HUMAN

Name: Matthew Lee

Age: 49

Residence: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Occupation: I’m the owner operator of Track Leaders LLC

Years involved with Iditarod: This is my seventh year
Iditarod Role: I am the spot tracker guy

Current Location: Cripple, Alaska

Date of Photo: March 12, 2020
Temperature: 0F/Outdoors

What, who or how and when did you first get involved with the Iditarod?

I got involved with the Iditarod after we tracked our first mid-distance race, the Race to the Sky in Montana, and I was inspired by the experience of working with the teams, and following the action. And I knew then and there that I wanted to track the big dance.

What is your Why?..Why are you here today and involved in Iditarod?

I’m here today in Cripple because I look after the trackers at the halfway point and change the batteries on one of the two devices. However, I have fallen in love with the annual pattern of being here out on the trail surrounded by the volunteers who love what they’re doing, and are here because they believe the Iditarod, because one becomes addicted to the lifestyle, and the break that you receive from the rat race by coming out here. You’re literally sheltered out here.

Tell me about just one of your most memorable Iditarod experiences?

I would say that one of my most memorable Iditarod experiences was the first time I joined the Iditarod air force for a flight between checkpoints. It took a race that before that point I had only been thinking about at seven, eight, nine miles an hour from the mushers perspective and sent me into this warp speed mode where suddenly I was seeing the trail in sections of hundreds of miles at a time. And it gave me a whole new viewpoint from 2000 feet above the land. And if I had to recall my favorite flight of all, it was a year that we went from Fairbanks to Huslia, and Wes flew me from Huslia down into Unalakleet, over the Whaleback Mountains at sunset. Sun’s reflecting off of the ice, it’s as bright as it can be, and there was mist in the air, and it felt like we were descending into heaven, only it was Unalakleet.

What do you know for sure?:

What I know for sure in life is how short it is, how fleeting, and although in any one given year out here on the trail, we’re just a blip in time, it’s crucial that we live the width of that blip and take it for everything that it’s worth. Because years from now, the race may not exist, but the land will be here, and hopefully there will be some sort of memory of our time and devotion to the sport.