Simulating the Iditarod with a Long Camping Trip

January 16, 2002

Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team--Tyrell Seavey

Well, first off I would like to congratulate Jim and Bill on their performances in the Atta Boy 300. That race provided some exceptional training for Jim’s Iditarod dogs.

A lack of snow earlier this winter made snowmobile training the safest and most convenient option for us.

After we finished preparing the food drop supplies for the Iditarod, we lit out on a nine day camping trip. After all those months of training the dogs on the snowmachines I had forgotten what it feels like to drive a sled. It hurts. No heated handle bars, no padded seat. No wind shield. Well, you get the point.

The conditions here at home are still good but we wanted to get the dogs onto some new, flat trails, so we loaded the team up along with enough food and supplies for a couple of weeks and headed for Knik. Knik is the last checkpoint on the Iditarod trail that is accessible by road and a great place to start our trip. It is located just 14 miles after the race restart in Wasillla and about a 1,100 miles from Nome.

With 39 dogs to train, even when split into three teams, we were left running large teams. That made hauling supplies easy, so we ran the 50 odd miles to along the Iditarod Trail to Yentna and based our operations there. Throughout the next week, we ran on an Iditarod-like schedule with occasional runs to Knik to restock our food. Far too much happened on our trip to write about it all so I will just recap some of the highlights for you.

I mentioned the part about mushing hurting mostly because my abs constantly remind me of the fact. Your stomach muscles get abused almost constantly while driving a dog sled; first every time you lean your weight one way or the other you flex your stomach and second when you ride the brake, you lift on your handle bar which gives your muscles quite the work out, too. But, the real killer is when you are flying down some monster hill, both feet on the brake, with your boots slowly vibrating off the back of the track. When your feet go off the back they jam into the snow and attempt to rip you off your sled. To counter this, you have to slam your stomach muscles into gear and pull yourself back onto the sled and the brake as quickly as possible. Though pulls and strains are quite common, the upside is you have built abs like Rocky by the time the training season is over, and you didn’t have to buy one of those "eight-minute" videos.

The Yentna River is a summer and winter "highway" that serves the families living in this part of Alaska.

The weather during our whole run was warm, too warm. We went through patches of rain three different times during the run and believe me, it is much easier to stay warm at -10F than at 35F and raining. The rain was the worst one night while we were camped in Skwentna for three hours. It started to pour, and since I didn’t want to get my sleeping bag wet, I just threw my pad out on the ground and lay on it for an hour and a half. What fun!

My sled broke down a few miles into one of the runs, which gave me an excellent opportunity to practice my on-the-trail repair routine. The bed broke loose from the headboard in the front of the sled, so the bed and most of the load was dragging underneath the sled. I managed to patch it up with bungees and a few feet of rope enough to make it to the next stop. At the checkpoint we fixed it up for real. The screws had pulled out of the plastic but there were no holes through which to run a string to tie the bed back in place. We fixed that with a couple of shots from a .357 caliber hand gun. Once I had everything tied back in place the sled ran another 300 odd miles and performed quite well.

This trip was supposed to be a real "shakedown" for the athletes. We were hoping to identify the weaker ones and hand them down to a Jr. Iditarod team. I was amazed how well the dogs performed on this trip. Aside from a few dogs that had picked up a flu along the way, they all performed better that expected. Of the 39 who started the run, we are still seriously considering 29 for our Iditarod team. That is more than we usually start training in September!

The extra ten are still going to get their chance to race this year. I am going to take them in the Klondike 300, which is an Iditarod qualifier. Getting this qualifier done a year early will really ease the pressure next year when I run the Iditarod. (All Iditarod rookies must complete 500 mi. of approved qualifier races before entering their first Iditarod.) Being 17, I am a year younger than the age limit but I was able to get special acceptance into this event. I am very, very excited, this being my first professional race I have ever done.

After this race we will sell some of the dogs who we think are not quite as athletic as the rest of the team. If any of you mushers out there need a well trained, Iditarod quality athlete, please write me at seavey@ultimateiditarod.com.

We are leaving early tomorrow morning so good night,

Tyrell Seavey

Sterling, Alaska

© 2002 Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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