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Published: September 5th 2013
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Tails of the Trail
Entrance to Mary's cabin Spent the night at the local Walmart downtown Fairbanks. There were about 15 other RV's in the carpark so we definetly weren't alone.
This morning we headed out to the home of a local lady named Mary Shields. Mary is 68 years old and has lived in Alaska since 1969. Her cabin is On a 20 acre boreal forest - Mostly white barked birch trees and stately old birch trees. For the price of $30 per person Mary invites people into her cabin to talk about her life as a dog musher.
Mary still does dog mushing on a regular basis. During winter she goes out camping along the trail and also visits her other cabin in the woods. This amazing lady was one of two women to first ride in the iditarod race in 1974 and also raced in the Yukon Quest. Mary came 22nd in the iditarod race with her team of 8 sled dogs - the smallest team to run that year.
The word Iditarod is an Athabaskan word meaning "distance place" . The race is 1049 miles long and runs from Anchorage to Nome.
The cabin Mary lives in was built by herself and
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One of the dogs her former husband and is only 28ft x28ft in size. The cabin is warm and cozy, and the visit, a very memorable occasion. Mary even baked raspberry brownies and pumpkin brownies to share with the guests. We got to play with the 4 month old puppies that Mary is babysitting for another dog musher. These puppies are worth around $4000 a piece. Also got to meet Mary's team of sled dogs - they are all fine dogs.
Meeting Mary and hearing her stories once again reinforces how tough the folks are up this way. It is obvious that Mary loves her dogs and dog sledding more than anything else in the world and it was a very heartwarming experience and one that will stay in our minds for a long time. Mary has written a number of childrens books and a book about her sled dog trails. We bought the "sled dog trails" book and Mary signed it for us. This will be a forever reminder of this special day!
After we left Mary's cabin we headed to the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum ($12 admission and got to use another toursaver coupon). This place has an excellent display
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Us with the big dog of antique cars all in pristine condition. Geoff and I had fun dressing up in some old time clothes and taking some photos in one of the antique cars. This is a self guided audio tour and well worth the visit.
Lunch today was a feast of king crab and snow crab which we shelled using a pair of pliers from the grocery store where we bought the crabs. It certainly was a delicious feed.
Next stop was Pioneer Park in Fairbanks. This is a free park with playgrounds for the kids, museums with information about the Fairbanks history. Most of the stores were closed when we stopped by but it was an interesting walk around the historical cabins that have been moved here from sites around Fairbanks to Pioneer Park. This would definetly be a busy place on weekends and holidays for visitors and families.
The weather today as been hit and miss. Started off overcast then light showers. The afternoon was fine with a breeze. Temperature was around 60 degrees F.
This evening we will be heading off to Chena Hot Springs. Geoff is on the look out for the Northern Aurora Lights.
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judith chaffer
non-member comment
great story would love to sit down with Mary and listen to her life adventures myself!!