Musher Tracking (by Kara)

The musher and the racing crew are traveling to Alaska, a trip I've made many times during my career, and no, even for a semi-truck full of Dentastix I won't reveal who actually went this time.

As most of you know, the musher was trying to come up with some new technological way to keep all of her fans apprised of her whereabouts and doings.

In past years her attempts were downright silly and too heavy to pull. She even considered using spotters on the trail to radio in her status and updates, but there weren't that many volunteers who wanted to camp out on the Iditarod trail and those that did... well, lets just say we're still waiting to find some of them and the others now have nicknames like "2-fingers" and "stumpy".

The problem with having a way to communicate is that it can't be too heavy and it has to tolerate the cold well. Its not like there are electrical sockets out in the middle of frozen Alaska, and typing on a keyboard with mittens usually just causes more confusion than its worth, so Twitter was out of the question (and if you haven't noticed, when the musher gets to typing, that 140 character limit goes right out the door).

So, facing all of these daunting requirements, I did a google search and then made a call to some friends I have in the Parks and Recreation department (cuz in retirement, I'm all about the recreation) and they actually had the perfect solution.

Lightweight, long battery life, able to withstand brutally cold temperatures and water.

Now everyone can keep track of her wanderings. For some reason she wasn't too thrilled with the ear tag.

Kara