Little by Little, Kasilof musher gains experience

In sled dog racing, as in most things, a little experience can go a long way.

Jon Little of Kasilof hopes to parlay his three years of Iditarod experience into continued success in the 1,150-mile race between Anchorage and Nome, which begins Saturday morning with the traditional ceremonial start on Fourth Avenue. What form that success takes, is yet to be determined.

"I'm way more relaxed now (than before previous Iditarods), but I think that's just from experience," the 35-year-old said Sunday afternoon. "I'm looking forward to it more than ever."

Little said his anticipation is more about being out on the trail with his dogs again than it is about being competitive -- although his race record has been impressive, especially considering he builds his 16-dog team from a relatively tiny kennel of 24 dogs.

The limitations of being a small-scale, part-time musher notwithstanding, Little, who works as a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, has managed to improve his finish each time he's competed in the Last Great Race. This time out, he is coming off a strong 15th-place showing in last year's Iditarod.

He said improving on that this year will take some doing.

"That'll be tough," he said, noting that some top-notch teams -- Martin Buser, Mitch Seavey and Charlie Boulding among them -- "hit a wall" last year and were unable to finish near the front of the pack, as they usually do.

"You get high caliber guys like that, it'll be hard (to finish better than 15th). There's a lot of really good teams. I'll go in and run my best and let the chips fall where they will."

Seward musher Seavey, always a threat to win, said the chips could fall Little's way.

"I expect (him) to be pretty good. He's got a small kennel, but they're good quality dogs," he said. "But then again, in Iditarod, top 20 is sometimes hard to do."

If there's one thing experience has taught Little, it's that in a long-distance wilderness race, there's just too many variables to have a rigid race plan.

"My whole thing about mushing is 'keep it simple.' I run until my dogs get tired, get them some food and water, and get going again," he said. "A rigid schedule can box you in."

Nonetheless, Little said he does see room for improvement.

"In theory, I could get more aggressive if everything is working perfectly. I've sketched out a plan that's relatively fast, by my standards," he said. "So I could race. But if things don't go well, I'll rest more."

In addition to his own racing experience, Little will be pulled by a team of dogs that combines veteran experience and youthful potential. Of his 16 Iditarod dogs, 13 have run the race before, and 11 of those have finished -- including up-and-coming leader Handel, a 2-year-old female who made it to Nome as a yearling last year.

"She's a little, tan teddy bear of a dog," he said. "I've worked real hard to build up some good leaders. I'm hoping they'll step up (this year). With a veteran crew, we should settle into a pattern real early."

Like most in the mushing community, Little said three-time defending champion Doug Swingley will be driving the team to beat this year. But he added that peninsula mushers Seavey and Tim Osmar are among those who could dethrone the Montana musher.

Despite his growing success over the years, Little does not count himself among the potential competitors for the race's $60,000 top prize. He said he races mostly against himself, striving to correct mistakes from previous races and, hopefully, gaining valuable experience along the way.

"I remember things from past years. There's always places I fumbled the ball," he said, adding that experience and individual effort alone are not enough to get him to the starting line, let alone to Nome.

"It's really a community effort. I'm just the guy on the sled. There's so many people involved in making this happen.

"I think I have a pretty good dog team. But you never know what kind of luck you're going to have. It's just fun to get out there and see what happens."

Peninsula Clarion reporter Will Morrow contributed to this story.