ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten

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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Moose » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:03 pm

Okay. Ed, let's go back to the fox for a minute. How will you be able to determine if it was rabid? And in the event of a real emergency--medical, accidental, or otherwise--what's the drill? Have there been occasions where living in the Bush has been a serious detriment to someone's well-being? Oh, and what kind of facilities/amenities do you provide your handlers?

A couple of questions for Ruth: UMO, huh? Awesome. Do you ever get back this way? Maybe you two should to get together and write that book! Folks like us are eager to read all we can about the training and racing of dogs. And some of us are simply fascinated with the subsistence lifestyle. (Do those who live it refer to it as a lifestyle?) Growing up in the D.C. area, Maine was "The Bush" for me. ;), but I sure love a good story of surviving/living/thriving in a real wilderness. Finally, Ruth, here's something I'm dying to know: How tall is Ed?! :D :D

Thank you both for spending some time with us here in our little community of friends and fans. While we cheer for absolutely everyone out on the trail and while we totally relish anyone's victory, we've all got a few favorites. Ed, you've been one of mine since the first season I've been able to follow the races on line. :oops: Wishing you good speed, healthy dogs, and a yummy supply of black mukluks--whatever they are! (I thought they were boots!) :)
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Heidi » Thu Dec 18, 2008 7:01 pm

Moose wrote:Wishing you good speed, healthy dogs, and a yummy supply of black mukluks--whatever they are! (I thought they were boots!) :)


Muktuk is whale skin and blubber:
http://assets.espn.go.com/i/eticket/20061009/photos/eticket_nk_barrow54_310.jpg

I saw something about it on tv not long ago. I'm curious what it tastes like.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:23 pm

sc-race-fan wrote:This question is for Ruth. Being a Carolina's boy and having hiked some of the AT, what sections have you working on now and when would you be in the SC-NC sections? Maybe I could provide some trail support!! Wow, starting a generator to get connected to the internet, and to think I get mad when I have to use a slow dial-up to get on line!!

Thank you for the invitation. I hope to get to the Carolinas maybe the year after next. It should be beautiful country.

For me the AT is a lot like traveling with the dog team. Its all about the journey. Of course the destination is the final goal but the journey is what makes both memorable. Ed, the children and I have traveled all over our region by dog team together. After the kids got older and he got more involved in racing we stopped traveling together. I've raced too and know the thrills it brings along with how great competition can be. But I've also traveled by myself with the young dogs - five hundred miles the year before last in two weeks- and visited elders in the villages. That is memorable.

The AT was like that for me. People would wonder why I left Alaska to hike - I told everyone it was a social thing. Meeting people traveling by foot and visiting places that way is so different than a motorized vehicle can bring you. I hiked the lonely 100 from Mt. Katadhin Maine to Monson Maine. Next summer I hope to continue through Maine, NH and Vermont and then section hike til I get time to flip flop - and start at Springer Mtn. in Georgia with the thru hikers in late March.

The other great part of my hike was meeting the north bound thru hikers who were finishing their more than two thousand mile hike. I cheered each on just as you'd cheer your favorite musher. It is amazing that people want to travel by foot. It warms my heart.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:28 pm

Spock wrote:Ed, thanks for taking the time to do this. Just a few questions...

1. What is your typical day like living in the bush? What is most challenging? If you could expound a little... (I wonder if I could do this.)

2. What is your opinion of the Ion Earth system? Does it give anyone an advantage?

3. Do you think drug testing should be mandatory for the mushers before/during the Iditarod?

And for Ruth...

What was the Appalachian Trail like? What section did you do and was that your first time on the trail?

Ed, the Iditarod. Ruth, the Appalachian. Wow... Impressive!

Ruth wrote:This is Ruth and I've signed on to try to finish up a few of these questions without Ed. I know you can read our previous posts and I just wrote to a fellow about the AT. Here it is again if this makes it easier for you. Thanks for asking it was my first hike - in fact the first time I did any serious hiking since I started running dogs over twenty years ago was this summer.

Editen wrote:On life in the bush.......Ok, you want to hear about yesterday? We woke up to an early phone call from our 19 yr. old daughter who is attending Univ. of New Mexico. She needed to change her plane tickets home for Christmas because she has a final the day after she was scheduled to leave. It took us half a day to make new arrangements.

In the mean time the dog handlers were preparing to take the back trail to check the shee fish nets on the Sound. This trip typically takes two and a half hours. As they were prepping the three teams to leave (blankets and all) we had a red fox charge into the yard and attack our beagle (house dog). Once it was off the beagle I was able to wound it and then had to track it down and kill it due to the high probability of rabies. By that time a storm blew in and I knew our three teams in the back country were in trouble. By eight thirty at night I was working on our broken snow-go to put on a search for them. I returned home at 1:45 AM after driving through a blizzard for five hours with near zero visability . I successfully found them holed up at a camp fifteen miles away. Hauling wood was put off for another day.

Ruth wrote:For me the AT is a lot like traveling with the dog team. Its all about the journey. Of course the destination is the final goal but the journey is what makes both memorable. Ed, the children and I have traveled all over our region by dog team together. After the kids got older and he got more involved in racing we stopped traveling together. I've raced too and know the thrills it brings along with how great competition can be. But I've also traveled by myself with the young dogs - five hundred miles the year before last in two weeks- and visited elders in the villages. That is memorable.

The AT was like that for me. People would wonder why I left Alaska to hike - I told everyone it was a social thing. Meeting people traveling by foot and visiting places that way is so different than a motorized vehicle can bring you. I hiked the lonely 100 from Mt. Katadhin Maine to Monson Maine. Next summer I hope to continue through Maine, NH and Vermont and then section hike til I get time to flip flop - and start at Springer Mtn. in Georgia with the thru hikers in late March.

The other great part of my hike was meeting the north bound thru hikers who were finishing their more than two thousand mile hike. I cheered each on just as you'd cheer your favorite musher. It is amazing that people want to travel by foot. It warms my heart.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:33 pm

boo wrote:Hey, Ed....you've been on my 'wish he'd win' list forever. You have absolutely gorgeous dogs and I love that you eat Native foods out there on the trail. Thank you for joining us here at this forum, which is a wonderful warm place, to a large part due to the generosity of the kids of BSSD. We feel like Bush Alaska is so generous to the race, and without the communities and the culture, the race wouldn't be what it is. That said, just a few questions:

1. Where are you at in your kennel.....how many experienced dogs, how many newbies, what ratio of leaders to team dogs (don't give away any secrets if they are proprietary). ;) How big a pool are you pulling from? Are all the dogs you hit the line with yours or do you have access to and train with the dogs belonging to others in your area/village? IF you have leased/borrowed dogs, what is that like and how far out do you make that decision?

2. I assume your dogs do 'chores'....what is that like, what do they do....give us a glimpse into running a kennel where you do.

3. Who is the biggest 'character' in your team? We love anecdotal and funny stories that bring the dogs on your team to life for us. If we have a mug shot of them, then we watch for them during the race, too. Weird, huh. 8-)


Ruth wrote:Hi again, well we tried to respond this morning when I had Ed here at the computer with me but when we pushed submit we lost the connection so I told Ed I'd write you later to tell you about his biggest character in his team.

I can't tell it like Ed did but he named Zoey who is no longer in his Iditarod team but is now in Quinn's team. He calls her his thirty-five pound spit fire leader and says that she will trim up any dog next to her who isn't working as hard as she is. He says that she has the respect of every dog in the team and if he isn't on the runners she stops the team.

The dog he named in his team now is Bugs who is a dalmation colored leader.

We have twenty-two race proven dogs with another sixteen young recruits to carry us through the race season. That is the total pool for Quinn, my son, and I to work with this year. My major races will be the Kusko 300, the Ididtarod, and the Kobuk 440. Quinn needs to qualify this year for next year's Iditarod so he needs to run a two hundred mile, a three hundred mile and possibly the Jr. Iditarod. We have never leased dogs, nor do we have access to dogs from other kennels.

Our training primarily consists of chores. A run to town and back is fifty-two miles the short way. A normal hunting trip to the caribou grounds is fifty miles minimum, all unbroken trail. The younger dogs are used for hauling wood from the wood-lot and checking under ice nets on the Sound.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby flowerpower » Thu Dec 18, 2008 9:38 pm

Wow, just Wow. :o Are you writing a book anytime soon? :)

I read the newspaper articles from your site with great interest, and was wondering-
did you take that trip to Mexico? How was it? Should you ever want to visit Texas-come on down! (But if you don't like summer, I don't recommend visiting then! ;) Today started in the 40s and at 11 pm it's warming up to 66, and should be in the high 70's tomorrow!)

Thank you both for taking so much time (and effort) to join us!

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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:58 pm

Thank you everyone for writing. We would like to get to everyone's questions so we hope to be able to answer more even after our previous deadline.

Sincerely,
Ed and Ruth Iten
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:14 pm

Spock wrote:Ed, thanks for taking the time to do this. Just a few questions...

1. What is your typical day like living in the bush? What is most challenging? If you could expound a little... (I wonder if I could do this.)

2. What is your opinion of the Ion Earth system? Does it give anyone an advantage?

3. Do you think drug testing should be mandatory for the mushers before/during the Iditarod?

And for Ruth...

What was the Appalachian Trail like? What section did you do and was that your first time on the trail?

Ed, the Iditarod. Ruth, the Appalachian. Wow... Impressive!


2. I imagine there will always be ways to take advantage of the system,but if Ion Earth heightens interest in the Iditarod, and generates revenue for the race than it is probably another one of those necessary evils that we have to deal with.

3. I think that as long as we have it in the rules, mandatory drug testing should be required. I believe it is only a matter of time before a top finisher or possibly a winner will be contested on that issue. The result could only be a media black eye for the Iditarod if they have not enforced the rule.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:21 pm

flowerpower wrote:Wow, just Wow. :o Are you writing a book anytime soon? :)

I read the newspaper articles from your site with great interest, and was wondering-
did you take that trip to Mexico? How was it? Should you ever want to visit Texas-come on down! (But if you don't like summer, I don't recommend visiting then! ;) Today started in the 40s and at 11 pm it's warming up to 66, and should be in the high 70's tomorrow!)

Thank you both for taking so much time (and effort) to join us!

Candy in Texas
aka Flowerpower


Yes, Ruthie, Kate, Quinn and I did go to the Mexican coast. In my next life i would be content`to be born with fins and a snorkel. It was great. Texas sounds interesting one of these cold winters. Stay in touch.
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Re: ASK THE MUSHER Vol. 11: Ed Iten (starts 12/15)

Postby Editen » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:42 pm

Moose wrote:Okay. Ed, let's go back to the fox for a minute. How will you be able to determine if it was rabid? And in the event of a real emergency--medical, accidental, or otherwise--what's the drill? Have there been occasions where living in the Bush has been a serious detriment to someone's well-being? Oh, and what kind of facilities/amenities do you provide your handlers?

A couple of questions for Ruth: UMO, huh? Awesome. Do you ever get back this way? Maybe you two should to get together and write that book! Folks like us are eager to read all we can about the training and racing of dogs. And some of us are simply fascinated with the subsistence lifestyle. (Do those who live it refer to it as a lifestyle?) Growing up in the D.C. area, Maine was "The Bush" for me. ;), but I sure love a good story of surviving/living/thriving in a real wilderness. Finally, Ruth, here's something I'm dying to know: How tall is Ed?! :D :D

Thank you both for spending some time with us here in our little community of friends and fans. While we cheer for absolutely everyone out on the trail and while we totally relish anyone's victory, we've all got a few favorites. Ed, you've been one of mine since the first season I've been able to follow the races on line. :oops: Wishing you good speed, healthy dogs, and a yummy supply of black mukluks--whatever they are! (I thought they were boots!) :)


1. Ahh the fox. I just double bagged the carcass and took it to town today with the dog team. Fish and Game is gold streaking it to a virology lab in Fairbanks tonight. they will do the testing, and contact us as to whether or not it was positive. The dog that was bitten was current on her rabies vaccination, but the drill is to re-vaccinate immediately after contact. I have personally gone through the rabies series due to a previous indecent with dogs and a fox.
As for general emergency's, the drill is to get to the nearest village ASAP. The villages and Kotzebue are good at stabilization, but than anything serious is medivaced on to Anchorage. We are currently paying off an $18700 bill from our last medivac. Blue cross considers it an ambulance service and only covers $500 of it.
The handlers have there own quarters complete with kitchen and all food supplies, but we share our main evening meal together at the main house.
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