HUMAN
Name: Joe Taylor
Age: 33
Residence: Outside of Esther, Alaska
Occupation: Graduate Student and run sled dog tours in winter
First Year Ran Iditarod: 2022
How Many Years Involved With Iditarod: 2
Iditarod Role: Musher, volunteer w/ Joee Redington during 2017 race.
Current Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Date of Photo: June 21, 2026
Temperature: 70F outdoors
Question 1: What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?
So what I love about running sled dogs, for me really the most exciting part is working with individual dogs and the arc of development with dogs. So, I’ve got a pretty small kennel, and so I’ve hinged a lot on developing individual dogs, and trying to get the best out of them. And so, watching that growth from puppies to adults year after year, and making leaders and just seeing dogs grow and take on new challenges, and get comfortable with things that they used to not be comfortable with, is really rewarding. And so, getting that to all come together, and do spring trips up in the Brooks Range without a trail and seeing all that work come into fruition on a beautiful Arctic spring trip, that kind of arc for me is what I love most about running dogs.
Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?
So I got involved running the Iditarod essentially because I got bullied into it by a friend, Jacob Witkop. I never really had the specific intention of doing the qualifiers to run Iditarod. I had a team of dogs that I really liked running and I liked training dogs, and so it was logical for me to do some of these qualifier races, but for me, those were the goal of just doing those races.
And eventually I was qualified for the Iditarod, and my buddy Jake said he was going to run it this year, in 2022, and that I better do it, and I’m qualified, and why wouldn’t I do it? “You’re qualified, just do it.: So I signed up assuming he would also sign up, and he ended up chickening out, and I stayed in the race and had a blast.
Question 3: Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences running the Iditarod.
My most memorable experience running the Iditarod is actually the last few miles of the race. I had been running with Martin Buser through the last few checkpoints and he left about a half hour ahead of me at White Mountain and just after safety I ended up catching up to him, and we were close enough to Nome where I was wondering if I should hold the team back, and let him finish, and then I’ll finish, or if I should pass him.
And we ended up catching up to him, and as I started to pass him on the trail outside of Nome, he starts yelling at me and I was like, “Oh no, I made the worst decision. Martin’s pissed at me.” But he was yelling at me, “Coffee! Coffee! Do you want a cup of coffee?”
And so I stopped and Martin and I, a few miles outside of Nome had a great cup of coffee, and he mixes a little Swiss Miss hot cocoa in his cup of coffee so it was delicious, and we had a nice wind down there on the trail before coming into Nome, which was a little bit more chaotic. So it was a really good bookend to a great experience on the trail.
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Question 4: What in life do you know for sure?:
What I know for sure in life is not much, but that if you invest in something that is enjoyable, and you can work hard at, and brings you a lot of worth that might not be necessarily a financial decision… Getting dogs isn’t a financial decision, but it’s brought me so much joy and it’s been such a rewarding experience to invest in this, and put my heart into something that, at the end of the day, has been an economic drain on me, but has been spiritually fulfilling, and I wouldn’t change this lifestyle for anything in the world, and it’s given me so many great opportunities. So, find out what your “running dogs” is, and make some room for that in your life.