like heading to White Mountain and back to Nome? Where there any difficult obstacles to overcome or weather to handle?

Not really. The race was pretty smooth the whole way considering we had to run very fast pretty much the whole journey. It was the start of spring so weather conditions where certainly staring to get a bit warmer; plus there were no blizzards to contend with this time, and we didn’t run into any dangerous animals such as bears or moose. Plus there were no avalanches or unstable ice bridges that we had to cross. There were a few times when we ran very close to the edge of cliffs. One of those times one team member, Dusty, slipped on an ice patch and slipped onto the edge of the cliff. She almost fell down the cliff, but with our support she was able to make it back up easily. It would have been horrific if we lost her though. Apart from that the entire trip was pretty safe.

How did you reckon you compared against the bush plane during the race?

It was quite surprising. Although the bush plane seemed faster than us, it seemed to be traveling at the same speed as we were. We heard the plane above us pretty much the entire race and we both seemed to be evenly matched. Plus we managed to get a head start at the start of the race because Duke had trouble with his starter motor; and at White Mountain he made it first but had to scrape ice off of his wings before he could fly, because I assumed that ice was a potential hazard to the condition of the plane in the air. That gave us a slight advantage but it seemed like nothing to me considering how fast his plane flew. I really don’t know why he wasn’t traveling as fast as a plane should, but maybe it had something to do with the weather. Turbulence increases as you rise higher in the sky, and so maybe the wind slowed him down. Plus visibility in the sky can be poor sometimes, and so maybe it wasn’t easy finding the right way. If Duke hadn’t crashed his plane, the race would have been close to a tie. That certainly shows that both the sled and the plane are capable of delivering at an even time rate.

After you won the race you told Kodi that the sled team’s jobs were only saved for the time-being. What were you trying to say?

I didn’t think that that was the last we would see of the bush plane, because I knew their day was coming. The plane was a new generation of transport that could be used for many other things as well as delivering mail, and it seemed to me a very important part of the lives of humans. I knew that planes will still be wanted for other things for future generations to come, no matter what the outcome of the race. I never said that sled dogs would be stripped of their jobs in the future, because they will still be needed as much as any other transport, especially here in Alaska where dog sleds are very reliable and important, but planes will be just as important. I didn’t want to sound negative to Kodi because I knew how much his job meant to him, but I just thought that he should know the truth.

When you found out that plane had crashed you decided to go after Duke and rescue him from the cold temperature, assuming of course that he was indeed alive. Was it just because he was your friend or was it something more than that that made you go after him?

Well of course my loyalty has remained in me as long as I have lived, and that is the reason why I help everyone in desperate need. I really care about Duke because he is one of my best human friends ever. I even think of him as my owner. Plus Boris was on the plane by accident, and I couldn’t leave the one who had raised and loved me since I was a pup to die. I would have broken my heart. The truth is that I cannot let my friends or my family be killed in such horrific ways, and particularly for Duke he was one of those people who deserved to live life to the fullest as much as anybody else, because he is a really nice man. Plus it is not for us to say that someone deserves to live or die. Everyone deserves a fair chance at life; even those who seem a little less than friendly; like Steele for example. It also made me think back to the diphtheria outbreak, and how it was killing those who did not deserve to die. This was one of those similar situations; where the cold weather in the open country was killing someone who did not deserve to die. Again it is my fidelity that makes me think of others in desperate need. All in all, yes I did it because he was my friend and because he, along with everyone else, did not deserve to die in such a horrific way.

When you alerted the sled team of the situation they seemed reluctant to help you out, especially your son. Why didn’t they want to join you?

I just knew that they, along with Kodi, saw him as the enemy because he could have stolen their jobs, and their jobs meant a lot to them. The last thing that they wanted was to have to help out someone who they despised. What they didn’t understand was that they were given their jobs to help others out, by bringing in mail and supplies; and now when someone really needed help, they didn’t do anything about it. It is about more than just bringing supplies. If they could use their skills to help others out in desperate need, they would really prove their heart and superiority, and therefore would be loved and appreciated by others more greatly. They eventually figured that out and changed their minds and came to help me on my way back to Nome with Duke.

What were you feeling at the time when they refused to help you and you left alone?

I was feeling a little heartbroken that my own son refused to help me on a very important mission. I always looked to him as following in my paw prints, and now he was doing this to me.

I understood that his job meant a lot to him and he despised Duke for trying to take his job away from him, but like I said before, it is a lot more than just bringing supplies; it is about using your skills to help out others in need, and at the start Kodi never fully understood that. I really thought that Kodi wanted to help everyone, but he was valuing his job over a human life. It made me think back to when Steele valued his job and his fame over more important things, and it was because of that that he let the team and the whole town down and almost cost the lives of so many innocent children. Because of that I hated him for what he did. In this situation I felt that Kodi was letting me down by choosing something else over the most important thing, and if he didn’t come after me to help, it might have caused me to think less of him. I didn’t want that, but as a father it means a lot to you when you want your children to make you proud. He understood when Jenna told him about valuing life over his job, and then he and the team came to help me. I was proud of him for finally understanding what being a sled dog is all about, and I love him so much more.

Did you really need help on this rescue mission or where you able to handle it on your own?

Some might think that because I am part wolf I am well equipped and am capable of just about anything. But this was different. Just because I might be able to do things that dogs cannot doesn’t mean that I can handle difficult journeys and dangerous missions on my own. During the serum run I never did that alone. I had help from Boris, Muk and Luk on the first half of the journey, and I had help and support from the sled team on the other half. There were some very difficult obstacles that we had to cross that could only be accomplished from teamwork. I was leading the team, but they gave me the extra muscle and helpful advice that I needed to help get me through. For this particular mission I needed the support and help from my friends to successfully make the journey. I needed navigation and sighting from Muk, Luk and Stella to help me find the plane and the muscle and pulling power from the sled team. I knew that when I found Duke he would need a lift to get back to Nome because he might be injured to walk back on his own. Besides, he probably might have been too cold or too weak to make it through the wilderness alive because he was just a human. Pulling his weight on my own; well, it was certainly possible, but it might have lasted only so long before I would start to fatigue from the weight; and if there were any dangerous obstacles along the way; which there was; no matter what that obstacle might have been, I couldn’t run fast enough to beat it before it collapsed; I couldn’t run fast enough to outrun it; and I certainly couldn’t run fast enough to avoid it falling on me. I think you get what I’m talking about (laughs). Anyway, the bottom line is that sometimes you can’t make it on your own, no matter if you are well equipped or not, and everybody; I repeat, EVERYBODY; needs help sometimes; even heroes.

You mentioned that you needed Muk, Luk and Stella to help you find the way to where the bush plane crashed. Was there anything more that you needed them for during the journey?

Well as I said before, everyone needs help, so they might have been able to help me out with dangerous obstacles or wild animals that we might have had to face. I’ll tell you what; if the sled team had agreed to come with me in the first place it would have been an even greater help with the advantage of numbers to overcome the obstacles and get the better of wild animals. The thing is that two young polar bears and a goose are probably not “game enough”, if you will, against wild animals, because those animals would have a definite fighting advantage against small and young animals. On the other side of things, a pack of dogs against one dangerous animal are a better match and might