Ultimate Iditarod Update

Amber jumps into the air in anticipation as the rest of the team is harnessed and hooked to the sled. A bootie is visible on her right rear foot.

Because of the warm temperatures last week all of the trails have a fine crust of ice on them now, which can be a hazard for the dogs’ feet. To protect against any cuts or scrapes we have been bootying the whole team. This is quite a time consuming procedure; first we have to sort out the booties by size and style, then we go to each dog on their chain and put two booties with stretch velcro on their front feet and two with straight velcro on their backs (the stretch velcro protects them from tendonitis because it is non-constricting). After the run the booties are strung together by their straps to dry for the next day. A quality booty can go a good two hundred miles before it wears out.

The rivers are at least mostly frozen now, so today my dad is taking a team across Mystery Creek. There is an ice bridge across it so it is safe to cross but it will provide a challenge for Finbarr. Finbarr, is one of the best young leaders we are training this season, and he is really catching onto the commands fast.

Mitch Seavey harnesses Crawdad.

Our handler, Akiko, is starting to run the young dogs farther so we were trying to explain some new trails to her; it was quite humorous. “Ok, go out on the ‘Gas Line’ take a left on the ‘Chainsaw Trail’ and another left on the ‘Little Powerline.’ Next go straight through the ‘Curvy Trail’ to the ‘Spark’s Express.’” Oh yeah, and you could come through the ‘Straight Ahead Trail’ to the ‘S-curve Hill’ on your way home.” As you probably guessed we had her very confused so I took her out on the snowmachine and showed her the proposed route. These names help us tell each other were we plan to run on any given day and once you get used to the sometimes-strange names, it works really well (until you try to explain them to someone who has no idea what the difference between the Straight Ahead Trail and the Chainsaw Trail is).

As the winter solstice is less than three weeks away, the sun is visible for just a few hours, and it is always very low in the sky. Daylight in Sterling, Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula runs from about 10 AM to 4 PM in December. During the Iditarod, the days are longer, and the sun is up for nearly 12 hours.

Recently we have been pouring over the maps in search of new trail options. There are several large swamps just a few miles north of Mystery Creek so we are scouting out some possible routes. There is “Hazard” Creek to the East and Little Indian River to the West and if we can tie it all together we can add in a ten mile loop of new and exciting trail to our trail system. Maybe we can call it the Little Mystery Indian Hazard Trail…. or not.