BUSY! BUSY!! BUSY!!!
January 21, 2002
Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs--Jim Gallea
Since we returned from the Atta Boy 300 last Monday, we have been non-stop busy! At 7AM on Tuesday morning, we had to unload a semi truck carrying 7 tons of frozen meat for dog food. Now, before you start trying to figure out how many pounds sixteen Iditarod dogs must eat in a day to consume 14,000 pounds of food, I should point out that we share meat orders with all of the local area mushers, including other Iditaord mushers like Doug Swingley, Jason and John Barron, and Harmony Kanavel. But even so, a couple thousand pounds of that order went into our freezers.
Why do we need so much meat?
It's that time of year again, when we start stockpiling over a ton of frozen meat, dry dog food, musher food, and other supplies as a part of our Iditarod preparations.
Food drops are the only way in which we mushers get re-supplied during the Iditarod. Without food drops, we would have to carry all of the dog food, human food, and supplies needed for the entire Iditarod race in our sleds. As a result, careful planning is essential when preparing the food drops. If we forget to send something out, it has to be carried in our sleds from the start. For example, when I ran my first Iditarod, we didn't have enough dog booties for the food drops so I had to carry 300 extra booties in my sled from the starting line.
18 Iditarod checkpoints are designated as food drop checkpoints where our food drops are sent. The distance between food drop checkpoints is anywhere from 20 to 120 miles. As a part of planning what we send to each food drop checkpoint, we have to decide what the most likely race schedule is for the team.
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| Food drop bags arranged alphabetically by the mushers' last names await the arrival of the teams in McGrath. |
If we are not planning to stop at a food drop checkpoint and plan on going to the next food drop checkpoint before resting (like teams often do when they rest in McGrath and then pass through Takotna before stopping to rest again in Ophir), we will not send out a large quantity of food and supplies to the checkpoint we are likely to pass through. Instead, we will send a full set of supplies to the food drop checkpoints on either side of that checkpoint. Furthermore, if a long distance exists between two food drop checkpoints, we will send out extra food and supplies to the food drop before the long run. This is because we will likely stop and rest on the trail before getting to the next food drop checkpoint, and we will need to carry extra supplies in the sled.
I know it seems confusing, but once you start to plan out a strategy--where exactly you want to rest and how far you want to run between rests--the food drop planning becomes pretty methodical.
Each musher prepares about 2,000 pounds of food and supplies in his or her food drops. All of this is packaged and then packed into bags that have the musher's name and the name of their destination checkpoint. These bags each weigh about 60 or 70 pounds. Many times, each musher will send up to three or four bags to a checkpoint. Again, the amount of food and supplies and the exact type of food and supplies varies depending on race strategy.
Once all of the bags are ready to go, they are taken to Anchorage in the middle of February. In Anchorage, the bags are weighed and sorted and placed in large freezers until they are sent out on the trail by the Iditarod race officials just before the race. Mushers have to pay about 30 cents per pound for the race to ship out the food drops.
What is in the food drops?
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| Saws and axes are used to cut frozen meat. This saw is a regular "chop saw" that carpenters use. The saw is inside a large cardboard enclosure that catches all the "sawdust." The sawdust is usable meat trimmings, and they can be used to flavor water (like a doggy Gatorade) or even make sausage snacks for the dogs. |
The largest single item in every food drop bag is dog food. In fact, about 75-80% of the total weight of the food drops is just from dog food. Meats, fats, dry dog food, freeze-dried food, vitamins, home-made "pupcicles" (water, gelatin, and meat mixed together and frozen), and other types of dog food are all included in the food drops. All of the dog food must be cut into usable pieces, pre-measured into the correct amounts, and sealed in individual bags. Any frozen foods must be kept frozen the entire time, or the risk of spoilage increases.
For the musher, an assortment of pre-made meals and snacks are sent out. Each musher has his or her favorite foods for on the trail. Most mushers like pretty fattening or sweet foods. After all, the Iditarod is a great excuse to eat lots of junk food, and you don't have to worry about gaining weight!
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| Dog jackets are used to help the dogs conserve energy and rest comfortably at rest stops along the trail. Straw is provided by the race at ever checkpoint for the dogs to sleep on. |
Many additional items are also sent out. For the dogs, extra booties and wrist wraps are sent to every food drop checkpoint. Massage oils and spare dog jackets are also sent to various checkpoints. For the musher, extra gloves, socks, headlamp batteries, hand and foot warmers (the little air-activated chemical things), and personal supplies are sent to each checkpoint.
The plastic strips on the bottoms of the runners can get worn or damaged, and mushers replace these periodically on the trail, so several sets of this plastic are sent out.
As you can probably tell, food drop time gets pretty busy.
In other news, training is also continuing, of course. We are doing camping trips now, and we are preparing for the Seeley Lake 100 sled dog race this weekend. Oh, and snow is finally falling the way it should. In the last three days, the amount of snow we have has DOUBLED. That's kept me busy with the snowblower. Not much time to sleep, but that's why we are mushers. I'll try to keep everyone up-to-date.
CONGRATS TO TY AND MITCH FOR THEIR GREAT SHOWING AT THE KLONDIKE 300!!!
Jim
©
2002
Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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