If you have checked out the Denali Doubles musher listing, you’ve seen that Allen’s co-musher will be his daughter Bridgett. By now you are all familiar with BJ and know that she is not only a very competent and competitive musher, but she is also a complete nut case about the dogs! She and her father are an excellent team and we can look forward to a very exciting race from them.
You’ve also seen a new name listed as Aliy’s co-musher, so we want to introduce you to Tamara Rose, or “T.Rose” as she is known by everyone around here.
T.Rose is a veterinarian who visited the Kennel when she first moved to Fairbanks a few years ago. She was not “into” mushing sled dogs at the time, but inquired about the realities of the sport and the lifestyle.
Aliy and Allen advised her that if she was serious, she should “go slow” and start by getting a few good dogs. As it turned out, SP Kennel had a very large litter of pups the next year — too many to fit the needs of the Team — and they offered to split the litter with her.
That was how T.Rose got her first four dogs, a few of the siblings of Biscuit, Spot and Tatfish that some of you have wondered about. Since then, she has acquired a few more SP Kennel dogs, including Reeses and Dill from the candy and spice litters. Along the way, of course, T.Rose has become good friends with Aliy, Allen and all the dogs!
T.Rose now has a small kennel of approximately 20 high quality dogs, and she began racing in earnest last year. She has raced the Yukon 300, the GinGin 200 and the Copper Basin 300. Although not yet competing to win, her team consistently finishes very strong.
This year, T.Rose will be a rookie musher in the Iditarod. Although she is a very competent musher, she is keenly aware that the Iditarod is an entirely different kind of event. When Aliy asked her to be co-musher for the Denali Doubles, she leapt at the opportunity and said, “I would love to do it because I would love to learn from you before I get out on the Iditarod trail!”
When asked about why she selected T.Rose to be her co-musher, Aliy replied, “T.Rose is an excellent musher and really great with the dogs. We are also good friends who have very compatible styles and personalities. She is very athletic, and it will be great to have our very own veterinarian on the team. Plus, of course, the fact that she only weighs about 100 pounds is a definite advantage!”
We hope you will join us in welcoming T.Rose to the SP Kennel Team!
I met Tamara at the YQ start .. she was very friendly, nice person who accosted her to pump information about the race and dogs. She is also very upbeat. I wish you both the best during the race and will watch avidly. Having two races to watch closely is heaven for the arm chair Sled Dog race fan (YQ & DD).
There's a great interview with Tamara Rose on mushingtv from last October…
http://mushing.tv/?p=323
She also has her own blog: http://trosedogs.blogspot.com/
Perhaps she will update it after the race with her perspective on the new event, and maybe even some good Aliy stories?
Welcome to the team, Tamara!
Hey Mac – what are the plans for updates on the race since checkpoints are at remote locations? Will you have time to post team rosters?
Hey LindaVistaLLC — We're all in "race mode" now… Mushers are packing gear, trucks, etc… Making final adjustments to teams… Everything…
Me too! I will be posting a video about our sled configuration tomorrow morning, and the teams tomorrow afternoon…
I will finalize my "DogLog" race plan and post it Thursday morning… and you can look forward to a little surprise post Thursday afternoon while we are on the road…
Does that cover it?
Good luck to both teams!!