Valley musher eager to hit the trail

Editor’s note: Musher Kelly Maixner has agreed to participate in a series of stories for this year’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as a means of telling the story of the race through his eyes. We will be checking in with him as the race continues up the trail to Nome.

PALMER — On a Saturday afternoon with the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race just a week away, Kelly Maixner said he’s very close to prepared.

All of his supplies have been shipped and dropped off along the trail and he has his team is together, save for two spots. And he’s planning a practice run to figure out which dogs will claim those slots.

“I’ve got four dogs I’m deciding on,” he said.

He said all of this in his backyard. Which, chances are, looks nothing like yours. Maixner’s contains a kennel for puppies, but the rest is laid out in a grid of doghouses with sled dogs attached to each one. But Maixner, a dentist by trade, lives in Big Lake, way back from the main road. There’s lots of room to run and not many neighbors. In other words, a great place for a kennel.

“I love it out here. I wouldn’t change that part even if I wasn’t a musher,” Maixner said.

Some of the dogs gnaw on bones — leg bones, but also the odd spinal column, scraps from one of Maixner’s sponsors, Mat Valley Meats — others excitedly seek the attention of anyone nearby.

“They’re all pretty friendly guys and girls,” Maixner said.

He’s working on one of his sleds. On a practice run the night before — he took a trip to Dallas Seavey’s place in Willow — he broke the brake. Eventually, he gives up on fixing it and drags a second sled up to where he’s going to harness the dogs

“Every time I drag one of these around I can’t believe they pull it so effortlessly,” he said.

He said he expects this Iditarod will go better than previous ones.

“All those dogs (in) my first Iditarod were 1 and 2 years old and now they’re 3 and 4, which is a huge difference with dogs,” he said. “I’m just blown away by how much better they are.”

And even if it’s not any better, it’s going to be a darn sight better than the first race he ran, the Tustumena 200.

“That race was hard,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I had to run the whole way.”

Just as his team has matured so has Maixner as a musher. And it’s good that he has. It’d be a tough thing to run the 1,000 miles to Nome along the Iditarod Trail.

Some things he learned outside of racing have been helpful as well. Maixner grew up on a farm, so he knows how to fix things when they break. Also, his medical training has been useful on the trail. He’s sutured dogs while away from home before. Never pulled a tooth, though.

“I have a Leatherman, but I don’t think that’d be too comfortable,” he joked.

So what is it about mushing that convinces a person to devote his backyard, all of his free time and a good percentage of his disposable income to it?

Maixner said he likes the solitude of being out on the trail and seeing what his dogs can do. But really, between fitting in all the preparation and training around his schedule as a dentist and responsibilities as a new father, he said the race is kind of the easy part.

“To get out there and not worry about anything else, just worry about driving dogs. It’s pretty nice,” Maixner said.

As he lays out the line and starts attaching dogs to it, the lot starts to fill with noise. The dogs that are staying home are clearly jealous of their colleagues that get to run. They’re born to run, Maixner said. Most don’t even need much training.

“After a half mile they got it,” he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.