HUMAN

Name: Kevin Fulton

Age: 71

Residence: Kasilof, Alaska

Occupation: Retired Commercial Fisherman & Auto Body

First Year Ran Iditarod:   1985

How Many Years Involved With Iditarod: 10

Iditarod Role: Musher, handler

Current Location: Palmer, Alaska

Date of Photo: July 4, 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 the bond that you get with them after training and spending all that time out there. And it’s just a really, really neat deal. I’m getting too old for it now, but it was a lot of fun for a lot of years.

Question 2: What, who, how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?

I got involved running the Iditarod mainly because Dean Osmar coaxed me into it and was very instrumental in my first dog racing years.

Question 3:  Tell me about just one of your most memorable experiences running the Iditarod.

 

My most memorable experience running the Iditarod was probably coming off the Happy River steps at night and everybody crashed. And I picked up all my stuff, put them back in the sled, and I threw in my pistol, and then I dug around and I threw in another pistol and I went, “Man, I only had one of these things.” And so I got to Puntilla Lake, and Rudy Demoski had lost his, so I gave it back to him.

And then probably between Ophir and Iditarod, it was snowing. That year they had to stop the race twice because it was just one storm after another. It was snowing so hard we just stopped for the night and I thought I was all by myself. And it probably snowed two feet on top of us where we were camped. And I got up and I was the only one on this mountain. And then all of a sudden like tulips, all these dog teams started jumping out of the snow. Within 15 minutes there was probably six or eight teams that was real close to me, but none of us knew the other guys were there, because we were just completely buried in snow.

Question 4: What in life do you know for sure?

 

What I know for sure is it takes a big dog to weigh a ton.