Hi Jeanie
You are right - travel from the lower 48 to Alaska can be pretty expensive, particularly if you stay awhile. Early on, the source of funds was my own credit card. I got interested, wanted to know more, and believed that if I got enough experience and data, I could eventually convince someone else to pay for my trips. That almost didn't happen. One problem was that in order to do it right, I needed some very specialized help and they weren't nearly as driven to deplete their bank accounts for some pipe dream as I was - so in many cases I was paying not only my way, but some of theirs too. I got pretty far into debt, but fortunately I got some other folks (NIH and Dept of Defense) attention at just the right time. NIH was primarily interested in how the dogs' lungs adapt to the cold, and DoD was (and still is) interested in metabolic strategies that improve exercise endurance.
Now, who pays for the trip depends on the subject of the research. When we're doing metabolism work (like the upcoming Iditarod study), I am putting that on one of the grants. When I am doing something else unrelated to the specific goals of a grant (like some of the gastric ulcer stuff and the upcoming Quest study), then it comes out of some discretionary money I have socked away at the university. In all the cases, if I'm not careful, it comes out of my pocket one way or another. Even when I have grants, I am supposed to be paying my salary and the salaries of everyone who works for me out of that finite pool of money. Like any small business, the boss gets paid last so if I overdo it on the travel or have too many surprise unplanned expenses, it starts eating into my paycheck. Similarly, the discretionary money is rainy-day type accounts that I will have to rely on if I go through a dry spell for funding, and if I've used up too much of it on studies I don't get paid.
I'm not the only one making sacrifices. The mushers that run dogs for the studies are often doing so for nothing (if it is a project that I am not getting paid for, then generally neither is anyone else), and often times when we are trying out something new or different, we have to do pilot studies in which no one gets paid, all in the hopes of the data resulting in a grant that will pay us. When we start seeing the bottom of a grant, often everyone goes on an austerity plan in which I try as best I can to reimburse for out of pocket expenses directly related to the project, but everyone still winds up donating their time and trouble in order to get things done. There are a lot of very dedicated mushers out there that "get it" - they are willing to contribute whatever they can in order to make things better for the dogs, and they really deserve every bit as much recognition for that as for their racing success.
Not to leave out the corporate stuff. I've not received any funding from sponsors or commercial corporations, but when we do a study in conjunction with the major races, it is with the full support of that race. Like the mushers, the provide what they can. Iditarod has, in the past, provided travel up and down the race and access to the checkpoints and food like any other volunteer, and the Quest has provided lodging (where lodging actually existed) and logistical support on past studies. Like the mushers, they are committed to facilitating studies that improve the health and well-being of the dogs.