HUMAN

Name: Josi Shelley

Age: 32
Residence: Two Rivers, Alaska
Occupation: Dog Musher

First Year Ran Iditarod: 2024

Iditarod Role: Musher, handler, 

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 being out there with the dogs, watching the dogs grow and mature. We raise our own dogs. We have 35 dogs in our kennel, and that’s just the best part, being out there, watching them grow.

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

 

I got involved running the Iditarod because as a nine-year-old, my uncle got me Libby Riddle’s book, and I read her book and told my mom I wanted to run the Iditarod. And then about 20 years later, I finally made it to my first Iditarod.

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

 

My most memorable experience running the Iditarod is finishing the Iditarod in ’24. My future husband was waiting at the finish line. He surprised me there and asked me on a date as we walked back from the dog yard. We’ve been mushing together ever since.

What in life do you know for sure?:

 

What I know for sure in life is that God gives everyone aspirations, a passion for something, and you should follow that passion and there will always be a way.