Original subtitles

♪ ♪

JESSIE: We're in Willow right now,

on the starting line of Iditarod.

(dog yelps)

I drove up from Anchorage at 5:00 in the morning,

and I've been up since 4:00 in the morning,

taking care of the dogs.

So, getting in a good routine and not getting much sleep,

which is gonna be pretty important.

The Iditarod is a thousand-mile race.

It starts down on the southern coast, climbs the Alaska Range,

over through the Farewell Burn, to the Yukon River,

out to the Bering Sea coast, where there's nothing but wind.

This is a race where you have to be self-sufficient,

and excellent at dog care.

Many people fail making it to the finish line.

It's just a huge event.

It's like the Olympics of dog mushing.

I spent the last 10 years to get here.

Spent a ton of money.

I spent a ton of time training for this, you know.

I mean, it's just hugely overpowering,

emotional feeling to be here.

This is like the most meaningful moment of my life,

to be here on the starting line of Iditarod.

You're hearing all these dog teams going crazy everywhere,

but there's just a bunch of crazy commotion

going on around you.

Right now, I just got to finish up bootying up the dogs.

Zeus is gonna be the dude

that's gonna take care of business today.

Pretty much the front 12 dogs are all gonna be leaders.

That way, you don't keep too much pressure on one dog.

If you burn them out early,

you're gonna have to pay for that.

Key thing about the Iditarod

is the race ain't won in the first three days.

It's won on the last three.

I've never done the Iditarod.

You don't know what's gonna happen out there.

You have all these great ambitions

and desires and dreams,

but they can all be shattered in just a moment.

I've been following this race for 12 years.

And you watch a lot of people broke down

on the side of the trail.

The worst-case scenario is not finishing it.

Definitely was laying awake last night,

thinking about those thoughts.

I think I have the typical nervousness of a rookie,

I'm thinking about everything,

and I want to be able to do my dog team justice,

which is an amazing dog team.

My key thing is don't be scared.

Fear will make you mess up.

I'm just focused.

Even if I have to come in th p.

This is it.

Ice in my veins.

ANNOUNCER: Next in the chute, please welcome bib number 41,

a rookie from Nenana, Alaska, Jessie Holmes.

JESSIE: Everything I have is put into this.

ANNOUNCER: Jessie, you have 30 seconds.

JESSIE: There's no like 99% in, I'm 100% in on this.

ANNOUNCER: Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one, go!

JESSIE: Alright, hike!

ANNOUNCER: There goes Jessie Holmes!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

ANNOUNCER: There goes Jessie Holmes!

Iditarod rookie headed for Nome.

JESSIE: Yeah! MAN: Good luck.

JESSIE: Leaving the starting line,

it was just such an emotional experience.

I just had tears in my eyes.

I couldn't stop crying 'cause it meant so much to me

to finally do this with my dogs.

Tears, man.

This is amazing.

NARRATOR: Jessie Holmes and his dog team

have spent the last several months training and preparing

for the Iditarod race.

The Iditarod began in 1973 to honor historical trails

and preserve the culture of sled dog racing in Alaska.

The trail will be unpredictable,

and managing himself and his dogs

is key to Jesse's ability to reach the finish line in Nome

and achieve his lifelong dream.

JESSIE: One more mile closer!

And I'm starting in 41th position.

41 isn't the perfect draw for me,

so I'm gonna probably gonna use my speed

a little bit to my advantage,

to try to get in the top 20 by Rainy Pass.

It's 150 miles into the race,

and that'll probably be the first place

I take a pretty significant rest.

And the goal is to make it to Nome as fast as possible.

RICKO: Living out here in the woods,

you don't really go by Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

You do what you gotta do when you gotta do what you gotta do.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Looks like some rabbit and ptarmigan.

Yeah, there's small game moving around out here.

It's not very thick willows, so they probably come out at night.

But where they're hiding in the day

is that thick stuff over here.

I'm gonna get on my snowshoes and start walking today.

Small game's always good.

It might not seem like much,

but it's a long ways from geese coming in,

and salmon running, moose, all that.

So, for now, that's my opportunity

to get some fresh meat on the table.

Today, I got snowshoes.

That's all I need for getting in that brush over here,

right near camp.

I don't want to be making a bunch of noise

like this snow machine does.

So, the goal is to get in there, get some snares put in,

maybe see something, maybe get a shot at something.

So, everything I need is right here and out there.

Hopefully, bring something home.

For me to get out here in my backyard

and just go hunt very low-cost food

that I know where it came from,

it don't get better than that.

A little bunch of ptarmigan went through, heading that way.

They're still soft.

They're probably, they're probably still hanging out

across the river here.

I'm just gonna walk over here and check it out.

If I don't run into anything, I'll start putting my snares in.

Porcupine.

I don't know which way he's going.

He's right around here, though.

Right here is his tracks.

There he is!

There you are, little boss.

They're good eating in fall time,

but they're real skinny right now,

so we don't get them this time of the year.

But following an animal like this,

sometimes it leads you to more opportunity,

because this animal is a smart, smart old animal.

He probably knows where all the brush is at,

where all the good birch, all the good alder and willow,

and that's exactly what all the other small game is looking for.

Following him brings me to another opportunity.

I'll leave him alone and go walk around a little bit,

and see if I spot anything around here.

There's a lot of tracks down here.

I haven't seen nothing that I could shoot at today,

but I do see a lot of ptarmigan tracks going through here.

So, a lot of willows here I could work with.

I'm just gonna build a big fence through here,

and just drop in a bunch of snares.

Should have a good chance here.

I just got to cut a bunch of willows down

and basically make a, make a fence

where they can't just walk right through.

So, I'll have them walk along,

and then there'll be a place where they can go through,

and hopefully have one of them walk in through that door,

where there will be a snare.

Takes a little work to get this thing up,

but once you have it up,

it can, you can keep using it all winter.

The longer the fence, the more the opportunity.

Now that I got my fence laid in,

I'm gonna drop some of these snares in the doors I made,

want to get this in here.

Oh.

So, when something that's coming along,

like a ptarmigan comes along and starts eating off this,

he'll hopefully go through those doorways

to get to the other side,

and that's where the opportunity to catch him is.

♪ ♪

I got the fence made.

I got the snares put in.

I'm just gonna let them soak overnight, come back tomorrow,

hopefully have some luck with some ptarmigan,

or maybe even a rabbit.

SUE: Without the value of making a mistake,

you can't learn from it.

Do it wrong, do it twice.

♪ ♪

Well, I got a lot of snow last night.

These buildings here, look at the snowfall.

Problem for me with that,

I'm getting ready to shut everything down

here at the cabin and get back to Kavik.

So, I'm quite worried and concerned about this,

my little shed area here.

You probably have almost eight tons of snow on this building.

The wood is bowing.

I'm about to get the most snow of the season,

typically, in the next three months.

If I'm already starting out like this,

I'm gonna lose my buildings before I ever get back to them.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Whoa!

Yikes.

Try and direct it.

♪ ♪

I can see a lot of glove changes in my future here.

Okay.

About to try and figure out getting up on this beast.

This is where my butt's about to get real cold.

♪ ♪

Okay.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I should be able to slam this down

and get it to go off the edge.

My butt is wet and freezing to the roof.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

That kind of worked!

Fixing generators and dealing with wolverines,

I got that down.

Shoveling snow off a roof, I might be a rookie yet.

But this is one of the most important chores

I've probably done in eons,

because if I, if I don't do it, I'm losing my investment.

I'm losing my cubby.

I'm losing my future.

I got this one done.

Gonna keep on going.

The wheel's turning.

Gotta get my job done.

CHIP: We have no roads up here.

Roads are what we make.

We have no fences, no speed limits,

no stop signs, no AAA road assistance.

Basically, we've got to rely on ourselves,

and there's nothing wrong with that.

You ladies want to hand me out my 12-gauge and a bag of shells?

I'm gonna go rabbit hunting.

You want to follow?

CAROL: I'll follow.

CHIP: You'll follow?

CAROL: Ting says she will.

CHIP: Well, then we'll need to take both snow machines, then.

There's a lot of rabbits out, I'm telling you.

There's an absolute ton of them.

Their tracks are everywhere.

And before the flies come,

we can get up a bunch of bunny rabbits and dry them up.

Munch some down ourselves, save some for the dogs.

You want to follow, Agnes?

AGNES: Yeah, I'll follow!

CHIP: How about we just split the river then, huh?

CAROL: Me and Ting, and you and mom?

CHIP: Yeah. Oh, this'll be fun.

I like to eat rabbit. It's a change-up.

I've got plenty of caribou,

but I've been eating caribou for quite a while.

It's nice to get a change-up every now and then.

AGNES: Wow, a family rabbit hunt.

CHIP: I haven't done this in a while, huh?

AGNES: Yeah.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

CHIP: Rabbits are on a cycle,

and there's years when there's almost no rabbits,

and years when there's lots of rabbits,

and this happens to be one of those years

when there's lots of rabbits.

And for Carol, it also happens to be

a year that she's out there with a gun.

It's probably been five or six years

since we've had an up-cycle of rabbits.

AGNES: Nice day for a rabbit hunt, yeah?

TINMIAQ: There should be lots of rabbits out.

CHIP: Well, you stay on your side of the river

and only shoot that way,

and we'll stay on our side of the river,

and we'll only shoot this way.

TINMIAQ: I see lots of tracks already.

CHIP: Yup.

AGNES: I seen a lot of tracks, too.

Yup, there's definitely rabbits.

TINMIAQ: Yes, there's definitely rabbits out.

AGNES: Rabbits for dinner!

(dogs barking)

JESSIE: This is like a chess game;

one wrong move and the game's over.

♪ ♪

Straight.

Straight.

Incoming. (dogs yelping)

Incoming.

Whoa, whoa, easy.

Stay.

JESSIE: Four, fifteen. MAN: Okay.

JESSIE: How many people leave here already?

JESSIE: Okay, cool.

JESSIE: No, I need to get one. MAN: I didn't think so.

JESSIE: Yup, thanks.

I appreciate you reminding me.

MAN: Yup.

JESSIE: One of our mandatory pieces of equipment

is our vet book,

and that's how the vets keep track of what's going on

with each dog at each checkpoint.

You know, the only dog I got any concern about is him,

he's really thin, you know, but.

VET: Yeah, how's the appetite?

JESSIE: Oh, he's eating good now.

VET: Yeah.

JESSIE: He was fired up coming in here.

VET: Okay.

JESSIE: Everybody's eating good. VET: Okay.

JESSIE: This is really a dog management event, you know?

It's, and I love how it's set up,

and how the vets are just there on the dogs.

Everything's just gonna be for the best of the dogs.

VET: Alright. Good luck.

JESSIE: Thank you very much.

Good boys.

I just want to get moving down towards the trail.

Trying to get out of the checkpoint,

because I gotta keep moving.

Haw!

Slow, slow.

Gee.

Oh.

Crap.

JESSIE: Slow, slow.

Gee.

Oh!

Crap.

Gee, gee, gee, gee, gee!

Gee, damn it!

Sorry.

JESSIE: I'm leaving.

Coming out of McGrath was a little bit of a mess.

Coming around the corner full speed,

and the dogs ended up running

right into a bunch of other teams,

and it was a pretty tight spot and position.

Can we get a few hands?

MAN: Yeah.

JESSIE: Here, let's just kind of come back.

We're gonna have to get back over.

It's a very difficult race for a rookie.

There's a lot of nerves that go in this.

Oh, man.

JESSIE: Easy.

MAN: Hey, can I get somebody in between my dogs

and this dog team coming through?

JESSIE: Yeah, let's get as many hands on this as we can.

So, we all worked together

and snuck me through all these dog teams.

Easy.

You know, that could've been real bad,

end up with a dog fight,

could've ran over somebody's dog, you know?

I make friends, not enemies.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

I lost some time there.

Being a rookie that wants to come back here continually

every year and get better,

I've got to do things right.

Oh, easy.

Stay.

Unfortunately, a lot of booties come off on this run,

because there's a lot of deep snow pulling them off.

(barking) Hey, Roomba, it's okay.

I was in the top five for a while, and I backed off,

and the race has kind of left me behind.

So, this is my last attempt to get position

before the 24-hour rest that I'm gonna get.

If I pull this off, it'll make me a real good chance

of getting in the top 20 and making a paycheck.

And the competition's fierce.

Alright, straight!

Got to do whatever I can to try to position myself

for this 24-hour rest.

Got to do whatever I can to trStraight ahead.yself

SUE: I don't want to be taken care of by society.

I want to be a shepherd, not a sheep.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

What I want to do now...

is this building.

It's not like here on this building,

where I've got a ridge pole.

This is a whole flat area.

I want to make a rope harness

that's just gonna go around my waist and legs,

and I can attach a little carabiner to it,

and then I'm gonna tie a rope around here,

and the knot on the end, clip it together.

And if I--whoa!-- slide and fall backwards,

I'm not gonna slide off the building.

Poomf! It's gonna stop me.

So, it's a safety measure.

See how I do on this one.

♪ ♪

Okay, this is where it's gonna be

a little unavoidable getting wet.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

If I can get enough weight off of this,

then I can, should be able to put my body weight on it.

Okay.

♪ ♪

Alright.

Since I first looked at the job

and made the decision I needed to do it,

I felt pressure to get it done.

I've got bush flights all arranged to get back into Kavik.

I got to get this done and get on the road.

Woo!

My leash is holding me.

It's what it's supposed to do.

Okay.

It is a bit of peace of mind having my carabiner belt on.

♪ ♪

(grunts)

I'm gonna call this one.

Done.

I've got another roof to do,

and then I got to get on with my life.

I got people waiting to show up at Kavik.

I got fuel to get in.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

JESSIE: I refuse to be hung up

on being competitive in the race,

but I also refuse to give up.

♪ ♪

Ho!

WOMAN: Jessie? JESSIE: Yup, Jessie.

WOMAN: Jessie, are you staying or going?

JESSIE: Staying.

WOMAN: That's a good choice. Gonna stay.

JESSIE: Keep them looking fresh.

WOMAN: For your 24?

JESSIE: Uh, no. I'm 24 at Ophir.

WOMAN: Okay, so they're staying, but not 24-ing.

(dogs yelping)

This is the building.

That's judges, food, all that kind of stuff.

JESSIE: Cool. Oh, man, I'm so excited.

WOMAN: You should be!

JESSIE: Alright, boys.

You ready?

Let's go, boys. Straight up.

Easy.

I'm here in Takotna.

It's about 330 miles in, so past the 300-mile mark.

NARRATOR: After three days on the Iditarod trail,

and one third of the race completed,

Jessie has arrived at the Takotna checkpoint.

JESSIE: Hey, boys.

NARRATOR: Jessie's dogs are performing well,

and with 646 miles to go before the finish line in Nome,

taking a short rest now is critical for their health.

JESSIE: Oh, you did it.

Yeah, let's have a nap, huh?

This race is all about dog care and maintaining your dog team.

Truthfully, I ran a little too hot in the beginning,

so I had to fall back and do some extra resting.

Good boy.

You're doing good.

I have a lot of competitive aspirations,

because I know how good this team is.

But the number one priority is to take care of my dogs.

I think I might be in the top 10 teams,

but that's just a number.

It's a long way to Nome.

I'm not trying to get caught up on numbers.

Trying to get caught up on these guys and what they need.

(barking)

All those days riding the brake, with no sleep,

got me pretty sore.

Three days into the race

and I've got, I think, about three hours of sleep.

I'm gonna lay down for 30 minutes while this stuff dries.

I'm resting more than the people I'm trying to beat.

Hoping to have more power and speed in the end.

It's a long, long ways still.

(barking)

Alright, come alive, Zeus! Straight!

Straight, Kors.

Easy.

When I was in Takotna, I wanted to stay there,

because all the comforts,

but the thing is, is the storm's coming.

All those teams are gonna come off their 24

pretty early tomorrow, breaking the trail through that.

That would put me in a good position.

Killing it, boys, killing it.

Let's do this!

RICKO: I got to be able to live off the land,

and I got to be able to work with the land,

because the land die, you die.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Get out there today and check that snaring fence.

I got out there yesterday with the .22

and I didn't see no rabbit or ptarmigan.

Saw a lot of tracks, so I put in a snaring fence.

Today, I'm gonna go out there

and hopefully have something in there.

It would be really good to get some fresh meat.

Small game is essential to survival.

My people depended on it to get through the days,

hunting for the bigger game.

That's not something I want to let go.

When I see opportunity like this out my window,

I want to try to come away with some fresh meat.

Kept my people alive for thousands of years.

It's not something I want to just let go.

I need to practice that same thing.

Don't look like much action around here.

Don't see no tracks coming up.

I'm feeling a little disappointed.

I worked hard yesterday,

but I feel like the fence is real good.

If ptarmigan came around and ate off of it,

and I didn't catch anything, I'd be questioning my method.

But nothing came around, so I can't question it.

I'm just gonna leave it be, the way it is,

and hopefully tomorrow things will change in this area.

For now, I'm gonna head a little further out,

look around with my .22,

if I don't see anything, I'll just put up another fence.

Try to increase my odds.

So, a little disappointing, but I can't give up.

I just got to work harder.

♪ ♪

Oh, some fresh spruce chicken tracks.

If there was, if this was yesterday,

they'd be firmed up, but they're not.

They're soft in the snow.

So, they were here today, moving in this direction.

Real good-tasting birds.

They travel in big flocks,

so you can definitely see more landed here and they're walking.

I'm just gonna follow them a little ways

and hopefully get some luck

and come out with some of these birds.

They're real good eating.

Oh, right there is one.

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

RICKO: I got one, but there's another one.

Try to get some more.

They're all sitting around here.

(gunshot)

About right there.

(gunshot)

Got another one.

♪ ♪

Nice spruce chicken.

Nice little bird.

Nice little spruce hen.

There's another one in a tree.

I can see him from here, but I gotta get closer,

because if I try to shoot from here,

I'll end up just scaring him away

and probably wasting my bullet.

I think I have like a handful left.

I got to try to make every shot count.

Okay.

(gunshot)

Oh, I think I got him.

I got one shell left.

I might've got him, but I don't know.

♪ ♪

Okay. I got a pretty good clear view of him right here.

Try to get a shot in.

There's some willows in the way though, so.

(gunshot)

Okay, so I got him.

I shot him.

Last bullet.

He's stuck like ten feet up in the tree.

I got to use my axe, try to knock him out of there,

and I'm done for the day.

It's been very good hunt today.

Oh, there we go.

Phew.

Nice. Nice spruce chicken.

I didn't have much luck with my ptarmigan fence,

ended up walking out here.

Turned out to be a perfect day for hunting spruce chicken.

Very happy to have some fresh meat.

I'm gonna head home and start cooking.

JESSIE: I just want to soak it up and enjoy it.

I'm sure there's no Iditarod like your first Iditarod.

♪ ♪

Haw.

Straight.

Get 'em, boys. Gee!

I can respect everybody that does this

because I know how much hard work goes into it.

So I tend to say hello to everybody, you know, and...

Gee!

Gee, gee.

What's your name?

But I mean, I want to beat them all, too, you know?

Boys, let's go.

People have no idea what dedication and heart and drive

it takes to prepare a dog team for a thousand miles.

We live on the trail all winter long to prepare for this.

♪ ♪

I mean, I'm well-prepared for this.

I've been preparing for so long, but it's still,

there's things I see that I can do so much better.

Don't get caught up in racing in the beginning.

It doesn't matter what position you're in.

It matters more about resting your dogs right off.

♪ ♪

Easy.

Easy.

I'm here in Ophir, it's about 350 miles in.

We're supposed to take a 24-hour mandatory break

at any checkpoint along the way,

and this is where I picked to take mine.

It's a nice, quiet place.

Right on. I think we made it pretty fast.

We made it in two and a half hours, about.

Here, I'll just be focusing on

getting a lot more meals into the dogs, some massage,

keeping them limber,

and get as much rest as I can myself.

Because the next section of the race

is a really, really long section.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

It's 12:54.

I got to be out of here at 1:31,

so I've got 37 minutes to get booted up and go.

I'm resting up here.

I feel more rested than I did the whole week before the race.

It's good, I'm gonna need that energy, it's a long way to go.

Be out to Nome, and I'm a little bit off the competitive pace,

but I'm right in there in the top 30,

and I think I can move up.

(barking)

I think we're past the emotional up and down part

of "Oh, my God, it's so long. Will we ever make it?"

And we're just at the point where we're committed.

Alright.

Steady. Easy.

I'm gonna be hopefully making a lot of big moves

in the last two thirds of the race,

and sleep is not gonna be something

I'm gonna be getting a lot of out there.

Easy, boys.

Looking forward to seeing what's down the trail awaiting me next.

CHIP: We're 21st century hunters.

Even though it's a modern age, the animals haven't changed.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Well, I got up today,

and it looked like a good day to go rabbit hunting.

So I asked the ladies while I was getting ready to take off,

"Hey, you want to go rabbit hunting, too?"

And sure enough, they wanted to.

CAROL: There's one right behind it.

They were heading into the willows.

No, I got it.

TINMIAQ: They're right there. Right there.

(gunshot)

CAROL: I got the one I shot at.

TINMIAQ: One rabbit down.

Right on, the first rabbit of the day.

I'll put it in the bag and let's keep on going.

(bleep)

AGNES: Look!

CHIP: Did you see it?

Oh, I see it. I see it.

AGNES: Yeah.

(gunshot)

CHIP: Yeah, he's done.

He's going down.

I like to eat rabbit.

I'm not crazy for rabbit.

I love rabbit when it's occasional.

There's lots here.

AGNES: There's just so many rabbits.

They're just way deep in the snow.

CAROL: Tinmiaq!

TINMIAQ: Should I shoot it?

CAROL: Shoot it.

(gunshot)

They're hiding.

(gunshot)

TINMIAQ: Ooh, I got it.

Yeah!

(gunshot)

Oh ho ho!

Okay, here, let me grab mine and then we'll grab yours.

CAROL: I shot it right in the head, right on the neck, I mean.

TINMIAQ: Ready?

CAROL: Real stuck.

CAROL: Real stuck.

Lift the back up with me real quick.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

TINMIAQ: Okay, good enough that I can pull the ski next.

Good.

You drive.

Ready?

CAROL: Bye!

(laughs) I'm joking!

TINMIAQ: Wait for me!

CAROL: Oh, we got stuck.

That was kind of fun, it warmed me up

right when I was getting cold.

♪ ♪

AGNES: Lots of them there. (laughs)

(gunshot)

CHIP: Got him.

Not really a divide and conquer day.

We could have conquered it all over, you know, time.

But what it was is a family day.

TINMIAQ: Go shoot him, go shoot him.

(gunshot)

(gunshot)

CHIP: Oh, yeah, I got him!

AGNES: Bag is just about full.

CHIP: Yeah, I bet the girls' bag is full, too.

AGNES: Yup.

CHIP: We'll go catch them up.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Yeah.

TINMIAQ: Fun day today!

CHIP: Yup.

AGNES: Good one.

CAROL: I had a lot of fun today.

I actually had the funnest day here yet.

AGNES: Seven.

CAROL: Another one bites the dust.

AGNES: Eight.

CHIP: Now that's 21.

AGNES: Wow, you girls got eight rabbits.

Me and your dad got 13.

Good job.

CHIP: Yup.

TINMIAQ: Fun day.

AGNES: My buns can bunny hunt.

CHIP: Well, let's go have something hot to drink

and go clean our guns.

AGNES: Right on, lots of rabbits.

We had a real awesome day.

CAROL: Now we could probably eat some, huh?

AGNES: Yeah.

CHIP: Yup, we'll deal with the rabbits

and have ourselves a meal later.

AGNES: Yup. That was fun.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

SUE: I'm all about being more efficient, not less.

There's never a problem, there's only solutions.

Alright.

Time to get rocking and rolling on this roof.

My extension ladder is not gonna get me solidly,

safely up that center, center area.

I'm gonna have to come at it from the side.

For me to do that safely,

I'm gonna have to, boom, get a rope all the way over here,

tie it to this side, loop it,

and get it attached to myself on the carabiner,

and then be able to work and pull myself.

NARRATOR: With Sue's flight home to Kavik

pag tomorrow,

her window to finish the snow removal is rapidly closing.

If she doesn't complete the task,

her buildings could collapse

while she's away from the property.

SUE: I think I can fling this shovel pretty darn hard

and pretty darn far.

It's kind of as harebrained as the using a ladder for a shovel,

but it worked.

♪ ♪

If I can't get this over there and get a safety line,

it's game over.

I am not gonna be able to do the roof.

♪ ♪

(bleep) hell!

My gloves are getting so bad now I can't hold on (bleep).

♪ ♪

That one went sailing.

That step is complete.

So now I just got to go secure it.

So this is already attached to the tree.

This tree here is the main anchor for my whole line.

And then I can hang on to it, and then carabine this one on.

It gives me safety options, it gives me options for climbing.

Back over, secure myself up, get to shoveling.

Whoa!

Okay.

Set the knot, boom!

Ugh.

See how well this snow moves.

Sure, I'm tired. There's no two ways about it.

This is a lot of snow to be moving

in a very short period of time.

But I'm the, you know, tick-tock, tick-tock,

I'm running up against the zone of comfort on getting this done,

turning everything off, locking it all up,

and making my bush flight to Kavik.

Ugh.

Put a fork in me, I'm done for the night.

Really cold.

I'd say probably more than just a tad hypothermic.

I got the majority of this side of the roof done.

Then I will go warm up, dry off,

and make a plan for getting the other half done.

RICKO: When you do things right, and you treat the land right,

you treat the animals right,

the land and animals, they bless you.

That animal is giving its life for you to continue life.

♪ ♪

There's some real good eating birds here.

I'm about done plucking,

I'll gut him, chop him up, and fry him up.

So, I'm gonna be eating good tonight.

Spruce chicken is good eating food,

nice, thick breasts here, got the legs, the wings.

It's basically just a wild chicken.

Out here when you're eating,

you know exactly what your animal's been eating.

This is real organic food.

I want to cook it kind of fast, keep the juices inside.

Feels good to be able to cook something

that I got right out here.

This is the good life right here.

Time to eat.

♪ ♪

So good!

I had to put in some work out here.

Got on my snowshoes, I had my .22,

and lucked out with some small game.

I'm eating good now.

That's the best part of living out here, working with nature,

and letting nature provide for you.

There's no better feeling.

JESSIE: You know, I'm a rookie, so I can't really lose,

because I'm gonna come out of this year

knowing what to do next year.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Whoa!

I have a mandatory eight-hour layover here,

which is a luxury at this point in the race

where the real racing has begun,

and been getting like 30 minutes of sleep here and there

if I could.

I went a couple days straight without sleep

to try to get myself in a better position, so.

I'm looking forward to taking care of the dogs here

and taking care of my feet.

NARRATOR: Jessie's dog team has arrived

at the White Mountain checkpoint.

With the finish line drawing closer,

Jessie's team must power through

the physical and mental obstacles

that remain in their way.

JESSIE: It's been a tough trail.

It's been one thing after another.

There's been multiple storms,

lots of trail breaking, lots of drifted snow.

So it is nice to only have 77 miles left to go.

I mean, I really just modestly wanted to finish strong

with a good team, you know, and in the top 20.

I mean, I ain't finished yet, so I can't say nothing.

Well, I think being a runner has definitely helped me out here,

because I've done a lot of running

and a lot of not sleeping,

and I'm not feeling too bad for that.

I'm pretty sore, though.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty beat.

Physically, my legs hurt like hell.

Mentally, I had a few low points.

I was thinking I'd never make it a couple times, to be honest.

But I think that happens, you know, around mile 200.

A thousand-mile race is a daunting task.

Just to finish this race alone is gonna be

the biggest challenge I've ever met in my life.

One more run, baby.

One more run.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

This is it, guys!

One last run!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, boys!

Oh, Roombas!

Alright, get ready!

Get ready, yeah!

JESSIE: Oh, good, alright.

JESSIE: Alright! Hike, hike! Straight!

Good!

Gonna take as much risk as I can to go for it.

Get there as fast as I can.

Try to save some in the tank

to go from Safety to Nome faster than anybody.

Straight!

Alright.

This is it, dream come true.

Heading to Nome.

(dog howls)

JESSIE: Alright, guys, straight!

Just keep moving down the trail, boys!

Good dogs.

Good.

I built my team, I built them strong for the end.

Not how hard you can push or how tough you can be,

but how focused you can remain.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

I give you a signature, right?

WOMAN: I need your vet book.

JESSIE: What, right here? WOMAN: Right here.

JESSIE: Okay.

Holy crap, only 23 more miles.

WOMAN: Woo-hoo!

JESSIE: See you soon.

Alright, guys, straight, gee!

This is it.

Final trip to Nome.

♪ ♪

SUE: I live by my wits, and sometimes those are lacking.

But I rise to the challenge every day.

It's a challenge that keeps me going.

♪ ♪

Alright.

Time for the last run.

Got the other half to get done.

And then tick-tock, tick-tock, plane's gonna take off.

Now, I've got very little time to try and get my butt in gear

and catch my bush plane.

I'm gonna start on this corner and go work my way back.

I need to work hard or pay somebody else.

I just got to lock and run.

I've got to meet my plane going to Kavik.

This time of year, there's just not that many planes

that have full-time skis on, willing to go up there.

Susie's gonna be there on time.

This job for me is done.

Well, roof, glad I got you done.

Good job, Susie.

I'm leaving, but I'm going to be back.

This is the future, future Sue casa.

I've had a great time here.

And I've done a lot of things: made my own bed,

checked out the area, made squirrel dinner outside.

I pushed the limits of my body trying to get all this snow.

I did it and I'm proud of myself,

but as much as I'd like to reminisce,

I got to, I got to get my butt on the road.

Time is a-tickin'.

Exactly what I arrived with, one briefcase, one green case,

one monkey hat, and my brown pants.

Boom!

It has been fun.

Sorry, y'all, gotta run.

JESSIE: It's not about the money or the placement,

it's just about you and the dogs.

♪ ♪

Good dogs!

For me, the feeling of the race was just gigantic.

From the very moment, it was a dream of mine

that I've been dreaming about for 12 years.

And back then, it didn't even seem possible,

and now here I am,

and I've had a lot of emotional battles out there.

It wasn't always easy.

I went through some pretty hard days on the trail

where I just didn't think things were working

and they weren't going good,

and I just, you know, went back to the base of what I know,

to stay positive, stay focused on each run ahead of me,

each hour, one mile at a time.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

ANNOUNCER: Headed towards the chute,

Jessie Holmes, 36, was born and raised in Alabama.

He left Alabama 17 years ago looking for an adventure.

He came to Alaska 13 years ago to become a mountain man,

and is now a subsistence resident of Nenana.

He started mushing in 2004

and became interested in running Iditarod

after winning the Kobuk 440.

(applause)

Folks, Jessie Holmes, rookie of the year!

(cheering)

JESSIE: I'm here in 10 days flat, basically.

12 hours off tin pace, which isn't a whole lot,

seeing as I made 24 hours' worth of mistakes out there.

Boys!

ERIC: Yeah. Jessie. JESSIE: Yeah?

ERIC: I got some steaks over here in the cooler.

JESSIE: Nice. Oh, boy.

ANNOUNCER: It looks like fresh steaks for some very happy dogs.

JESSIE: It's something to really be proud of

to come in seventh place in this race in a field like this

of you know, very experienced veteran mushers.

I passed 23 teams in the last three days.

I was in solid 30th place,

and all of a sudden the dogs just turned it on.

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, your rookie of the year,

with the time of 10 days, 39 minutes, and 40 seconds,

with 10 dogs, Jessie Holmes! Congratulations!

JESSIE: I'll be back next year to try to improve.

I won the rookie of the year award,

which was given to the highest-placing rookie,

and 10 years ago, you could've never imagined

that I'd be, you know, sitting in this position.

You know, I took good care of the dogs,

and they took good care of me,

and we all finished this race together.

Isn't that right, Roomba?

I feel like a totally different person now.

I feel more confident and I feel more secure.

I feel like part animal right now.

♪ ♪

Captioned by Side Door Media Services