Somehow Kevin Klott got himself convinced that Louie Nelson, Sr. is the oldest musher on the trail. It was printed in the Anchorage Daily News this morning, and I am hearing it on ESPN and all over. We all love Louie. He is 64 years old, a cheerful and revered Native musher who mentored John Baker, rookie Sigrid Ekran and many others.
But Jim Lanier — who is in the pack of 11 mushers that came out of Iditarod this morning hoping to catch Buser, Gebhart and King — is 2 years older.
Lanier is 66. He has been running the Iditarod whenever he could afford to since the late 1970’s. He is doing great this year, getting through conditions that took out the much younger Dee Dee Jonrowe and Doug Swingley. Last time I checked he was well into the top 20.
Update: The online edition of the ADN has corrected the error. Only the print version (if you can find it) shows the mistake.