Working the "last great race"

Enthusiasts flock to witness the glory of the Iditarod each year, a thousand mile race in which man and dog work together to cover hostile territory through whiteout conditions and sub-zero temperatures. Its path honors the serum run in 1925 that saw a relay of sled teams rush to Nome carrying the cure to a community plagued by diphtheria.

For local Doug Ramsey, who decided when he retired that it was time to tick an important item off his bucket list, standing witness to the tradition didn't feel like quite enough.

"I'd always wanted to see the Iditarod," he says. "The more I looked into it,...