Alaska Dispatch

 

Lance Mackey's lead dog Larry is a mushing legend. The big gray Alaskan husky is the winningest lead dog in long distance racing history; he's led Lance's team to victory in seven 1,000 mile Yukon Quest and Iditarod races, and he has won three coveted Golden Harnesses.

After Lance's history-making double-header in 2007, when he won both the Yukon Quest and the Iditarod back-to-back the first time, author and mushing historian Joe Runyon wrote:

"Lance Mackey, age 36, finished on Front Street, weaving his team through crowds of fans, slapping hands with hundreds of his supporter, in Nome at 8:08 PM, March 13, 2007 and won the 1100 mile 2007 Iditarod. In addition, just ten days before the Iditarod start, he negotiated the old Klondike trail across Lake Lebarge, then portaged to the Yukon River, and won the 1000 mile Yukon Quest from Whitehorse, Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska. And, get this, you won't believe it-it seems impossible- and defies all conventional knowledge-he did it with the same indomitable huskies, including the "brains of the entire operation," a tireless and resolutely dependable gray huskie with a serious, thoughtful demeanor, who sits unquestionably at the head of the Mackey team of man and sled dogs as leader, the dog we know as LARRY."

Larry led Lance's team to Nome again in last year's race, and in the Anchorage Daily News, March 19, 2009, an article titled "Mackey's Iditarod Triple Play," by reporters Craig Medred, Kevin Klott, and Mike Campbell, noted Lance's comments about Larry:

"At the front, Mackey said, he often had a 3-year-old named Maple pacing the way, but the strength of the team remained former golden-harness winner Larry. When the team had trouble getting out of Golovin on the run to White Mountain, Mackey moved Larry to the front and off they went. When Maple got confused by the crowd on Front Street and wandered off the trail, Mackey brought Larry to the front to help guide her in.

"'I love that dog,' he said, adding that Larry is now headed for retirement.

"'Even if he wants to do another, I'm not going to let him,' Mackey said. 'He's run in all eight of my Iditarods. The year I didn't run in '03, he was in (friend Paul) Gebhardt's team.'

Mackey actually thought about leaving Larry home this year. He wasn't sure the 9-year-old dog was up to another 1,000-mile run, but at the end there was Larry, pulling as hard as ever coming into town and wagging his tail at the finish."

A Texas fan of Lance and Larry, Sarida Steed-Bradley, took her appreciation of Larry the Lead Dog a step further and, as she wrote on the Facebook page for The Larry Appreciation Society:

"The Larry Appreciation Society has no board of directors or officers or parliamentarian, and the only items you get for joining are patches. We are a loose confederation of Larry Lovers spread around the US, Canada and as far away as Great Britain and now New Zealand. The Larry Appreciation Society started as a lark among members of a Yahoo group. During the 2008 race season we were all commenting on what a great dog Larry is and how many of us admire him. Then someone said, 'There ought to be a Larry Fan Club!' To which someone else said, 'Yeah, with posters and mouse pads and t-shirts and coffee mugs!' Well, I couldn't resist the idea, so I sat down and designed a patch, just for fun... and within a day I had about 30 orders for patches."

Sarida explained what happened next at the Iditarod Race Talk Forums: "I really couldn't go into production without the Mackey's blessing and Lance was just about to start the All Alaska Sweepstakes. But folks from the Yahoo group were in Nome with the Mackeys and showed the sketch to them. They liked it but asked if the sales could benefit the kennel. Well I went into orbit. What started out as a bit of whimsey became a viable project."

Hundreds of Sarida's patches have been sold, and they can be seen this race season on parkas, sled bags, hats, scarves, computer cases and various other items at races everywhere. Larry's fan club continues to grow - and Larry continues to lead. This year the intrepid husky is coming out of his short retirement and will be charged with leading Lance's protege, Jamaican musher Newton Marshall of the Jamaica Dogsled Team, to Nome. What a dog!

Helen Hegener is an author and a documentary filmmaker specializing in long distance sled dog races and the men, women and dogs who run them. Learn more at Northern Light Media.