HUMAN
Name: Lauro Rizal Eklund
Age: 29
Residence: Two Rivers, Alaska
Occupation: Guide & Musher
First Year Ran Iditarod: 2024
Years involved with Iditarod: 3 years
Iditarod Role: Musher
Current Location: Iditarod Headquarters Vet Check, Wasilla, Alaska
Date of Photo: March 4, 2026
Temperature: -1F
What is it about running sled dogs that you love so much?
What I love about running sled dogs is raising a team from birth and even buying younger dogs and training them up to your standards and stuff. Every year, you’re constantly learning. As I like to put it until somebody like Martin Buser has done the Iditarod almost 39 times, you don’t know everything. And it’s like every year you’re finding new ways to do it. And even though it’s the same circles, same trails, each season is different. Each year is different. Some years are easier, some are tougher, some more adventurous. But at the end of the day, it’s awesome to have these dogs and it gives you something to get up in the morning to get moving.
Question 2: What, who or how and when & why did you first get involved running the Iditarod?
I got involved in running the Iditarod because I grew up hearing my dad’s stories of mushing. He had dogs for trap line use and he traveled all around the western part of our state as well as he ran the Iditarod in ’81 and ’83. Those are the only two races he ever done in his life, but he’s had dogs for years. He told me all the stories of traveling. Before he ran Iditarod, he also went from Ruby to Nome. Got a 500-mile head start and joined the party up there in Nome.
So hearing those stories and being around it, I grew up going to the starts, Fur Rondy, Open North American, Yukon Quest. I grew up around the villages too. We sold a lot of firewood out in Yukon River and spent quite a bit of time on the rivers and stuff. So back then, guys, we saw a lot of people with fish camps that had dogs. And I got my first sled dog from Lester Earhart, Amy. She was my very first dog. I was 17 years old. That fall, she cost me about $600 and two cords of firewood. I don’t think Lester really needed the firewood, but he was just helping out a young guy get into dogs.
And then that September, she had her first litter of puppies and that was my first starting off point. And ever since then, I’ve been in dogs and I learned, really got into long distance mushing and learning it from Lance Mackey. Right after I graduated high school, I took my 10 dogs ahead at the time, went over to Lance. He gave me a few really good leaders. And I was like the third, fourth handler there on the property. So I just scooped a lot of dog poop and helped massage dogs and learned from him quite a bit. And then from there, I moved to Two Rivers and had a lot of good mentors that have got me to this point of running the race.
Tell me about just one of your most memorable experiences running the Iditarod:
My most memorable experience running the Iditarod is I got actually two. Quickly going through Ruby, my dad’s lived there in Ruby for years. A lot of people know myself and my family since I was a little boy and it was cool. They go through there with the dog team. My first three dogs, we trapped 10 miles up from Ruby when I was 18. And my first three dogs and my puppies were, I mushed down that 15 miles back to Ruby to fly out in December back home to Anchorage. And I went from three dogs back then and to now going in with 15. And then my dad checked me in at Ruby actually.
He surprised me at flying in. That was during my rookie run. And when I got to Nome, I actually placed, I got 26 that year and that was my dad’s also. He got 26 his rookie run in ’81.
My second was during the long race during 25 on the Yukon. We got off into Kaltag. Me and Jason Mackey camped together at Old Woman. And it was a beautiful night getting into Kaltag. We’ve been on the river for 800 miles, so it was nice to finally get into some trees and terrain.
We got to Old Woman and we had a double Northern lights over the mountain right there, right across from the cabin. Two Northern lights. And me and Jason, it was a tough, tough race. It was long when we were all sore and stiff. But me and Jason Mackey both looked at each other and Jason said, “Man, we’re two out of 30 people that’s experiencing this night right now, which is really cool.” And it was just a beautiful night. Hard to explain. You had to be there, but that was awesome.
What in life do you know for sure?:
Well, What I know it for sure in life is, you’re going to have your up and downs, you’re going to have your good years, and you’re going to have your bad years. You got to stick with it. Especially mushing taught me a lot about that because especially there was a lot of lean years, especially as a young kid, not knowing, not really having too much mentorship in the sense of how to run the kennel.
I mean, my dad gave me his pointers, but that’s come from subsistence trapping background. I had Lance, but nobody, like how to promote or get sponsorships and stuff. And if you want something, you just got to stick with it. If there’s a will, there’s a way. You might be going on fumes here and there, but it can be tough, but it’s always, it gets brighter and the cold temps get warmer before too long.