Iditarod Air Force Photo Gallery
All photos by Don Bowers.
Iditarod Air Force planes on the runway at Rohn. Most IAF planes use skis, but in some cases wheel-only airplanes can be used. Rohn is normally skiplane-only, but in 1994 the snow was thin enough to use wheel planes. The IAF usually has to deliver more than 10,000 pounds of supplies to Rohn, including everything from dog food to straw for the dogs to the kitchen sink for the checkpoint cabin, plus all of the people who work there--and then move everything out again when all the teams have passed through.
The Iditarod uses commercial air cargo airlines to move many tons of cargo to major hubs like McGrath. From here the cargo will be moved by IAF planes to places like Rohn. The red bundles in the picture are bales of straw for the dogs. Musher food bags are stacked on the pallets to the right.
Iditarod Air Force planes on the ramp at McGrath. All of the race cargo behind them will be shipped out to the checkpoints at Rohn, Cripple, and Ophir. Cargo for Nikolai and other villages with post offices goes by U.S. Mail.
The pilot must be careful not to turn up the cabin heat too much or some of the interesting food in the musher food bags can begin to thaw. A whiff of seal oil or some of the other concoctions mushers make for their dogs can result in the pilot having to fly with the window open at 20 below zero.
Dropped dogs are kept in temporary dog lots like this one along the airport fence at McGrath. Veterinarians and special dog handlers make sure the dogs get only the best care until they can be flown back to Anchorage.
The Iditarod Air Force flies dogs from the smaller outlying checkpoints into the major air hubs. In most cases the dogs are very well mannered and are not even tied down. This is inside a Cessna 206, which can carry as many as 20 dogs. If the dogs do begin to misbehave, pilots can usually calm them down instantly with a touch of weightlessness.
At the major hubs, dogs are sometimes put in big dog boxes for the flight back to Anchorage.
Sometimes the dropped dogs are put in individual airline kennels. These dogs are waiting for their flight from Galena to Anchorage. The Iditarod owns dozens of airline kennels.
Many dropped dogs are loaded onto vintage Douglas DC-6B planes belonging to Northern Air Cargo, which gives the race free airlift back to Anchorage. These sturdy, reliable planes were built in the 1950s and are still flying every day in Alaska, hauling all kinds of cargo to towns and villages in the Alaska Bush.
Iditarod Air Force pilots get to see many interesting things as they fly back and forth across the heart of Alaska. This is a reindeer herd outside the village of White Mountain.
These are musk oxen on top of Cape Nome, part of a herd that stays in the area between Safety Roadhouse and the city of Nome. Mushers often see these animals as they make their way toward Front Street and the burled arch. This is an enlargement and is a bit blurry. Pilots try not to fly close enough to disturb the herd. When threatened, musk oxen will form a protective circle, with the adults facing outward and the young animals inside.
At the end of the trail is Nome, the City of the Golden Sands. The fabled beaches along the Bering Sea yielded millions in gold. Anyone who could wield a shovel could make a fortune, although very few actually did. Today mushers run along the beach next to the road until they are almost downtown, then come up over the seawall onto Front Street for the ten-block run to the finish line.