Ninth grader Addy Pederson steps outside her house into a blustering snowstorm with a bucket and ladle in hand. Her sled dogs wait excitedly as she scoops their dinner into metal bowls.
“For dinner they typically get beef and then kibble, and then for breakfast it's either beef chicken or eggs or lighter,” she said.
Afterward, Pederson goes to feed some puppies and non-sled dogs. In a few days, she’ll take her team of six dogs up to Knik Lake, where with four additional borrowed dogs, she will race in the Junior Iditarod — a 150 mile race for young mushers ages 14 to 17.
This is Pederson’s first year competing in the race, and her first season doing middle distance races. Over just a few years, she went from completing her first race with her parents’ dogs to getting her own and doing 100 mile races.
Most of Pederson’s dogs are young, roughly two years old, including her main leader, Star.
“Passing and like crowds she does get a little bit scared with that,” she said, “and then, like, if somebody leaves snacks on the trail, she has a very hard time leaving those, and she always wants to go back and pick them up but she's been doing really good.”
Training for these races began late last summer, when Pederson rode on a four wheeler and slowly increased the distance to 30 to 40 mile runs. She said things picked up in the winter when she switched to training on a sled.
“It's a ton of work, so if we're gonna do a 60 mile training run, I mean, that's an all day thing,” she said, “like, it's a six hour run, but then, like, waking up early to feed the dogs, I got to feed them about two hours before we go and then afterwards like cleaning up everything after the run.”
While there are other young mushers in the area, Pederson is the only one in the southern Peninsula who races competitively. These races allow her to meet other mushers her age.
“My favorite thing about going to other races is like, people that are very similar to me,” she said, “I mean, they just love their dogs, they love the sport, and it's like, I don't have to, like, explain all like the pieces of mushing and stuff.”
After the racing season, the pressure is off for Pederson. She says she’s excited to focus on training two new puppies at that time. When she turns 18, she hopes to race in the Iditarod and become the youngest musher to complete it.
The Junior Iditarod takes place Feb. 24-25 at Knik Lake.
