Food Prepped for Iditarod Checkpoints

"Iditarod Air Force" volunteers will fly bags out this weekend

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By Lauren Maxwell
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Story Created: Feb 13, 2013 at 6:35 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Feb 27, 2013 at 8:17 AM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - With the Iditarod less than three weeks away, there is plenty to do to get ready. On Wednesday there were dozens of volunteers gathered at a local warehouse to sort bags full of food for mushers and their dogs.

The bags will be flown to race checkpoints to make sure they are ready for teams when they arrive.
Individual mushers are responsible for packing up their supplies. and musher Paul Gebhardt says it takes a lot of work to get the job done.

“It takes night after night after you’ve done dog chores and run dogs to take care of cutting and packing it and getting what you need in the right place,” said Gebhardt. “Because once we leave the starting line we depend solely on what is out there that we’ve sent out for our dog teams and ourselves.”

This year for the first time ever, the bags have a weight limit of 50 pounds. That means there may be more bags than ever to fly out. The bags will be delivered this weekend by volunteers known as “the Iditarod Air Force.”

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