HUMAN
Name: Angie Taggart
Age: 51
Residence: Ketchikan, Alaska
Occupation: Third Grade Teacher
Years involved with Iditarod: 25 years
Iditarod Role: Musher, handler, volunteer
Current Location: Wild Birch Hotel, Iditarod HQ Anchorage
Date of Photo: March 5, 2026
Temperature: 68F, indoors
Question 1: What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?
What I love about running sled dogs is just being free, being out in the middle of nowhere with my best friends. They’re just amazing animals, athletes. They’re my best friends. They’re always there for you when you’re feeling sad or happy. It’s just always a wonderful thing to be around them. Being outdoors with those guys is freeing. It’s just a way to get away from all the problems in the world and just be out amongst the wilderness, loving it.
Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?
I got involved running the Iditarod because when I was growing up in Ketchikan, Alaska, we would watch it on the news and watch everybody finish each year. And I love dogs, I love the outdoors. And so I began my teaching career out in a village and the teachers there would rent a plane to go see the end of the Iditarod in Nome. And I just thought, “Hey, I’m a young person. I should go ahead and try this. I should be a dog handler.” So when I was there one year, I went up to DeeDee Jonrowe and Martin Buser and said, “Hey, would it be okay if I could be a dog handler for you?” And DeeDee said, “Do you have a strong back?” I said, “I think so. I’m 24 years old. Yeah, I think I’m pretty strong.” And she said, “Well, give me a call in two weeks.” And that kind of cemented it.
I came and lived with her for a year and trained dogs for her. I was the puppy trainer. And so after that, I trained 24 puppies and just fell in love with everything, being in the outdoors and just the freedom of it all. And so after that, I got the bug, I guess you could say. And so I worked really hard and told everybody when I returned to Ketchikan that I’m going to run the Iditarod one day. And I’m sure most of them just kind of were like, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” And I had a couple of people that really believed in me, Sarah Justine Black, and she encouraged me when doors were shut and continued to say, “You can do this.” And so eventually, exactly 10 years later, I was running my first Iditarod after I’d worked for DeeDee. So it’s pretty amazing with the support of all the people in Ketchikan and all my friends and family and just getting to that starting line was amazing.
Question 3: Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences running the Iditarod.
My most memorable experience running the Iditarod is coming out of Finger Lake. It was during the night, climbing up over the pass there. And as I got to the top, it was about three in the morning. I was all alone. I was coming down one of the first steps and there wasn’t any ground to it. So, so many people had gone before that the whole trail was gone.
So we were sailing down the steps with my dogs and all of a sudden I see this bright light, and I’m like, oh no, that’s not a good sign. Any time you see a bright light, you know there’s somebody videoing something and when they’re videoing, it’s not going to be a good thing. So we go along and I see this man off to the side and wave at him real quick. And as I whip my head back around, I noticed my dogs making a 90 degree left-hand turn. And all I did was I held on as tight as I could and we went and I whipped right behind him, hit an ice wall, and flipped off my sled and my dogs ran down.
Luckily my snow hook caught and they stopped right in front of the cameraman. And I popped up and thought I’d hurt myself, but I popped up and ran down and the guy’s like, “Do you want to see an instant replay?” And I’m like, “Sure.” And he showed me the instant replay of me crashing. And I said, “Hey, make sure you put that on the Iditarod website so my mom and dad can see how well I’m doing in the race.”
What in life do you know for sure?:
What I know for sure in life is you have to live it. You can’t sit around and wait for things to come to you. You got to get out there and do it.