Utah woman is dogged competitor

Sue Morgan is following her Iditarod dream north to Alaska.

On Friday in Anchorage, Morgan will become the first woman from Utah to compete in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, now in its 34th year. She'll join more than 100 teams traveling more than 1,100 miles to Nome.

Before she left town with her partner, John Martin, Morgan attended to last-minute details: having her sled repaired, packing a trailer with gear for her 16-dog team and grading papers.

Morgan, 56, who lives in Richmond and is on a six-month leave of absence from her job as a geology lecturer at Utah State University, has plenty of expenses these days.

"Another tank of gas," Martin quipped.

Morgan heard that the financial burden will tally $30,000. "I believe it . . . every penny," she said.

Running the Iditarod was not on her mind when in the late 1990s she first hooked up her malamute to a cart in the hope of training him to pull her on skis ("skijoring"). At the time Morgan was looking for a "grand adventure." A failed climbing trip in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains changed her focus to something more down to earth.

She was hooked on mushing after completing her first 50-mile race in Montana.

"Running dogs is incredibly romantic," she said. "When you're out there it's just you and the dogs and everything is working and it's magic. It's so addicting, but it's so demanding."

Author Gary Paulsen in his 1994 book "Winterdance" described his passion for mushing and Iditarod quest as a "fine madness."

Amy Eskelsen, a recreational musher and Morgan's friend, agrees. "Running dogs is the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's the greatest thing I've ever done."

Morgan begins and ends her days in the dark. It takes several hours to feed, water, run and clean up after the 24 dogs she brought to Seeley Lake, Mont. (northeast of Missoula), in January. She's been living at the home of Iditarod veteran Cindy Gallea.

Morgan's garage workspace is crammed with a small table, sink, 5-gallon buckets of thawing elk meat and congealed fat, a jumble of dog booties and a pallet of dry dog kibble. Morgan, her face etched with recent scratches, picks up two 5-gallon buckets and heads outside into the blue shadows. The temperature is up slightly from a nighttime low of minus 15.