After twice rebuilding their fire-ravaged home, Willow couple ready to run the Iditarod

Justin High didn't think he would ever get the chance to run the Iditarod.

He and his wife, Jaimee, had too much to rebuild. Too much to replace. Too much to do after flames swallowed their home in Willow — not once, but twice.

First came the quick-moving fire in December 2014 that ignited the couple's shed and spread to their hand-built cabin, gutting both. The following summer, Justin toiled on the roof of their partially constructed new home on the same 4-acre lot when he noticed smoke to the north, billowing from the destructive Sockeye wildfire that would torch 55 homes, including the Highs' half-completed one.

The mushing couple escaped both of the fires. So did their sled dogs, but they lost most everything else: parkas, sleds, sled bags, boots, dog harnesses, furniture, appliances.

"You name it, we had to buy it," Jaimee, 34, said.

The Highs quickly rebuilt yet again, on the same piece of land now hemmed in by a sea of charred spruce.

Outside on a recent February afternoon, 17 sled dogs fit for racing rested near the third version of the Highs' home. While fire forced the couple to reconstruct their lives over the past two or so years, the sled dogs remained a constant.

This year it came down to a choice: get back into racing or sell their team, Jaimee said.

They decided to race.

After all, it's Justin's turn.

"I didn't think that I would ever get the chance to run it, so it's pretty exciting for me," Justin, 33, said of his rookie Iditarod.  

Justin's and Jaimee's early plan was to alternate years racing the 1,000 miles to Nome. Jaimee finished her first and only Iditarod in 2012.

But Justin got caught up with a full-time job as an operations manager at a boat launch, and then came the fires.

'Scooping poop'

Justin, of Michigan, and Jaimee, of Idaho, met in 2009 while "scooping poop," as they say.

They both moved to Alaska to work as dog handlers for well-known Iditarod veteran DeeDee Jonrowe. They took care of the musher's dogs, sewed her gear and helped prepare her for the race to Nome.

"DeeDee says we hated each other that first winter," Jaimee said. "I don't think we hated each other. It was two different working styles, just trying to figure how we worked together."

Jonrowe sticks to her story.

They didn't get along at first, she said in an interview in late February. But after a winter of handling, Justin stuck around. Jonrowe's mother was diagnosed with cancer, her husband was fishing in Bristol Bay and Justin decided to stay the summer to help at the kennel, even though Jonrowe said she told him she had no money to pay him.

"He stayed here so he could take care of the dogs, so I could take care of my mom," she said. 

Eventually, her two handlers, Justin and Jaimee, started dating. Jonrowe said she never would have expected it, but "it turned out really well." Jaimee works hard and never complains, Jonrowe said, and Justin is "willing to give everything a try."

"I think the world of them," Jonrowe, 63, said. "I just absolutely love them."

Jaimee ran a puppy team for Jonrowe in the 2012 Iditarod, placing 46th. Jonrowe said the couple had talked about both running the Iditarod, but it proved unrealistic financially.

"Justin said, 'Jaimee first. Jaimee first. It's been Jaimee's dream longer than mine,' " Jonrowe recalled.

About six months after the 2012 Iditarod, Jaimee and Justin married, Jonrowe serving as their justice of the peace.

The fires

The couple moved to the now-fire-scored 4-acre property shortly before they married. It's just down a winding street from Jonrowe's place.

"Jaimee and Justin said, 'We're going to take care of you guys when you get old. You're not getting rid of us,' " Jonrowe said.

At their new home Justin and Jaimee raised sled dogs, most of whom owed some or all of their genetic makeup to Jonrowe's kennel. The couple started a business on the property in the winter of 2012-13 sewing dog collars and dog coats.

Jaimee planned to return to the Iditarod in March 2015.

But then the first fire sparked that winter, and she withdrew. Justin said they believe a barrel stove caused the fire in their shop, where their sewing business was based, and the flames spread to the cabin. Jaimee returned home after running errands that day to find flames shooting 20 feet into the air. All she could do was watch it burn while waiting for firefighters to arrive.

When the fire came the second time, the Highs didn't wait around to watch. They had to evacuate. So did neighbors, including Jonrowe, whose two-story cedar-sided house was reduced to cinders.

[Jonrowe's hellish year]

"We had already lost just about everything," Jaimee said. "It was just like, 'Yep, we had another fire. Let's build again.' "

In the years since, the couple has worked to return to their normal routine. Justin said the couple never really considered leaving their Willow property behind.

"We owned it and we had put a lot of work into it, a lot of sweat," he said.

With the help of a subcontractor, they built their new 1,750-square-foot home quickly, to meet their baby girl's January 2016 due date.

Blossoming business

In late February, their baby, curious 1-year-old Isadore Rose, crawled over her parents' laps as they sat on their living room couch explaining their regrowth. In the basement, parkas draped across chairs, fleece leg warmers for dogs hung from a shelf and collars filled a box on the ground.

Justin said a combination of the growth of their gear business and the mortgaging of their new home freed up money, allowing him to leave his full-time job and spend more time at home with the dogs.

Now the family's "good days," as Jaimee puts it, start at 7 a.m., filled with coffee, hours of sewing, more hours with Isadore, dog chores and running their team. Jaimee tries to get on the sled runners once a week, while Justin trains much more often.

"I don't think I know what a break is anymore," Jaimee said.

Justin described it as "chaotic. Everything is chaotic."

While obstacles have marked the Highs' first years together, they hope to keep their kennel small and alternate racing each year — if not the Iditarod then another event.

They also don't intend to dwell on the past. When asked about the fires, they don't become emotional. They just say they try not to think about them. They're too busy.

"It's easier to just keep on going forward," Justin said.

On Monday, Justin will leave from the official start in Fairbanks with a team of dogs he and his wife raised. He has a few goals.

"The first is getting to Nome and I would like to get a sub 10-day race," Justin said.

His friend and former boss, Jonrowe, will start her 35th Iditarod on Monday, thrilled to have the new rookie in the field.

"It's exciting for me that this is finally Justin's turn," Jonrowe said. "There's been a lot of things they had to overcome to get (to) the starting line this year."