"The Call of the Wild" comes to life with special visitors

The picture, above, is used courtesy of The Jackson Sun; the photo was taken by Sun photographer Kenneth Cummings. For more photos from The Sun, go to this link.

Middle School students heard the “Call of the Wild” when Iditarod Musher and Columnist Karen Land, made a stop at USJ in March 2010 as a part of The Big Read. Accompanying Land was her lead dog, Borage, who spent the hour wandering throughout the Blankenship Theater as Land told tales from the Iditarod trail and the twists and turns her life took that lead her to become a musher. Borage, a crowd favorite, was the source of many smiles and laughs from the students who each were given the opportunity at the end of the presentation to pet.
 
Land’s visit culminated the eighth grade’s novel study of Jack London’s "Call of the Wild." As a part of the study, the students follow mushers as they compete on the Iditarod trail. As a past musher, Land took 2010 off from the race to raise money to compete in next year’s event. Even though she is considered a small racer, due to the number of dogs she has, to compete in the Iditarod costs her nearly $25,000. Land’s team includes 16 dogs that she starts the race with. Her last Iditarod took her 14 days to complete.  
 
Besides showing off Borage, Land brought along her race sled, ropes and even most of the 50 of pounds of clothing she must take with her in order to brave the temperatures, which range from 60 degrees above 0 to 60 degrees below. She even allowed one student to put on the numerous layers to show the crowd how it looked and what it was like to get dressed while driving a team of dogs.
 
Land, who grew up in Indianapolis, was in art school working at an animal hospital when a rambunctious Catahula she named Kirby walked into her life and started her on the path to becoming an Iditarod musher. In order to keep Kirby active and out of trouble, Land took up walking, then running and finally hiking with Kirby. She transferred to the University of Montana to finish her degree and to be able to hike where it was not always flat. When she graduated, she was looking for an adventure and spent the next six months hiking the Appalachian Trail with Kirby. At night she would read; one of her favorite authors was Gary Paulson whose writing peaked her interest in mushing.
 
While in graduate school in Maine studying documentary writing, Land spent six months filming a musher qualifying for the Iditarod. Although her musher crashed into a tree and had to drop out of the race, Land was smitten. She worked for several mushers and then became one herself.
 
Some interesting facts Land pointed out to the students about mushing and the dogs that pull the sled …
 
• Before the Iditarod, each musher sends a ton of supplies to Alaska, most of which is food for himself/herself and his or her team of dogs. These supplies are divided into three 80 pound bags that are delivered to each check point along the route.
 
• The dog teams can reach up to speeds of 30 mph when they run down the mountain portions of the trail.
 
• Land's 16-dog team, when not training on snow, pulls a 4-wheeler, a VW bug or a dune buggy in preparation for the race.
 
The Big Read was a grant the Jackson-Madison County Library obtained from the National Endowment for the Arts.