Stepping into Huslia was like “stepping back in time” for veteran musher Dee Dee Jonrowe.
“Even the way the kids play is like the way we used to play when we were kids,” she told KNOM’s Matthew Smith. But even the warm hospitality of Huslia couldn’t totally negate the cold trail temperatures.
“My hands are really screwed up,” confessed Jonrowe, who arrived in Huslia amid 40-below temperatures on Saturday. The musher’s fingertips had turned a murky black color, and she had lost much of the feeling in her hands.
“I’m not sure I could light a fire if I got into trouble,” she confessed.
Jonrowe is not the first musher to run into weather-related difficulties during this year’s race — fellow Iditarod veteran Lance Mackey also lost feeling in his hands and fingers, hampering his ability to care for his dog team in Tanana. Mackey’s trouble was somewhat tempered, however, by the assistance of his brother Jason Mackey, who stayed to help his older brother for a portion of the race.
While Jonrowe doesn’t have a sibling on the trail, she says her friends and competitors on the trail make up her own family — and support system.
“You take care of each other out here. You don’t go off and leave somebody in trouble,” she said, referring to a “straight talk” she received from friend and fellow musher Martin Buser.
Jonrowe said she considered rushing ahead, despite her injured fingers, until Buser convinced her otherwise. Now, the pink-clad musher plans to take her time getting to the finish in Nome.
“I’m not going to race. I’m going to travel and enjoy the sport that I love, and the people that I love, and take good care of my dogs, and watch really cool things going on around me,” she said.
