Idita-rock: Mushers bring a variety of musical tastes to the trail

WILLOW -— The Iditarod restart in Willow brings a lot of things to the small dog mushing town. On the first Saturday in March, the town of Willow is filled with noise, but some may call it music. The sounds of 728 dogs on 52 dog sled teams departed for Nome on Sunday in a uniquely Alaskan celebration. With 1,000 miles between the start in Willow and finish in Nome, mushers will have a week and change to be alone in the Alaskan wilderness with just their thoughts and their 14 dogs. Do not be surprised if the dogs of the Iditarod aren’t the only one’s howling their way down the trails. Singing is one of the most popular pastimes of Iditarod mushers out on the trail.

“The thing that gets my dogs going too is when I sing Adele,” Paige Drobny said. “It’s probably because I’m a terrible singer and they just go faster whenever I sing Adele and I’m pretty sure that’s speaking to how poor of a singer I am that they’re trying to get away from me. It’s not even really my style of music but somehow belting that out in the middle of nowhere is super fun.”

Mountain, Wisconsin, resident and Iditarod rookie Blair Braverman has built a massive following of nearly 70,000 Twitter followers. Braverman’s dogs also prefer the tunes of a crooner.

“My dogs like Leonard Cohen,” Braverman said.

But just like people, dogs have wildly varied tastes in music.

“We listen to gangster rap on the way to the start just because the dogs like DMX, Tupac, all that old school stuff,” Jessie Holmes said.

Some song singers are also impromptu songwriters.

“I’ve been running dogs for 30 years. So I’ve got quite a few races under my belt. I make up my own songs. I use other people’s music and I throw my own lyrics in. Usually my wife Michelle Phillips runs in the Iditarod and we’re just swapping. This year she ran the Quest and I’m running the Iditarod,” said rookie Ed Hopkins.

Aliy Zirkle was recently featured in an episode of the Netflix documentary “Losers” as part of an in-depth look at Zirkle’s three consecutive runner-up finishes. Zirkle has been known to be the loudest howler of the team out of SP Kennel in Two Rivers.

“I’m really not alone. People think you are but, holy cow, you’re not. The dogs are there and they’ll tell you everything. But I do sing to the dogs periodically and I whistle, I’m a big whistler,” Zirkle said. “ I whistle a lot and then I like to howl with the dogs when we stop. I sing once in a while, I’m not a big iPod person. I’d rather pick up the tunes from the dogs and from the outside. I do have music should I need some kind of external stimulation but most of the time I get pretty motivated just from myself.”

Local product Ryan Redington doesn’t have one specific artist or genre that he sticks to, but spends time on the trail thinking about those he left in the Valley to chase the dream of winning The Last Great Race.

“I listen to music and I think a lot about family and think about my kids,” Redington said.

While music hardly requires a reason, French musher Marcelle Fressineau says that there is a reason for all the trail tunes.

“I sing to the dogs because sometimes it helps me stay awake,” Fressineau said.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.