In case you are not following Fairbanks weather there was a recent winter storm warning! Yippee!
And it came with predictions of major snowfall, which came true.  Nothing could make me happier then snow. (or so I thought)

But apparently there is something that is making me at least equally as happy as the new foot of snow we have on the ground. Team Dew Claw has grown, and I must say it is shaping up to be a good looking team.  I told you earlier that our dear friends Walt & Janet have sponsored the Grayling checkpoint, they are joined by Lou and Fran Varndell who are sponsoring Rainy Pass. Look for a future blog with the story behind their sponsorship.  The checkpoint map is slowly filling up, but there are still many avaliable. Seems like no one wants to sponsor the checkpoints on the coast, and that is a notoriously harsh stretch of the Iditarod trail, sure would love some support out there. Learn more about sponsoring checkpoints here.

Then there are some wonderful folks who have helped out by sending us items from the Dew Claw Wish List!

Mike Pickell is a returning team member. Having had the opportunity to meet him in person at the Midwest Sled Dog Symposium, I can tell you Mike is a great fun to talk with, his excitement about the sport of mushing is evident. He originally followed Dan on the Quest, but is an equal opportunity Dew Claw fan. This year he has arranged to get Dan his own beaver lined dog fur hat! Our friends Marlys and Dawn had one made for me earlier, and I have been speaking so highly of it, Dan decided it was time to upgrade to one himself. Mush Thanks to Mike for making this possible!

Also a huge thank you to Robert and Jolene Parsons for the new ski poles. These are high tech and collapse down to fit in our sleds, without sticking out and possibly poking me.  Something I have not done, yet… but was always a possible danger with the old poles I had been using.  We met Robert when Dan and I went down to run the Tustumena 200, and saw him again at Iditarod. He was actually the only person on the trail holding a Jodi sign* at the start; little things like that mean a lot when you are starting out on journey that will test your limits and take you across the arctic wilderness. *Now, to be fair, there was also a wonderful pirate chorus who sang for me.  Friends who knew how very much I adore Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, and that was also great fun! see the video here

Also joining Team Dew Claw are long time Iditarod supporters Lee & Claudia Nowak, I had the pleasure of meeting them at the Midwest Sled Dog Symposium as well.  They  travel to Alaska to be at the Iditarod start as well.  Claudia was an Iditarider with my friend Ed Stielstra  in 2012.

And there is also Becky Young, an educator who is using the Iditarod in the classroom to motivate and inspire students. I was able to write to some of her students and share a bit about my experiences with them.  At Dew Claw we always love to support amazing classroom teachers, they are our best hope for the future.

So you can see I we have lots of reasons to be happy! Mush Thanks to all the wonderful folks who make up Team Dew Claw, we could not do this without you!

And let me share some more happiness, photos from our camping trip with snow falling, happy dogs, and even happier mushers!