The Tripod, March 2017

Iditarod HistoricTrail Alliance March 2017 The Tripod PO Box 2323 Seward AK 99664 IditarodHTA@gmail.com http://www.Iditarod100.org The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance is an equal opportunity program provider and employer. The Trail for all Seasons The Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance promotes public awareness of the Iditarod Trail and its gold rush and AlaskaNative heritage by encouraging education programs and historical research, assisting in the protection, improvement, maintenance and marking of the trail and developing partnerships that foster stewardship commitments and support. Pick. Click. Give. Remember when you file for their 2017 Permanent Fund Dividend on line, you can chose to give a donation of $25 or more to the Iditarod Historic Trail Alliance as a part of the Pick. Click Give.

Program. 2017 Statewide Trails Conference This year's Alaska Trails Statewide Trails Conference will be held at the BPEnergy center, Anchorage, April 20-22. Registration information at alaska-trails.org From the pre-conference session and opening keynote addresses to the in-depth technical information available at the poster, break-out and field trip sessions, the Statewide Trails Conference is a three-day primer on trail development, maintenance and advocacy in your community.

The plenary conference session features four distinct tracks; choose one or sample them all based on your interests: •Trail Design & Layout •Construction/Operations/Maintenance •Advocacy & Funding •Partnerships & Youth Programs Throughout the conference there will be networking opportunities with everyone from grass-roots trails clubs and organizations to land management agency representatives, from professional trail contractors to first-time volunteers looking to get involved locally. New this year at the Conference: ❋ On Friday, Alaska Trails is adding an Active Transportation track to the conference, following on a successful Active Transportation Summit in October. Connecting engineers, planners and landscape architects and their work to the trail conference will be a valuable link and will help form connected communities across the state.

Topics for the Active Transportation Track include: Walkability and Walk Audits, Measuring Trail Use, Rural Transportation Networks and the Health and Economic Benefits of Trails. ❋On Saturday there will be a special focus on volunteers and how they can be trained and retained to do great work on trails across the state. Alaska Trails has worked with many partners on the Alaska Trails Stewards program. After a successful summer of pilot projects, Alaska Trails is ready to showcase the program at the conference. This will both introduce the program to trail advocates 1 Iditarod HistoricTrail Alliance From the past… "Iditarod Pioneer" March 24, 1917 STENBERG WINS IN RECORD TIME The St.

Patrick's day dog-team race, under the auspices of the local Igloo of Pioneers, not only provided excellent sport for the holiday crowds, but furnished an exhibit of driving probably seldom excelled in the North. The race was won handily by Sture Stenberg with a team of six dogs, in the remarkably fast time of 1 hour 41 minutes and 45 seconds, beating all previous records for the course by 2 minutes and 35 seconds. Garrison Costar, with his five bird dogs finished strong in the excellent tine of 1 hour and 50 minutes, and Cyril Wood, with Ira Wood's five huskies finished third in 1 hour and 58 minutes. The race was run over the regular course from Iditarod to Flat, thence to Discovery, Otter, returning over the same route to Flat and Iditarod, a distance of approximately twenty-two miles. The teams started ten minutes apart, Garrison Costar leading off at 2 p.m.

He was followed ten minutes later by Sture Stenberg, and at 2:20 Cyril Wood got away. Costar got away to a good start, and it was therefore somewhat of a disappointment when his time to the Summit was recorded as 26 minutes. It was evident that in order to win he must show more speed, and this opinion was confirmed when Stenberg was reported at the same point in 24:15. Wood lost considerable time on this section of the course, and although he regained considerable of it later, it practically eliminated him from the contest. Stenberg continued to gain on the leader throughout the race and it was evident that he was driving hard. Costar kept up a steady pace, and when he crossed the finish line, at the Northern Commercial Company corner, Iditarod, his dogs were still fresh and going strong.

Stenberg crossed the line 1 minute and 45 seconds behind his opponent, having gain 8 minutes and 15 seconds. His dogs were badly winded, however, and it was evident that he had driven them to the full extent of their ability. He made the finish with one dog in the sled. Cyril Wood made the finish at 4:18, and the probability is that his digs would have been equal to a repetition of the distance. March 2017 across the state and gather their critical input on how to make the program better. New book On Trails An Exploration by Robert Moor, Simon & Schuster, 2016. The book is a mixture of Moor's philosophical musing about trails and their meanings and recounting his actual experiences on trails. In the spring of 2009 he walked the full length of the Appalachian Trail.

With the help of experts in various fields Moor explores the world's oldest fossil trails, explains how insect colonies create trail networks, how four-legged mammals, like elephants, sheep, gazelles and deer manage to navigate immense territories and how human efforts to herd and hunt them have shaped our development as a species, how ancient humans established networks of foot paths which became tightly interwoven with the vital cultural threads of languages, lore and memory. He also discusses the origins of the Appalachian Trail, the International Appalachian Trail from Maine to Morocco and other modern trails. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Moor's accounts of the many people he met and in many cases walked with while doing research for the book. Unfortunately the book has no index.

Active Transportation Photo Contest The top prize for the Active Transportation Photo Contest, co-sponsored by Alaska Trails and Safe Routes to School National Patnership, went to Nathan Belz, an engineering professor and yearround active commuter from Fairbanks. The photo he submitted of himself hoisting his fatbike in front of a thermometer displaying a temperature of 41 below demonstrates that a little cold need not stop someone from active commuting. The other winners were: second place, Dj Tyson; third place, Beth Elliot; fourth place, Alli Harvey; fifth place, Lisa Wiley. You can see all the winning photos at alaskatrails.org in the Alaska Trails March Newsletter. 2