Ultimate Iditarod Update

One of the key elements in training a competitive Iditarod team is that the musher spends ten days in Hawaii before starting. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but a few days of relaxing certainly clears one’s mental faculties and allows for some much needed planning.

The "dog trucks" are the means by which mushers and dogs can travel from their homes to distant racing and training locations. Many trucks, like the one shown, feature individual kennels for the dogs to ride in and have some gear storage space running lengthwise down the middle between the kennels. A door in the back opens to access the storage space.

Now, after being home for just a few days we have bought a new truck and also a new four-wheeler—these both are material essentials for rallying a competitive team. In the coming months we will start to travel all over the state in search of suitable snow and trail conditions, and an efficient truck is a must.

As the training intensifies the dogs require even more calories in their diets. At this time the answer to that is beef steaks. Throughout the summer we have collected meat and fish from locals who are emptying out their freezers, and we now have a handsome stash of steaks, roasts, and fillets. Although you have to be careful to keep their diet consistent, a little variety really is good for the dogs.

South-central Alaska not only offers great chances to see wildlife, but also offers spectacular sights like Exit Glacier near Seward. During the winter, dog teams and snowmobiles drive right up to the toe of the glacier. In the summer, visitors can drive and hike to the glacier.

On the Seavey dog farm here in south-central Alaska, the wildlife is amazingly plentiful. Just today between the three teams we ran we saw four moose, and later a large coyote came into our yard and was romping around playfully with one of our loose dogs. If you want to experience the outdoors there is absolutely no better way than from the runners of a dog sled, or around a kennel out in the bush.

The dogs need very high quality, high fat and high protein food. This picture from the winter of 1998-1999 shows Tyrell Seavey cutting beef fat into 1/4 pound chunks that will be given to the dogs as a part of their daily rations.

Besides our “A” team we are also training a large number of young dogs for future races. Those “yearlings” are quite a handful and create a real challenge for even the most experienced dog hand. Aside from barking their heads off, these guys are also busy chewing up the gangline. They easily rival a full-grown alligator when it comes to destroying a perfectly good set of gear. In 2003 I will race my first Iditarod. All of my dogs, with the exception of a few leaders, will come out of this group of athletes—scary thought. The dogs’ entire life is a learning process, though, and these dogs are progressing quickly enough. Some of the best talent I have ever seen lies with those young, crazy scalawags, and I will have the privilege of working with them and teaching them what they need to know to be sled dogs. Watching these dogs grow and mature over the next several years is an amazing and fun experience.