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| Harnesses hang by the wood stove in the shop. The black and white things hanging from the harnesses and on the floor by the stove are dog booties also being dried out. Once dry, the booties are inspected for holes and then re-used on training runs. |
Lots of Training and a Little Racing, Too
January 25, 2002
Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs--Seeley Lake, MT
Over the last week, the snow depth here in the Seeley-Swan Valley has doubled. It's amazing!!! I think it has snowed every day since last Saturday.
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| Harnesses hang by the wood stove in the shop. The black and white things hanging from the harnesses and on the floor by the stove are dog booties also being dried out. Once dry, the booties are inspected for holes and then re-used on training runs. |
Ironically, we also picked this week to be our most intense week of training this season, and the intensity is increased with all the new snow. Last Saturday we did a 70-mile run that turned into a TEN HOUR trek through some amazing snow accumulations. The snow was falling so heavily that I didn't use my headlamp when it got dark. The headlamp beam reflected off all the falling snow and severely limited my visibility. The best part of the run was seeing how well the dogs performed. Everyone did extremely well, and nobody looked very tired at the end of the run, despite the fact that we were moving almost constantly for the entire ten hours. That was excellent training.
On Wednesday, we began a long camping trip at 3 AM. Starting that late, or early, wasn't our first choice, but my mom and I both had a lot of business to attend to before we could begin the run. The camping trip was a 70-mile run, followed by a 6 1/2 hour rest, and then a 60-mile run. Again, lots of snow fell throughout most of the trip, and we were breaking through up to nine inches of fresh snow on some parts of the trail. However, the dogs again were superb. I'm very excited about how they are doing on these long and very demanding runs. The fact that they are able to do so well indicates to me that we have been successful in our training program so far.
Tomorrow is the start of the Seeley Lake Race. The race is actually three races. One is a 50-mile race for recreational mushers. The second and most popular race is a 100-mile race often used as a training run for the upcoming Race to the Sky, and the third race is a 200-mile race used by mushers who are working on qualifying to run their first Iditarod.
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| Cookers for melting snow and heating water (top) are ready for use at the rest stops during the Seeley Lake 100. The red and green dishes are the dogs' bowls out on the trail. The lunch coolers are used to mix hot water an dog food and meat into a warm stew for the dogs to eat. Sleds and sled bags (bottom) are dried, inspected, and cleaning prior to racing. |
Both of my parents and I will each be running a team in the 100-mile race. We are very excited about this because it is the first time that all three of us have competed in a race at the same time. The disadvantage to that fact is that we have to do all of the preparations for the race in threes. Three cookers to heat water for the dogs. Three coolers used to mix the meat, dog food, and hot water into a stew. Three sets of dog dishes. Three sleds and sets of lines. And so on and so forth....
But we are having a good time working together out in the shop getting everything all set.
The race starts at 2:30 PM at the Seeley Lake Community Center. The trail runs north for 50 miles along the ridges that parallel the Swan Mountains to Holland Lake. At Holland Lake, the 50-mile race finishes, but the teams in the 100 and 200-mile races take a six hour mandatory break before returning on the same trail to Seeley Lake for the finish of the 100. From there, the 200-mile teams run a second leg on a different trail to finish that race. Part of the idea of the afternoon start of the race is that it makes us mushers run through the night and gives inexperienced mushers great practice at dog care under sleep deprivation conditions.
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| Bill Gallea (top) washes dog dishes in the shop's restaurant-style sink while Velcro the dog lot "mountain lion" (bottom) inspects his work. |
For my team, after the 100 finishes, we will rest for ten or twelve hours and then head out on the trail again to do a 200-mile camping trip. The idea is to simulate racing conditions like those we see in the Iditarod. They will give both the dogs and I practice that we will be thankful for come March when Iditarod begins. I plan to finish with the camping trip sometime on Tuesday.
I have run in five Seeley Lake 100 races. I can remember after my first one saying that I could never do 11 times that distance and so I could never do the Iditarod. Well, I guess I was wrong. We'll have to see if I can prove myself wrong again this year, but first I have to finish the race tomorrow and make it through a long camping trip. Mushing is sort of like taking "baby steps."
--Jim
© 2002
Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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