beargrease Marathon. Jason has also been in the top 15 of the Iditarod three times, claiming the award for Most Improved Musher with his 12th place finish in 2004, and breaking the nine day barrier with his 8th place finish in 2006.

“I love my dogs. I love the places they take me. I love their spirit and heart and quiet heroism. Yes, that’s right: Heroism. My dogs, indeed, all sled dogs, continually fill me with a sense of amazement and fierce joy. They are the quiet, unsung warriors of our sport, and stand alone as the greatest endurance athletes on the face of the planet. No man, woman, or other animal in existence can match a trained sled dog step for step on even that dog’s worst day. Quite simply, never in history has there been a match for the endurance of a sled dog. And they don’t do it for the money, or the accolades. They don’t do it for the cheering crowds or the adulation of fans, and certainly not for the acquisition of trophies or bragging rights. They do it because they love us, their mushers, and above all else, they love to run. Simple as that.”

Now Jason has turned his hand to writing, and his novel Ballad of the Northland tells the story of ‘The Boy,’ a young man who grows up in poverty in the bush country of southcentral Alaska. On the Yentna River, near the town of Skwentna, ‘The Boy’ and his cousins learn to hunt, trap, and just get by in a world where survival is never ever taken for granted. Then one day, he learns of Alaska’s Last Great Race, a 1000 mile dog sled race from Anchorage to Nome…

“…the wind came out of the blinded steppes with a kind of bludgeoning madness, and still they climbed. Between granite snow capped peaks that raised yet further to pierce the bellies of the clouds, unseen in the dark, but felt like the existence of a great hulking creature ready to pluck them from the face of the world. The trail wound them through a sudden forest of standing boulders and the rough ridges of exposed feldspars. Through slotted eyes, The Boy observed his dogs pitching into this maelstrom, ears planed out and stumbling, stroboscopic images of the brothers Titan and Legend earning their namesake as they plunged through the drifts.

“And then the wind stopped, as suddenly and decisively as if some mighty breaker had been thrown. They had won their way to the summit of Rainy Pass. They emerged from a tumult of driven snow into a world of utter stillness, and The Boy’s weak headlamp beam now flared across a moonscape of jutting rock and scoured frost, looming shapes rendered in dead negative. It was so cold here in this place that clumps and fragments of snow hung in the air without motion, dreamlessly suspended in time. Overhead, glimpsed between a pair of gaping granite jaws, a river of crimson undulated across an ocean of flashing stars…”

From ‘Ballad of the Northland’ ©2010 by Jason Barron, All Rights Reserved.

Jason has completed his novel Ballad of the Northland and is now polishing and fine tuning the book for an October release. His wife Harmony created the cover art, along with a series of charcoal drawings of Alaskan animals, landscapes and imagery which lend themselves well to the authenticity of Jason’s poetic story. Jason has been releasing a number of excerpts, articles and stories on his blog and his Facebook page, showing how his early upbringing led to the inspiration for the ‘Ballad,’ and how the first segment of that story, ‘River Rat,’ explores growing up poverty stricken in the Alaskan bush:

Artwork ©2010 by Harmony Barron. All rights reserved.

“The bulk of the story itself is presented in three distinct parts, the first of which is ‘River Rat’. River Rat not only introduces you to the ‘hero’ of the narrative, ‘The Boy,’ but it also introduces you to the wild Alaskan bush, where this 12 year old learns to hunt and trap. It draws heavily upon the experiences of my two brothers and me, when we, too, grew up as dirt poor river rats on the Yentna River, about thirty-five miles south of Skwentna.

“While Ballad is not meant to be a ‘biography’ by any means, there is not one part of the story of which I am not intimately familiar; not one ounce of the blood, nor any of the tears; not one step of The Boy’s trapline team, nor his eventual ascent to compete in the Last Great Race; not the madness, obsession, or the pathological drive to break any and all barriers placed in his way by lack of education, social status, or economic opportunity.
The Boy’s story is a painful one, full of hard lessons and much harder truths. It is a story about standing tall, no matter the odds, no matter the outcome, about following one’s dreams, and even, at times, one’s nightmares. Over and above it all, looms the awesome shadow of the Northland.
I chose to tell The Boy’s story because I could not bear to tell my own.”

Jason not only shares stories and excerpts at his website, but he includes readings and video features in which he talks candidly about his youth growing up on the Yentna River, deep in the Alaskan wild. Jason and Harmony are printing a limited number of copies for the first run, so pre-order now to ensure receiving a copy when it launches. Also visit ‘Ballad of the Northland’ on Facebook (just plug in the title of the book after you have logged in) and become a fan to get all the latest news, booknotes, excerpts, art samples and much, much more.

Tags: Ballad of the Northland, books about Alaska, Canuck 200, Harmony Barron, Harmony Kanavle, huskies, Iditarod, Jason Barron, John Barron, John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, KanaBear Enterprises, Klondike 300, Laird Barron, mushing, novels about Alaska, Race to the Sky, sled dog race, sled dogs, southcentral Alaska, Sportsmanship Award, Sqwentna, Team KanaBear, The Boy, wedding under the burled arch, Will Barron, Yentna River, Yukon Quest

“On a cold spring day in 1907 a group of us gathered around the stove in a Nome saloon and began talking about dog races. After a few weeks of arguing we worked out the rules of the ‘All-Alaska Sweepstakes.’” -A.A. “Scotty” Allan, in Gold, Men and Dogs (G.P. Putnam, 1931)

The historic All Alaska Sweepstakes sled dog race is the subject of a new book from Northern Light Media, All Alaska Sweepstakes, 2008 Centennial Race, by Mark and Helen Hegener. Dozens of beautiful photos by Jan DeNapoli, Donna Quante and others tell the story of the sixteen Alaskan mushers who entered their teams, each hoping to have their name engraved on the Sweepstakes trophy beside the great mushing legends “Scotty” Allan and Leonhard Seppala; and, of course, they were racing for the richest purse ever offered for a sled dog race: $100,000.00 winner-take-all!

The All Alaska Sweepstakes is the oldest organized sled dog race in the world, with records kept by the Nome Kennel Club dating back to the first race in 1908. The route from Nome, on the south side of the Seward Peninsula, to the small community of Candle on the north side and return, is 408 miles, following the telegraph lines which linked camps, villages and gold mining settlements on the Peninsula. This route’s established communication lines allowed those betting on the outcome to track the race more easily from the comfort of saloons like the famed Board of Trade in Nome, where the Nome Kennel Club had been founded the previous year.

A.A. “Scotty” Allan describes the route to Candle in his classic book Gold, Men and Dogs (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1931): “It was selected because the trail to it from Nome goes over all kinds of country, from sea ice to high mountains, with rivers, tundra, timber, glaciers, and everything else in the way of mental and physical hardships en route. We knew there wouldn’t be any doubt about the excellence of a dog or driver that covered it.”

With colorful drivers like “Scotty” Allan and Leonhard Seppala, who each won the race three times, the All Alaska Sweepstakes was an eagerly anticipated annual event until the gold mining dropped off and Nome’s population dwindled, along with local interest in sled dog racing. In 1983 the Nome Kennel Club sponsored the 75th Anniversary race, and Rick Swenson took home the $25,000.00 purse. Then, in 2008, for the 100th Anniversary of the event, the Nome Kennel Club offered the richest purse ever for a sled dog race: $100,000.00 winner-take-all.

All Alaska Sweepstakes, 2008 Centennial Race begins with a look at the colorful history of the race, tracing its gold rush roots and highlighting the stories of intrepid mushers like Leonhard Seppala and “Scotty” Allan, “Iron Man” Johnson and Fox Maule Ramsay, and the heroic dogs like Baldy, Togo, and Fritz. For the Centennial Race some of Alaska’s best-known mushers entered: Lance Mackey, Jeff King, Mitch Seavey, Sonny Lindner, Ramy Brooks, Jim Lanier, Cim Smyth, Aaron Burmeister, Ed Iten, Hugh Neff, and Mike Santos. And then there were the mushers who entered simply to be a part of the history of the race: Kirsten Bey, Cari Miller, Fred Moe Napoka, Connor Thomas, and Jeff Darling, whose musher profile noted that he’d entered “for the historical value and a chance to see some countryside he might not otherwise be able to see by dogteam.”

The photo-rich, full color book covers the race from the preliminary festivities such as the crowning of the Sweepstakes Queen, Janice Doherty, and the mushers’ bib drawing, to the historically-themed finisher’s banquet and the awards, not only of the beautiful championship trophy, but also the Alec “Scotty” Allan Humanitarian Award, and the Percy Blatchford “Spirit of the Race” award. Descriptive commentaries by Race Marshall and Lead Judge Al Crane; leaderboard designer and champion musher Jodi Bailey; and race fan Marcia Claesson, who shared how the race was tracked by mushing enthusiasts from around the world, add depth and perspective to the narrative.

“One of the pilots in Candle asked me if I’d seen any wolves, and I said no, and he said there was a big pack of wolves headed this way. I was about two hours out of Candle on my way to Gold Run and I see all these green eyes about fifty feet off the trail, a hundred yards ahead of me. So I had my headlight on bright and I’m looking at these eyes… My .44 was in my sled so I unzipped my sled bag and I’m looking, there’s a lot of sets of eyes looking at me…” -musher Aaron Burmeister

All Alaska Sweepstakes, 2008 Centennial Race, by Mark and Helen Hegener, photos by Jan DeNapoli, Donna Quante, Mark Hegener, Donna Morgan and June Price. Softcover 8″x 10″, published in 2010 by Northern Light Media. ISBN 978-0-9843977-0-9 • 102 pages, 258 photos. $44.95 plus shipping and handling. Click here to order.

• Running With Spirits is the companion DVD to this book, produced by Donna Quante, Husky Productions. The video captures all the excitement of the race and includes supplemental photography and commentary by Jan DeNapoli, and original music by Kyf Brewer and Jim Parkinson.

Tags: "Iron Man" Johnson, 2008 Centennial Race, 2008 Centennial Running, A.A. "Scotty" Allan, Aaron Burmeister, Al Crane, All Alaska Sweepstakes, Balto, Cari Miller, Cim Smyth, Connor Thomas, Donna Morgan, Donna Quante, Ed Iten, Fox Maule Ramsay, Fred Moe Napoka, Fritz, Helen Hegener, Hugh Neff, huskies, Husky Productions, Jan DeNapoli, Janice Doherty, Jeff Darling, Jeff King, Jim Lanier, Jim Parkinson, Jodi Bailey, June Price, Kirsten Bey, Kyf Brewer, Lance Mackey, Leonhard Seppala, Marcia Claesson, Mark Hegener, Mike Santos, Mitch Seavey, mushing, Nome Kennel Club, Northern Light Media, Percy Blatchford, Ramy Brooks, Rick Swenson, sled dog race, sled dogs, Sonny Lindner, Togo

When Von Martin set out to retrace the historic 1925 Serum Run across Alaska, in the company of seven other mushers and eleven accompanying snowmachiners, he became part of a traveling community which would rely on themselves and each other for the next three weeks as they faced an unforgiving trail and the worst Alaskan winter in decades. Through journal excepts, narratives and dozens of color photographs, Von Martin shares the trials and tribulations, the joys and excitement, the delightful camaraderie and difficult decisions of the 2009 Serum Run ‘25.

A Long Way To Nome: The Serum Run ‘25 Expedition, is described on the title page as ‘The Chronicle of a Musher, His Adopted Sled Dogs, and Their Pursuit of the Alaskan Dream.’ The word ‘chronicle’ in the subtitle seems almost an understatement to anyone who reads Von’s book, because this is not simply a chronicle, but an engaging diary, an inspiring and informative expedition log, an invaluable record of a historic undertaking, a testament to the intrepid mushers and their snowmachine-riding escorts who braved the trail from Nenana to Nome under the most impossible conditions imaginable. But it begins as a love story…

Wolfie was an Alaskan Malemute who rocked Von’s world from the moment he met the month-old baby sled dog. For nearly 13 years, racing across three western states with her, winning championships, entering dog shows and visiting classrooms, Von grew to love his big friend and, through her, the sport of mushing. They traveled hundreds of thousands of miles together in Von’s pickup truck, each trip beginning with what he describes as Wolfie’s “soaring wolf-like howl.” Years after Wolfie crossed over the Rainbow Bridge, Von and his wife Judith were still running sled dog races and adding to their kennel when Von came across the website of a longtime friend and fellow musher, Don Duncan, who shared a Robert Service poem titled ‘The Spell of the Yukon,’ and these lines caught his imagination:

The strong life that never knows harness;
The wilds where the caribou call;
The freshness, the freedom, the farness –
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.

Don had announced his plans to travel to Alaska for the 2009 Serum Run, which, unlike the more famous Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, was an educational and commemorative event in which a handful of dog teams retraced the original 700-mile route of the 1925 Serum Run relay from Nenana to Nome. Founded by Colonel Norman Vaughn, a famed adventurer and the principal dog driver for Admiral Byrd’s 1928 Antarctic Expedition to the the South Pole, the Serum Run ‘25 honored the courageous mushers and their heroic dogs who carried Diptheria anti-toxin through one of the coldest winters on record. Their story was detailed in the 2005 book ‘The Cruelest Miles,’ by Gay and Laney Salisbury (2005, W. W. Norton & Company).

On a hot July day in 2008, I climbed the stairs to my wife’s home office. Clutched in my hands was the Serum Run ‘25 expedition application and instruction documents. Neatly placing the one inch thick stack of papers upon her desk, I turned to Judy and calmly announced, “As of this moment I have absolutely no idea how this would be possible, but this is something I really want to do.”

Judy’s response was to encourage Von to follow his dream, and so began the preparations which led to his trek to Alaska, which led to the writing of this book.

Von introduces the canine members of his team – Teek, Boomer, Chewbacca, Grits, Blackjack, Birch and all the rest – how they came to join his kennel, and how and why they were selected for the Serum Run expedition. He explains the weeks and months of planning, training and outfitting which preceded the trip, and details his preparations for the week-long drive up the Alaska Highway with his dogs. And then he writes:

With nearly all our plans in place, and just days remaining to organize and load 1,200 pounds of supplies onto the truck and trailer, I turn my attention to the fulfillment of a four year old promise. Taking Wolfie’s tin of ashes from its place in the cabin, I bolt her old dog tag to the front of the round, four pound tin that contains her remains. “Wolfie Martin – Lead Dog” her tag reads. To guard the precious cargo against the eight hundred miles across Alaska by dog sled, I pack her tin inside two heavy zip lock freezer bags.

Before carrying her out to the truck, my eyes catch sight of her collar looped over her portrait above the fireplace. Removing it from its place, I shove it into my pocket just for good luck. In a few days we will be on our way. I am as ready as I can be.

“Wolfie,” I mutter aloud, “we’re going to Nome, girl.”

A Long Way To Nome: The Serum Run ‘25 Expedition by Von E. Martin, A Call of the Wild Huskies book, published in 2010. $24.95 plus shipping. 8″ x 10″ soft cover, 132 full color pages, over 150 color photographs. Available from Amazon or personalized directly from the author, Von E. Martin.

Update: On May 19th, 2010 Von wrote on his blog: “On May 16th my dogs and I were honored to be selected for Col. Norman Vaughan’s 2011 Serum Run ‘25 Expedition in Alaska! We’re headed to Nome!”

The 2011 Serum Run ‘25 expedition is slated to begin Feb 20th, 2011 from Nenana, Alaska.

Tags: 1925 Serum Run, 1928 Antarctic Expedition, 2009 Serum Run, 2011 Serum Run '25, A Long Way To Nome: The Serum Run '25 Expedition, Admiral Byrd, Alaska Highway, Alaskan Malemute, books about mushing, Col. Norman Vaughan, Colonel Norman Vaughn, Don Duncan, Gay and Laney Salisbury, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Nenana to Nome, Rainbow Bridge, Robert Service, Serum Run relay, sled dogs, The Cruelest Miles, The Spell of the Yukon, Von Martin, Wolfie

Craig Medred has been writing about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for three decades, from following the race as Outdoor Editor for the Anchorage Daily News to his latest gig as a staff writer for the online newsmagazine Alaska Dispatch. Most fans of the race who’ve been around for more than a couple of years will remember Craig’s seemingly endless stream of articles about the numbing cold, trail hazards, breakdowns, lost dogs, sleep deprivation, overflow, and the entire panoply of challenges faced by each year’s roster of intrepid mushers trying to get a team of dogs over the trail to Nome. Craig Medred has written about the Iditarod perhaps more than any other single writer, gathering numerous awards as he made the race come alive for his readers; in 1992 he was named one of the best sports writers in America for his Iditarod coverage.

Now Craig has added to his considerable writing accomplishments with his first book about the Iditarod, Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska’s Iditarod Trail.

Writers have a special appreciation for the creations of other writers, and in reading his book I couldn’t help but appreciate how smoothly Craig Medred turns a phrase. One of my favorites is early on, barely a dozen pages into the book, at the end of his introduction. He’s writing about rookie Scott White, whose dogs quit on him barely 20 miles from the finish line. Scott started walking, and his dogs followed, and he won his finisher’s buckle:

“‘This race is crazy,’ he said after. ‘I want to come back.’

“The ‘come back’ theme resonates throughout these chapters: The come back from the brink, the come back from heartbreak, the come back time and again by those who should have quit. But one come back story bears telling first because it is a remarkable tale that spans both the despair and glory so exemplified by the Iditarod. It is the story of Lance Mackey and his Comeback Kennel.”

It’s the perfect segue. Vintage Medred.

The book tells the story of the 2010 Iditarod, those who made it to Nome and those who didn’t, but it also tells the bigger story of the trail itself and the race and the people behind it all, as in this excerpt about Skwentna’s venerable Joe Delia:

“Delia, the other Joe, was the consummate Alaska Bush rat. He is aging now and battling one health problem after another, but there was a time when he owned the wild places and was wildly admired for it. You could have dropped him out of an airplane in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a pocketknife, and in short time, he would have built a cabin, gathered enough wood and food for the winter, set himself up in business running a trap line, and maybe even started building his own electric generator so he could have light to read the books he would be writing in his free time.”

And then he adds, “That is the Joe D. known to most every musher who has traveled the trail since the beginning of the Iditarod.” And you know that’s the Joe D. known to Craig M. as well, for he brings an insider’s knowledge to the telling of his tales.

He also brings the authentic descriptions of one who has been out on the trail, taken its measure, and knows how to adequately convey what he’s seen and experienced, as in this passage on the desolate trail between Ophir and Cripple:

“The trail thump, thump, thumps north over moguls interrupted only by big ka-thumps when it drops off three-foot tall lips at the edges of frozen, snow-covered ponds and creeks. Much of the countryside is covered with black spruce so thin and scraggly it can’t really be called forest, but something more like tundra with a sprinkling of miniature trees that look to be dying. They only add to the sense of foreboding. The occasional creek bottom, where trees do grow, comes as a welcome change of scenery. Veteran mushers, who know the country, will often take advantage of these thin bands of vegetation as places to camp, maybe build a fire, and give their team a break on the long trail that seems to grow longer even as one moves along it.”

But the bulk of Medred’s book, the real marrow in the aforementioned bones, is his stories of the individual mushers and their teams. Not the front-runners who were in the news day after day during the race and remembered long afterward, but those who ran into insurmountable difficulties and scratched from the race for various reasons. Their hard-luck tales are woven into the larger story of the race in a way that illuminates what author Gary Paulsen termed ‘the fine madness of running the Iditarod.’

And yet, for all the sorrowful stories it tells, Graveyard of Dreams is an engaging and inspiring book, and it goes a long way toward explaining why mushers return again and again to invest themselves in the running of this race. Describing one musher’s “ultimate dream,” which at times “looked to be tantalizingly close to within reach,” Medred surmises, “If Lance Mackey could win, how hard could it be?  Mackey was as laid back as anyone you could find in sports today. Some might go so far as to say he sometimes appears a wee bit disorganized, even goofy. If Mackey can win the Iditarod, it should be easy for a well-organized, masters-degree-holding, sled dog businessman…”

Ah, if only.

Graveyard of Dreams: Dashed Hopes and Shattered Aspirations Along Alaska’s Iditarod Trail, by Craig Medred. $19.95, 174 page paperback, ISBN: 061536043, published by Plaid Cabin Publishing. Available through Fireside Books, Palmer Alaska or from Amazon.

Tags: Alaska Dispatch, Anchorage Daily News, Comeback Kennel, Craig Medred, Fireside Books, Gary Paulsen, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail, Joe Delia, Lance Mackey, Plaid Cabin Publishing, Scott White, Skwentna

Washington, D.C. – Alaskan Congressman Don Young’s resolution honoring Lance Mackey passed the House this evening after being brought to the floor for debate this afternoon. H.Res. 1189 commends Lance Mackey on winning a record 4th straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Watch a video of Rep. Young’s remarks here.

Rep. Young’s floor remarks as prepared:

“Last March, Lance Mackey made Alaska history by being the first person to win four consecutive Iditarod races, across the nearly 1,200 miles of Alaskan wilderness from Willow to Nome. His exceptionally fast time this year makes him one of only two mushers to finish the race in less than 9 days.

“Lance is also the only person to have won the Yukon Quest four times, a 1,000 mile dogsled race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. In 2007 and 2008, he won both the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest in the same year, within two weeks of each other.

“Lance Mackey was born and raised in Alaska, and comes from a long line of successful mushers. His father Dick helped found the Iditarod in 1973, and his brother Rick, along with his father, have each won the Iditarod Race. Like both his father and brother, Lance won on his sixth try, wearing lucky bib number 13.

“Mackey considers his dogs to be the true champions, and his team was guided this year by lead dogs Maple and Rev, who had big shoes to fill after the retirement of Larry, who led Lance’s team during his first three Iditarod wins.

“In 2001, Mackey was diagnosed with throat cancer. He continued to run in the 2002 Iditarod with a feeding tube still in his stomach, but had to pull out of the race halfway through. After extensive surgery, radiation treatment, a year long break from racing, and the loss of an index finger, he is now fully recovered and cancer free.

“Mackey is married to his high school sweetheart Tonya, who is also a musher. They have four children: Amanda, Brittney, Alanah, and Cain. Together, they run the Comeback Kennel in Fox, Alaska.

“Mackey is a real-life hero and an inspiration to thousands of Alaskans who religiously follow the Iditarod. I commend the momentous achievement of winning 4-straight Iditarods.”

Tags: Alaskan Congressman Don Young, Comeback Kennel, H.Res. 1189, Helen Hegener, Iditarod, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Lance Mackey, mushing, Rep. Don Young, sled dog race, sled dogs, The Dogfather, Yukon Quest