Our First Camping Trip

December 21, 2001

Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team--Tyrell Seavey

Since my older brother, Danny, is home for Christmas break, we were able to split the dogs into three teams and run them on sleds for the first time this year. I really enjoyed driving the sleds instead of the snowmachine for a change.

Although this part of the trail is very wide, some of the less-used portions of the trail are overgrown with willow brush and trees.  This makes for a wild ride where the musher often must duck behind the handlebars to get out of the way of the brush.

It took us a while to get the sleds fixed up so we took off on our first sled run a little before dark, approx. 3:00p.m., and while on our 20 mile run we witnessed one of the most spectacular sun sets I think I have ever seen. The pinks and blues from the sky were reflecting down on the snow making it nearly glow. It is strange to think of the enormous contrast the wilderness holds. While it is so stunningly breathtaking it is also savage; for instance on that run, everything was so beautiful and smooth it would have been easy to forget that it was -35F out.

After the above mentioned run, we took a day off and then went on our first camping trip of the year. Unfortunately, because we knew we were going to have to run through miles of fresh snow to get to the cabin where we were going to camp, we decided to put the three teams back on the snowmachines for this run.

19oF above zero is a much nicer temperature for the humans than 35 below!  However, the dogs' favorite temperature is somewhere between 10 above and 20 below.  They have excellent coats and are very well adapted to life in the frozen north.

One thing that made this run much more enjoyable was that it warmed up to +30F the day before we left. To put this into contrast, that would be like walking out of a 10F freezer into a balmy 75F day!

The first 25 miles of the run were fast and easy, but as we got closer and closer to the cabin the trail became narrower and harder to traverse because less traffic had been that far out on the trail. The foot of snow we were breaking slowed us, too. We did make it to the cabin, though, and while my younger brother, Dallas, and I bedded the dogs down on straw and began to cook for them, Danny went back and cleared some of the brush from the trail.

The chores on a camp are much the same as they are on a race, and are as follows.

  • The first priority is to tie the lead dogs to a tree. This prevents them from causing any mischief when your back is turned. 
  • Then you unhook all the dogs’ tug lines which leaves them on just their neckline so the they can start to get comfortable.
  • Next comes the straw.
  • Then, as quickly as possible you start melting snow for water for the dogs. This takes about 15 minutes.
  • While this is happening, you can finish getting the meat cut up for the dogs’ food and take off their booties and apply massage cream to their feet.
  • When the water is hot, pour it into a jumbo size cooler with the meat and dry dog food to create a stew for the dogs.
  • After the dogs are fed, you make another pot of water for morning, and clean up the campsite.
Nellie stands at the ready sporting her booties.  The booties are taken off at the beginning of each rest stop and then must be put back on before running again.  It takes nearly an hour to take off and put on booties on every dog in a large team.  Often, new, dry booties are put on in place of the used, icy ones.

When all of this is done, then it is time for the two-legged member of the team to take a break. We headed into the "cabin". The "cabin" is really just a plywood shack with a tarp roof and a barrel stove but it sure beats sitting under a tree for twelve hours! After we got a fire going we tried to clear some of the smoke, which was pouring from every orifice on the stove. We finally gave up on the smoke and just left the door open and went to sleep. We took turns throughout the night getting up and catching loose dogs, chasing away moose and getting firewood.

Merry Christmas to everyone, until next time,

Tyrell Seavey