The Iditarod

The Atlantic has a great write-up about the Iditarod, on-line. Excerpt:

This Saturday, a colorful jumble of ski-jacketed, fur-clad, and zanily costumed enthusiasts will gather in downtown Anchorage. The cross section of revelers in the city’s streets, bars, and surrounding trails – so-called “trailgaters”—will mark the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. For a state that wears its rugged individualism like a badge of honor, the annual 1,000-mile journey from Anchorage to Nome signals more than the passage from deep winter to nascent spring. It operates as a kind of psychological gangline. “I can think of very few things that pull Alaskans together except for this—and a gas pipeline,” says Craig Medred, a former Anchorage Daily News reporter who has covered the Iditarod for the last quarter century.

Go here to read the whole thing.