Follow the Damon Ramaker and his dog sled team, The Deep Root, on Instagram, Facebook and www.thedeeproot.net. - Anchorage, Alaska 
Wykoff man finishes the Iditarod
When Damon Ramaker was a child, his family took a trip to Alaska. While they were there they took a tour of the Iditarod. His parents brought home a map of the route and it has hung in their house since then. What he didn’t know then was that that map would take on a whole new significance when he was an adult.
“It didn’t have a lot of meaning except something cool to look at. Now it has a whole different meaning.” said Ramaker as he prepared for the 2020 Iditarod.
He started dog-sledding five years ago. Recreational mushing turned into dogsled races which eventually led him to the Iditarod. Dogsled races can go anywhere from a 30-mile race which is usually run by sprint teams, to mid distance races around 100-150 miles. There are also 300-mile races and then the 1000-mile Iditarod. three hundred mile races usually take around 2 ½ to 3 days with 3-5 hour breaks. The Iditarod has longer rest periods. A musher typically runs anywhere from 6-8 hours and rests anywhere from 4-8 hours. In order to qualify for the Iditarod a musher must complete two 300-mile races and one 150-mile race.
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