When Willow musher Linwood Fiedler led the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race onto the mighty Yukon River late Thursday night, he got a welcome as big and free-flowing as the river. Linwood Fiedler talks about the great reception he received as the first musher to reach Anvik. While Fielder rested, though, Jeff King and Doug Swingley took the lead. They dialed friends and relatives who called others, spreading the word. By the time Fiedler fed and cared for his dogs, half the village had assembled in the community hall to watch him eat a seven-course meal cooked by chefs from the Regal Alaskan Hotel in Anchorage.
Mushers typically eat their meal and run, anxious to stay ahead of the competition.
But Fiedler spent a whole day in Anvik. He earned the luxury because he had pushed as far as any musher in Iditarod history to take his 24-hour mandatory rest in this river village. That was Emmitt Peters, who went to his hometown of Ruby before stopping. Ruby is about as far from Anchorage as Anvik on the Iditarod Trail. Early in race history, most mushers took their layovers in Rohn after the rugged run through the Alaska Range.