Lesson one in mushing class: Don’t let go! - AK 
How a Two-Time Iditarod Racer Fell in Love With Dogsledding
January 1990: Salt, my recently adopted sled dog, is sitting beside me as we drive into the parking lot for Anchorage’s mushing trails. I can sense his excitement and wonder if it’s connected to my own roiling mix of elation and anxiety. When we pull up and Salt sees his former Iditarod teammates tethered to a truck parked alongside us, he starts howling. Then he paws the car door and bites the frosted window.
The two of us clamber out of the car, greeted by my new friend and Salt’s original owner, Jeannette Willis. “Why hello, Salt,” she says to her old buddy. “Aren’t you excited.” Then she smiles at me, “Hi, Debbie. Are you ready?”
I don’t know then that I’ll eventually become an accomplished dog-musher—that one day I’ll own dozens of huskies and race in two Iditarods. In 1990, I know nothing. I’ve never even been on a dogsled before.