Wasilla teen finds success in sport of dog mushing

WASILLA — In many ways, Kevin Harper is like a lot of kids who roam the hallways daily at Wasilla High School. The 17-year-old senior has competed in sports. He’s a good student, and enjoys hunting, fishing and snowmaching.

Pretty typical right for his age, right?

But there’s something that stands out about Harper. Something that separates the Wasilla teenager from his peers.

Harper is a dog musher.

Harper is a champion.

Late into a Saturday night during the final weekend of February, while most kids Harper’s age were playing video games, binge-watching Netflix or sleeping in their own beds, Harper was at Yentna Station Roadhouse, one of 10 teens, tending to their dog teams. Harper was at the halfway point of the 2016 Junior Iditarod, waiting for his mandatory 10-hour layover to expire so he could embark on the 75 miles back to Willow.

At 2:49 a.m., Feb. 28, Harper followed his team of 10 dogs down the trail toward Eagle Song. Harper held a nine-minute lead over another Wasilla teen, Andrew Nolan.

For many 17-year-olds simply driving a car is difficult task in some conditions. But Harper and his fellow teen mushers, deep in the darkness of night, were driving their teams through deep forest and over frozen rivers, with a maturity beyond their years.

For Harper, it’s an experience like no other.

“You get to do stuff nobody else does,” Harper said recently. “It’s always fun being out there with your dogs.”

Harper, who scored his second straight Junior Iditarod crown in the race, isn’t a second-generation musher. But he is the second person in his family to become hooked on the sport. Harper has followed in the footsteps of his older brother, Ben, who completed the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race as a rookie in 2015, scoring a 36th-place finish.

Kevin Harper and his family moved from Washington to Alaska when he was 12. Harper said his brother had worked with sheep dogs in Washington. He said Ben expressed interest in dog mushing, and when their father met a handler who worked with Iditarod musher Ray Redington Jr., Ben Harper was invited to the Redington kennel.

Kevin Harper said as Ben became more involved with mushing and started working with the Redington family, he began to tag along. It wasn’t long before both Harpers were hooked on the sport.

Now Kevin Harper is at the Redington kennel just about every day.

“They’ve been a great help. They’re there for you for everything,” Harper said.

With the help of Redington, Harper said he was able to put together his own team of dogs. Right now, he’s working with about 14, he said. He chose 10 to run in the Junior Iditarod.

Harper, who hopes to study aerospace engineering at UAF after he graduates from Wasilla High School in the spring, said mushing has pushed his work ethic to an entirely new level.

“It’s been quite an eye-opener. Most people have always told me I’m a really hard worker. But coming to Ray’s house and working with Ray has been great,” Harper said.

Harper said mushing has taught him how to be truly dedicated. It’s also showing him how to balance tasks, he said, such as juggling school and mushing.

Harper said he hopes to compete in the Iditarod some day.

“Not necessarily next year,” he said.

He’d like to save up some money, and plans on going to college.

But mushing has already become a big part of Harper’s life.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.