Many have dreamed of quitting their job, packing up the family, and moving to the Last Frontier. Dan Seavey, a high school teacher from Minnesota did just that. With wife Shirley and three small children, he drove the Alaska Highway in 1963 and homesteaded north of Seward, Alaska just in time to survive the Great Alaska Earthquake.

Perusing his childhood dream of mushing, Dan acquired his first sled dog puppy a month after arrival. Dog mushing was fading, but a few visionaries stood in the gap and fought to preserve the sled dog. Dan was among them and the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race was born. Later he would advocate tirelessly for the establishment and maintenance of the historic routes traversed by the ancestors of his beloved sled dogs. Now after 50 years of mushing, five Iditarod races, watched both his son and grandson win the Iditarod, and induction into the Iditarod Hall of Fame, Dan tells his incredible story.

With a captivating style, Seavey compiles his trove of notes, photos, and recordings taken during the first great race to give readers a first-hand, on-the-runners experience of a grueling 1,000 mile, twenty-day odyssey through some of the most unforgiving wilderness on earth.