Thanks to Winterfest, Allen Dunn is now living north of Fairbanks, Alaska.

Dunn was living in Templeton, Armstrong County, when he saw an online advertisement for the event.

He had been interested in dog-sled races for many years, but he had never been to one.

“I gotta go up and see that,” he said. “I watched the races.”

He wanted to be a part of it, he said. “This is something I have to do.”

To compete in dog-sled races, he needed some dogs.

“I went around gathering up dogs,” he said.

First Siberians. Then Alaskans.

The dogs were more than teammates. They were therapy.

Dunn said he had suffered from depression dating back to his service in the U.S. Army.

“I fought with depression for 10 years until I found the dogs,” he said. “Ever since I found the dogs I’ve been getting better.”

He had a team and there were trails near home, but most of the time, there wasn’t enough snow on the ground to practice his new-found endeavor on a traditional sled.

“I had a cart on wheels,” Dunn said. “I used that for a while.”

After competing, he was hooked.

“The Winterfest, Warren County, was the one that really got me interested,” he said. “That was my first race. I was up there two or three times.”

Winterfest wasn’t enough.

“It’s addictive,” he said. “I just started dreaming about coming to Alaska and doing the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest.”

It was an upheaval, but he decided to go.

His wife of 37 years did not.

“I left everything,” he said.

Dunn plans to return. “Everybody from Kittanning is pulling for me,” he said. “I’m going to come back home, buy a piece of ground, and give people tours.”

But for now, he is living near Fairbanks, getting ready. “It’s amazing. You couldn’t step back in time any better,” he said. “What better way to see the interior of Alaska?”

He has been training with four-time Iditarod and four-time Yukon Quest champion Lance Mackey. “I’ve learned a lot from him.”

Dunn is one of 21 mushers signed up to compete in the 300-mile Yukon Quest next weekend. There is a 1,000-mile Yukon Quest, too.

“This is the only race I’m doing this year,” he said. “I’m really excited about this race.”

Mackey has told him that a musher who can get 10 miles per hour out of his dogs can win races. Dunn believes he can do that.

“I’ve been training so hard,” he said. “The dogs look really good.”

The dogs can only go for so long. Depending on the terrain, Dunn is hoping to make more than 70 miles in the flatter early stretches. The runs will be shorter — 40 miles or so — when the dogs have to climb. There are checkpoints and required stops along the way.

“All I want to do is finish a race with 12 healthy dogs,” he said.

After that, his goal is to compete in the March 2020 Iditarod.

That race is over 1,000 miles long.

“At 58, I want to test myself a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t want to be sitting around later in life saying, ‘I wish I would have done that.'”