The Trail Less Traveled

John Wood is an Alaska musher from Chugiak who started chasing the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in the late nineteen seventies and went on to finish the thousand mile route to Nome four times in 1978, 1979, 1982 and 1986. Known for his dry humor and honesty about the grind of the trail, he once joked that after three runs he had “an unparalleled record of mediocrity” and zero prize money, yet if you asked whether he planned to run again his answer was “hell yes,” because the race embodied adventure, excitement, competition and camaraderie that felt uniquely Alaskan. John served as a musher representative on the Iditarod board and offered straight talking advice to rookies about staying upbeat, caring for their dog teams and setting realistic goals in a race where two weeks of little sleep and deep cold are the norm. The event he helped shape as a veteran competitor and mentor is itself legendary an annual March run from Anchorage to Nome of roughly one thousand miles across mountains, frozen ri