Thomas Waerner won the 2020 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. (Kjersti McElwee/KNOM)

2020 Iditarod champion Thomas Waerner and his team of sled dogs have been stuck in Alaska since crossing the finish line of the thousand-mile dog mushing race in Nome a month ago.

In the meantime, Waerner has been living with friends near Fairbanks in Ester, all because of cornavirus-related, international travel restrictions, coupled with the normal difficulties and rules around flying dogs internationally.

Related: ‘An actual dream’: Norwegian musher Thomas Waerner notches his first Iditarod victory

But now a plan is coming together: to catch a ride on an old cargo plane in Fairbanks, on its way to a museum in Norway.

This, of course, is all a wild divergence from what the first-time Iditarod champ expected. And it all started with rumors on the trail during the race, and then Waerner’s wife having to make a sudden exit to fly home right before an international travel ban went into effect.

Waerner talked about all of that with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove.

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