Eagle Cap Extreme

Dr. Vern Starks graduated from Univ. of Missouri in 1965. He and his wife Mimi and baby Eric moved to Ketchikan , Alaska in 1967 to pioneer a full time veterinary practice where none existed before. Fishing and hunting was great. It was an ideal place to raise three sons. With his floatplanes he extended those services to logging camps, native villages, and adjacent southern SE. Alaska towns. In Ketchikan Vern was active in Boy Scouts, Science Fair, Past President of Rotary, and Citizen of the Year for 1998. He has been a trail vet on the Iditarod since 1989 with the exception of 3 years. He has worked with the Yukon Quest since 2001 after he retired from active practice and this year he is the Head Veterinarian. He set up the veterinary program for the Eagle Cap Sled Dog Race. He isthe head Veterinarian for the Eagle Cap Extreme Race based in the mountains of the Eagle Cap National Forest in NE Oregon and has served as Chief Veterinarian since the beginning in 2005. He has also worked on the Can-Am race in Maine and the Cascade Quest race in Washington State . At this time he serves on the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association Board.

Dr. McGill is the former owner of two small animal hospitals near Columbus, Ohio. At the 2000 Iditarod she was one of five veterinarians awarded the Golden Stethoscope by the mushers for her role in saving an injured dog's life. Dr. McGill has served as a trail veterinarian 18 times since 1997, for the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, the UP 200 Sled Dog Marathon, The Grand Portage Passage Sled Dog Marathon, the Iditarod, and The Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race. Dr. McGill ran a recreational team of Malamutes while living in Colorado, as well as weight pulling competitions. At present, she shares a home with a Malamute, a husky, three cats, and her son. She would like to get on the snow more often but Ohio doesn't afford many opportunities to do so. Dr. McGill also enjoys hiking, cross country skiing, trail riding with horses, and as time and snow permits, dog mushing. She is a member of the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association (ISDVMA) and the International Sled Dog Racing Association (ISDRA). Dr. McGill has six years on the Yukon Quest and three years as Head Veterinarian.

Dr. Jerry Vanek joins the Eagle Cap as a trail veterinarian for the first time this year. Dr. Vanek has been a veterinarian on the Yukon Quest, Iditarod, John Beargrease, CanAm Crown, Race to the Sky, UP 200, Grand Portage Passage, Great Trail, Empire 130, the IFSS World and Junior World Championships, and many sprint races. He was a musher in his youth and still drives dogs whenever he can. In 1993, he was the veterinarian on the Mount Vaughn Antarctic Expedition. Last winter, Dr. Vanek traveled 768 miles from Nenana to Nome in minus 50-degree weather as a veterinarian and handler on the Serum Run 25th annual reenactment of the original 1925 relay race against diphtheria. He is a former president and charter board
member of the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association and a wilderness EMT. He lives in Bemidji, Minnesota, where he has a sled dog consulting practice and where teaches cell biology and parasitology at Bemidji State University.

Dr. Randy Greenshields graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA with a BS in biology. In 1994 he graduated from veterinary school at Washington State University in Pullman, WA with his DVM.

Randy moved to Enterprise in 1994 as an employee of the Double Arrow Veterinary Clinic of which he is now half owner. Randy has been a trail vet for the ECSDR for four years. Along with the other trail vets and under the supervision of the raceís head vet, Vern Starks, Randy completes vet checks and has been stationed at the Ollokot checkpoint to check incoming teams. Randy and his wife, Jeni, have four kids: Brooke, 13, Damon, 11, Brett, 7, & Landon, 5. Both Jeni and Randy are very involved in the ECX. Randy also serves on the raceís board of directors.

Dr. Rene' Fleming is a 2007 graduate of Washington State University, College of Veterinary Medicine.

She has spent most of the last 30 years as an Alaskan resident where, among other activities, she enjoyed skijoring and long distance dog mushing.
In 1999 and 2000 she and several other mushers joined Col. Norman Vaughan on the 750 mile long Serum Run '25 expedition from Nenana to Nome.

In 2007 and 2008, Dr. Fleming worked with the volunteers of the Eagle Cap Sled Dog Race assisting the trail veterinarians at Ollokot.
She is a member of the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association.

Dr. Fleming is a veterinarian at the Double Arrow Veterinary Clinic in Enterprise, Oregon where she works with both large and small animals.

Rene' and her husband, Michael, share their home in Joseph with two border collies and like to spend free time hiking in the mountains and exploring the Northwest by motorcycle.