We've been talking with a lot of dog mushers the past few days. Here's a video Kyle made last night at the mushers' banquet in Anchorage with Rohn Buser, son of

Kelley Griffin is ready for her close-up.Rohn Buser sports a dog bone headband.Daily News photographers Marc Lester and Bill Roth corralled every musher in this year's race for a quick portrait session at Thursday's musher's banquet. It's a tradition born of necessity to ensure that we have everyone documented before the start of the race.

By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News

Straight outta Fairbanks, it’s a musha named Braxton.

The inevitable collision between rap music and sled dog racing has arrived. Time to meet 25-year-old Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race rookie Braxton Peterson, a baby-faced hip-hop head who will be dreaming up lyrics even as he “gees” and “haws” his team across Alaska starting Sunday.

Peterson, along with 20-year-old Iditarod veteran Cain Carter, have launched a fledging rap duo called “The Musherz.” The pair work at one of the most-winning modern kennels in the sport, and in songs like “2 Feet on the Drag” and “Running All Night,” they rhyme about what they know.

Sample lyric:
“Now I’m twisting, dipping, winding, turning through the trees
Now I got my headlight off because I’m creeping on a team
Full moon reflected off the snow so I can see
He shut his headlight off because I think that he heard ME.”

One of Peterson’s top dogs is a husky named “Pimp.” But when these rappers use the “b-word,” they’re likely talking about famous sled dogs.

Cain is the step-son of four-time Iditarod winner Lance Mackey. Petersen met Mackey when he began dating the musher’s daughter as a teenager, and now works and trains with the Fairbanks champion.

Both are up-and-coming members of Mackey’s Comeback Kennel. Just look at their medallions.

MIXTAPE READY
Peterson and Carter each wear a jewel-studded chain bearing the kennel’s name and logo — a picture of Mackey’s face combined with a picture of the musher’s storied lead dog, Larry.

The pair bought the necklaces online from someone named “Pendant Paul,” Peterson said Wednesday in Knik. “It took him like two months to make. $2,200 later, we got them shipped.”

From Marc Lester in Wasilla --

Musher: Zoya DeNure, Gakona, Alaska
Position: Leader

"When we look back at it, he wasn't truly a bad dog. He just had behavioral issues. He didn't have proper socialization while he was growing up."

Skeeter Stitt, "dogboarder." Photo courtesy of Michael William Stitt.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The following video comes courtesy of Michael "Skeeter" Stitt in Willow.

Even as the Iditarod approaches, the 17-year-old musher has traded his sled for a snowboard. Behold, "Dogboarding."

"After being on the back of a dogsled for hours on end, you get a little bored," Stitt wrote in an email. "As I'm very athletic, I started trying different things. Like standing on my handlebar of my sled, to snowboarding with 24 dogs."

"I would like to see this become a sport and maybe one day I'll go to Nome with snowboard and dogs," Stitt wrote.

By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News

For the first time, Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race officials are requiring all dogs in the race to be vaccinated for kennel cough.

Symptoms of the bug, a highly infectious upper respiratory infection, include a dry honking cough, gagging and retching. In serious cases, the illness can lead to pneumonia and is similar to whooping cough in humans.

Several top mushers spotted signs of the sickness in their huskies during the 2011 race.

Four-time champion Lance Mackey’s lead dog, Rev, could be heard hacking during a late-night vet check in Takotna. Former Yukon Quest champion Sebastian Schnuelle noticed the illness among his dogs two days before the race. Hans Gatt, another Quest winner, said two of his leaders began coughing along the trail.

“Many of the teams last year were affected by kennel cough because of somebody else,” Mackey said. “We didn’t have it until somebody else showed up with it.”

People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals pounced on reports of illness. The group, which is again looking to siphon sponsorship money from the race, is pointing to signs of kennel cough last year as evidence that the race is cruel to dogs.

The Iditarod rules committee this spring agreed to mandate kennel cough vaccinations at the request of chief veterinarian Stu Nelson.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

New to our Iditarod 2012 coverage: Sled dog mugshots. If you use the social media app Instagram, be sure to follow us at IditarodLive for regular portraits of Iditarod dogs.

If Instagram's not your thing, you can still see all the pictures and read the latest race updates on our Twitter feed, @IditarodLive.

I'm asking mushers and fans to share recent photos of their dogs, like this picture of Iditarod veteran "Derby" by Dallas Seavey.

'One of the toughest team dogs you will ever see.': Photo courtesy of Dallas Seavey

Derby has completed four Iditarods and one Yukon Quest with Seavey, who took this picture during the recent Don Bowers Memorial.

Seavey finished third in the mid-distance race through the Mat-Su, winning the Roy and Leslie Monk Humanitarian Award.

If there's a dog or a musher you'd like to know more about, email me at khopkins@adn.com.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Notch another win for the Seavey boys.

Just received word from Iditarod officials. Conway Seavey, 15-year-old son of former champion Mitch and brother of 2011 Yukon Quest champ Dallas, claimed the junior race today in a nail-biter finish.

Here's the announcement. (Sounds like the 15-year-old has his sights on a career in music, rather mushing.):

From Kyle Hopkins in Willow --

We visited Willow this week for a quick talk with Alberta musher Karen Ramstead about a chilling moose attack that left her handler shaken and her wheel dog, Irving, out of commission.

Meet Irving, Crunchie and the rest of the team in the first in our 2012 "Meet the Sled Dogs" series.

Is there a dog you'd like to meet? A musher whose team you'd like to see profiled? E-mail me at khopkins@adn.com.

Karen Ramstead and Irving on a recent training day in Willow. Marc Lester / Anchorage Daily News photo. photo.

By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News

WILLOW -- Irving, the one-eyed wheel dog, got the worst of it.

"He's kind of a hard luck case of a dog," said Alberta musher Karen Ramstead, who will pilot a team of bushy-tailed Siberian huskies next week in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

Irving, a 5-year-old, must remain behind. He's on the disabled list this year with a muscle tear in his hind leg. The consequence of what Ramstead calls an "ambush" attack during a recent training run on popular dog sled trails outside Willow.

Every musher has a moose story. Tales of charging bulls, or shattered sleds or head-on collisions with 1,000-pound cows. For Ramstead, the worst encounter of her career came on a recent weeknight, a saga ending in a flurry of hooves, a screaming husky and three shotgun blasts.

Here is her story.

A LOW GROWL
A four-time Iditarod finisher who once claimed the "red lantern" award as the last musher to Nome, Ramstead trains in Willow in the weeks before the race.

This year she brought Richard Todd, a Brit from Lincoln, England, who answered Ramstead's want ad for a dog handler. The pair are staying with a friend north of Willow, where DeeDee Jonrowe is a neighbor and the dog yard spills into a collection of trails frequented by Iditarod veterans and recreational mushers alike.

On Feb. 16, Ramstead planned to celebrate the delivery of her dog food bags to Anchorage -- a time-consuming pre-race ritual -- with an overnight training run.

She and Todd left at 6 p.m. Within eight miles, the trouble began. As the team turned a corner, the ears of her lead dogs pitched forward. A big cow was strolling down the trail ahead.

The musher stood on her brake, and Todd's team soon arrived behind her. He stopped too. The pair waited about 30 seconds, assuming the animal would wander off, spooked by two dozen panting dogs.

As soon as Ramstead's sled edged forward a few feet, it was obvious the moose had simply stepped out of sight of the musher's headlamp, she said.

"(She) dropped her head and was waiting for us, basically ambushing us on the trail there," Ramstead said.

The moose stared at the dog teams. She lowered her head and raised her hackles.

Time slowed, Ramstead said.

When a group of dog sled drivers get together, they often talk about this "will it or won't it charge" moment. Ramstead recalled that Jerry Sousa of Talkeetna recently told her that moose lick their lips before barreling forward.

This moose only stared, its head swaying. Then came a guttural, rumbling growl.

"It was like a cheap, science-fiction movie T-Rex, dinosaur noise that she was making through the whole encounter," Ramstead said.

"Neither Richard nor I will ever forget it," she later wrote on her her kennel website.

The moose blitzed forward, directly into the dogs.

"Not just running through the team," the musher said in an interview. "She was actively stomping at the dogs and kicking with all four feet going in different directions."

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Whistler, a lead dog for German Iditarod rookie Silvia Furtwangler, was found this morning in Anchorage near the Chester Creek Trail. He had been missing since early Thursday morning, when he escaped from a dog truck.

Blue-eyed and mottled, the unmistakable 3-year-old had been spotted in the area over the weekend. Searchers say he resisted their attempts to lure him to safety using moose steak and fake German accents.

Furtwangler played a recording of Whistlers' teammates barking and whining -- blasting from the tinny speakers of her iPhone -- as she walked the greenbelt, hoping the sound would coax him from hiding. No luck.

That all changed this morning, when employees at the Arc of Anchorage offered Whistler an enchilada breakfast in the parking lot and coaxed him into the garage with roast beef.

Whistler is a country dog, Furtwangler said, and looked spooked following several days lost in the city.

"We live really outside in the wilderness. We have no roads, nothing, and then we traveled all the way from Norway to here," she said. "I think it was a little bit, kind of shock for the dogs."

Named for the ski town in British Columbia, Whistler is the son of a shelter dog named Sharkey. Furtwangler acquired Sharkey several years ago from Paxson musher John Schandelmeier and his wife, Iditarod veteran Zoya DeNure, she says.

Check out the family resemblance in this pic of Sharkey and DeNure.

Furtwangler is training in the Willow area and plans to return Whistler to the team as early as tomorrow. “You’ll see him on the starting line," she said.

Enchilada fan: Whistler, a leader for rookie Silvia Furtwangler, had been missing since Wednesday when employees at the Arc of Anchorage caught him early this morning.

Is it me or does Whistler look super irritated at this impromptu press conference?

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Pete Kaiser of Bethel has won the first-ever Paul Johnson Memorial Norton Sound 450, the Norton Sound sled dog club says.

Kaiser arrived in Nome at 5:47 a.m. this morning. Former Yukon Quest champ John Schandelmeier of Paxson finished second, followed by Judy Currier of Fairbanks.

"It was a hard run in and both teams came in with a lot of steam," the sled dog club reports.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Two of the most aggressive Iditarod critics say two consecutive years without a sled dog death in the event hasn’t cooled their objections to the race.

“We are certainly reaching out to the sponsors of the Iditarod and asking them to pull their sponsorships. We are also actively asking our members to contact the sponsors,” said Gemma Vaughan of the cruelty investigations department at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA.

Like father, like son: Mike Williams Sr. of Akiak prepares to leave the Takotna checkpoint in the 2009 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Mike Sr. says he is withdrawing from this year's race for health reasons. His son, Mike Jr., will take his place on the sled. (Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News.)

MORE FATHER AND SON PICS: Mike Williams Sr. & Mike Williams Jr. gallery.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Maybe it was the lush fish traps that derailed his Iditarod, Mike Williams says.

The Akiak musher fishes year-round to feed his village dog team, which this year meant snappy November days spent working traps along the frozen Kuskokwim River. At 20 and 30 below, a bad cold became pneumonia, Williams said, stealing away crucial training days.

“The physician was concerned about my health,” said Williams, 59.

As a result, Williams has told Iditarod officials he is withdrawing from the race. It would have been the veteran musher's 15th Iditarod.

Competing in his place: Williams’ 26-year-old son, Mike Jr.

“Right now I’m taking care of me, and Junior decided to take a break from his studies to jump on the runners in my stead,” the elder Williams said in a phone interview today. He walked the dogyard as he talked, pouring water for the team.

Mike Williams Jr. looks to where he is to park his team as he arrives at the Nikolai checkpoint in 2011. (Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News.)

"Junior," Iditarod mushers learned during last year’s race, is no joke. Though he hadn't planned on competing this year, the younger Williams has twice completed the race. He placed 13th in 2011, racing with leaders Pirate and Emo, dogs who Mike Sr. says later helped Pete Kaiser of Bethel win the Kobuk 440.

Pirate arrived from Iditarod champion John Baker’s kennel, Mike Sr. said, while other dogs on Team Williams are descended from bloodlines bred by Susan Butcher, Rick Swenson and George Attla.

Mike Williams Jr. is putting college courses in Oregon on hold this spring to train in Akiak, a Yup’ik village of 370, his father said. Finding someone to replace him behind the sled is one thing, but Mike Sr. mushes for more than sport.

All six of the elder Williams' brothers died of suicide or accidental deaths. Williams has said he races to promote sobriety; a symbol of healing for traditional Alaska Native communities devastated by alcohol and the side effects of rapid modernization.

A longtime school board member, Mike Sr. works as a counselor and has championed both tribal sovereignty and mental health programs in rural Alaska. He says his son has been racing sled dogs since childhood, helping train the team after wrestling and basketball practice, running dogs while his father led tribal council meetings.

The younger Williams can inspire people too, his father said.

“The last couple of years he’s been quietly mushing for youth sobriety, as an example for young people,” Mike Sr. said.

“You can’t jump on runners and run Iditarod,” he said. “You have to take care of yourself, you have to prepare yourself.”

Iditarod rules allow for an eligible musher to replace another competitor as long as the switch is made for medical reasons, said Iditarod director Stan Hooley. Race officials already have decided to allow the younger Williams to step in for his father, he said.

Meantime, Mike Sr. hopes to return to the race next year. Maybe celebrate his 60th birthday on the trail.

“I hate to watch from the porch,” Williams said.

Mike Williams Sr. heads into a cabin for some sleep in Takotna on March 11, 2009. Marc Lester/Anchorage Daily News photo.

Walker, one of the the wheel dogs on the team of Mike Williams Jr., eyes his meal as Williams feeds his team in the 40-plus degree sunshine on Puntilla Lake at the Rainy Pass checkpoint in 2011. Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News.

The Burled Arch: Get here first and you'll get about $50,000. Plus a truck. Package also may include grudging respect of peers, newfound appreciation from sponsors. (ADN photo by Bob Hallinen.)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

The top 30 mushers in this year’s Iditarod will split a combined purse of roughly $550,000, the race director said today.

That’s a more than $20,000 boost compared to 2011, said executive director Stan Hooley. For cash-strapped mushers who spend tens of thousands of dollars to compete in the sport’s premiere event, however, it still falls far short of the record $875,000 shared among the top 30 spots in 2008.

In Iditarod, a faster finish can mean thousands of dollars in extra winnings -- cash mushers use to pay for dog food, airfare and other expenses.

Little, if any, of this year’s slight increase will be added to the champion's check, Hooley said. Race officials consider the free Dodge truck that goes to the Iditarod winner to be part of the purse, he said, so the added winnings are being spread among other finishers.

The first-place finisher will get roughly the same as the previous two winners, John Baker and Lance Mackey, who each took home $50,400.

"The board's philosophy is that payout won't grow until much of the rest of the 'money positions' catch up with that," Hooley said.

Racers who finished in 31 place or later receive $1,049, based on the Iditarod’s old “official” distance of 1,049 miles. (Race organizers now label the northern route as 975 miles, based on GPS data and other research.)

A related note: Hooley says this year’s detour around the infamous Happy River Steps will add just more than a mile to the distance of the race.

Expect drug testing for mushers along the trail once again this year, he said.

I've asked Iditarod for a copy of the official money list -- exactly how much each finisher will win -- and will post it here when available.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage –

It was a disappointing weekend for middle-distance mushers, many of whom were planning on knocking out a 300-mile qualifier for the Iditarod/Yukon Quest at this year’s Copper Basin 300.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

Recognize this guy? Me neither.

Sebastian Schnuelle posted this pic on Facebook recently under the title "naked."

...

The "before" photo.

From Mike Campbell in Anchorage --

Renown Jamaican musher Newton Marshall is the subject of a new book by Canadian author John Firth.

“One Mush — Jamaica’s Dog Sled Team” is the account of Marshall’s 2009 Yukon Quest, where he finished 13th. Marshall, who trained at four-time champion Lance Mackey’s Comeback Kennel in Fairbanks, finished 47th in the 2010 Iditarod before scratching in Anvik this year.

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

How did Kotzebue musher John Baker win the 2011 Iditarod with record speed? Will he be back next year?

And how does the sport's most outspoken heavyweight feel about missing an unprecedented fifth-straight win?

Here they are in their own words. These raw, unedited clips are from long interviews with each champion shortly after they arrived in Nome. Normally I do some rudimentary editing to get the videos down to a few minutes in order to upload from remote villages and make it easier to watch fresh clips each day.

If you're fan of each musher there's a lot here that didn't make it into any of this year's Iditarod coverage. Baker, in particular, talks candidly about his efforts to control the speed of his challengers:

It's been a great race. Time to slow down Iditarod coverage and cool it, for the most part, with tweets on www.twitter.com/iditarodlive.

For more on what Iditarod 2011 looked like from behind the sleds of the world's top dog teams, check back for new raw footage of record-smashing champion John Baker & former champ Lance Mackey.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and extra thanks to all the mushers who talked to us along the trail. We'll see you soon.

-- Kyle in Anchorage