The Race: Don's Cabin; Shageluk Summary and Analysis

Halfway to the town of Iditarod there is an abandoned cabin stocked with provisions by a man named Don who nearly died there during the race one year. Of the eleven teams traveling together, only Gary and the donut man stop to tend their dogs. Gary removes himself from the narrative to discuss the importance of the bond between a man and his team. Dogs rarely violate this relationship but some men work inexplicably hard to destroy it. Many expeditions into the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as the original Iditarod trail, have places named for where dogs were killed. The most common reason for the slaughter of dogs is for the meat to feed the other dogs and the musher. Explorers would take on extra dogs to pull the sled and use...