As the first reported person to reach the North Pole by an un-supplied dog sled trip - Will Steger has been in the front lines helping to promote the preservation of the world's Arctic regions.

His latest journey, which brought him & companions around Ellesmere Island, went to plan - and luckily, without any serious troubles or problems.

The past few weeks have brought turbulent ordeals for the Kuskokwim Sled Dog Race. Former Race Manager Stacy Gillilan allegedly embezzled funds from the races heavily relied upon pull-tab fund raising events.

Pull-tabs are "luck of chance" tickets allowing government agencies or non-profit organizations raise money through the selling of the pull-tab tickets. The tickets are sold - and prizes are awarded to lucky winners.

It's reported that the city of Bethel, Alaska wasn't paid its $20,000 in gaming taxes, and $2,000 was missing from the race's pull-tab collections.

Rick Holt's 88 year old Grandmother, Vera Holt, was given the oppurtunity to travel up to Anchorage, Alaska to become her Grandson's Idita-Rider during the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

After visiting the start of the Iditarod eleven years earlier - Vera thought she would never be able to return to the state again.

Rick actively prepared for his Rookie Iditarod run by successfully completing his qualifying races - with good placements & coveted awards.

According to the Iditarod website - Rick's biography is as follows:

Oregon musher, Liz Parrish, has spent the past 10 years training, dreaming, and saving - all for the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The self-employed innkeeper of the pet friendly Crystal Wood Lodge in Klamath Falls, Oregon - Parrish accomplished her dream by finishing the 2008 Iditarod while simultaneously celebrating her 50th birthday.

"Since then I have felt incredibly fortunate to have done it and shared it with the dogs. I can't get my head around the whole thing -- it's too huge," states Parrish.

A former Napa County resident - Jeff King recently visited adoring fans in Glenn Ellen, California - where he lived by for much of his young life.

As a young boy, Jeff King lived in central California's San Rafael - where he lived only blocks away from a local Guide Dogs for the Blind facility. He quickly found an affinity for dogs & the outdoors - and felt the call to the wild by reading Jack London stories.

Now residing on the outskirts of Alaska's Denali National Park - the scenery is a vast difference compared to California's hot interior landscape.