Party atmosphere marks Iditarod's ceremonial start

Hoards of dogs, mushers and their eager fans mingled Saturday at the jovial celebratory kickoff of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage. Sixty-nine mushers and their teams of 16 dogs each inundated Alaska's largest city for the annual ceremonial start of the race in a fan-friendly atmosphere. The real race starts Sunday, 50 miles north of Anchorage. Early Saturday morning, musher trucks lined city streets, and fans like Nancy Alstrand of San Diego spent hours meandering from musher to musher, stopping to chat or pet dogs. After Sunday's start in Willow, mushers will travel nearly a thousand miles, crossing two mountain ranges, the Yukon River and up the Bering Sea coast en route to the finish line on Front Street in Nome, on Alaska's western coast...more