7/14/05. While riding down the river, we were presented with a real treat. A little presentation by Susan Butcher, the only woman to have won the Iditerod Dog Sled Race 3 consecutive years. She is also credidited with being the only person to have climbed Mt McKinley with her dog team. Wired for sound, she was able to speak directly to us while we were on the Stern Wheeler, Discovery III. She let us in on the some of the facts behind racing and raising champion sled dogs. She currently has about 100 on her private compound here in Fairbanks. We were informed of the dogs diets, their training, a little history on how she got into the racing game, and finally, a practice run by the dogs pulling her husband in a gutted ATV (their summer traing sled). Man, those dogs can scoot. They had to slow them down because their competitive nature would have made them overexert themselves in the summer heat. Very interesting, and glad that this was part of the trip.