Iditarod 2007 is here! We finally have our new website up and running, and all posts will be at www.mitchseavey.com this year. Thank you, Danny Seavey

Mitch with Golden Harness Leaders Zebra and Tread in Nome.
Back to Seavey's Racing Site.

Living in an Iditarod family has its ups and downs. Scooping, which I don't do often, only when we are short on handlers, isn't the greatest. On the other hand, mushing is the most fun work. I'm writing this in Seward, Alaska, roughly 82 miles away from my home in Sterling. Seward is where Grandpa Dan lives. He is the first generation of our mushing family. He started helping Joe Redington, Sr. in 1970 planning a glorious but daring race with hopes they could make a fantasy a sport. In 1973 the first Iditarod took place. Dick Wilmarth was the first winner. Grandpa Dan was 3rd place, it may sound bad, but back then it was a miracle. They were all relieved when the last musher crossed the finish line alive. Then the tradition spread down to my dad who has raced in 12 1/2 races so far, 1/2 as in this race is still going. My father has always dreamed of winning the Iditarod and in 2004 his dream came true. He won his dreams and defeated the Last Great Race on earth. And then it passed on to me. Having my closest brother ten years away has taught me to be good on a sled. I have a dog named Eagle, I named him for the markings on his back. I have been with him since he was a puppy and bonded with me unlike most sled dogs. Sled dogs aren't the kind of dogs that bond so this is very unlikely but some how I did it. I taught Eagle his do's and don'ts and through three years we have been good buddies. One day, my mom, Eagle and I went on a walk on our field by someone's horses and Eagle took a good stance and barked out his little soul. I called and he wouldn't come and once we got a fair distance away from the horses he stopped being stiff and trotted over thinking "Ope!" Nothing happened. Now there's a protective dog! I knew he was a good dog, but I never knew my dog was that close to me.
Conway Seavey (age 9)
Mitch Seavey�s youngest son

 

Iditarod starts this weekend!!
With the Iditarod just 3 days away, we are more than busy making the last minute adjustments and plans, making sure we are prepared for every contingency. Mitch's team looks great, and we are very excited about his winning chances this year! Rooster, a 4 year old who had a great season last year, has stepped up, and is now the best dog in the kennel. Watch for the big red dog in lead if you see footage from the trail. My young team is ready, although they have no idea what they are getting into, since none of them have raced before. Tread, my dad's Golden Harness Leader from 2004 has retired from the race team at 10 years old, and will be running on my team, showing the pups how it is done. For me, the most rewarding part of mushing is teaching young dogs what they are capable of doing. Jake Lysyshyn will be on the trail with a snowmachine, and if the sat phones work, will be updating www.ultimateiditarod.com. Otherwise, Joe, D'Arcy, and Greg are doing a wonderful job with the Iditarod Insiders website, and I strongly reccommend signing up. They have recent interviews with my dad and I online already, and will be posting new video footage every day. With that, I am going to do one last training run, and we will post more updates after the Iditarod.

Daniel Wilbert took 4th place in the Junior Iditarod this weekend, capping a great season by our newest musher. The Junior Iditarod is a two-day, 140 mile race for high school aged mushers. Micah Degerlund, the other half of Dallas' dramatic finish last year came back to win the race, beating Rohn Buser by just 10 minutes. Ellen King took Rookie of the Year honors with a third place finish, after running within sight of Daniel for most of the race. Visit www.jriditarod.com for a full report.

Food Drop Time!
Iditarod food drops are the most hectic two weeks of the season, even when you have done them 20 times and have lots of help. We have to prepare over 2000 lbs of food and gear per team that will sustain the teams along the trail. We start by marking burlap bags with our name and the destination checkpoint, and then fill them up. Each dog burns 10-14,000 kcal per day, and we have to plan for every contingency, so Daniel and Chance cut up into bite size pieces, bagged in 4lb bags, and put in the appropriate bags over 3200 lbs of beef, salmon, lamb, and fat. The dogs eat pretty well, it is all human grade food, and once I caught Chance cooking up a dog steak for dinner. Then we add the dry food, Blackwood Dog Food supplies us with miniature bags of food that are perfect for one feeding, so we ship two little bags per checkpoint, plus the vitamins packs.
In addition to the dogs, we have to send out human food. I just walked into the kitchen, and it would do any Brian Jacques book proud. Scott, Jen and mom have been baking for days, preparing all the meals we will eat on the trail. Not quite as scientific as the dog food, the people food is still very high in fat, as we will burn roughly 5,000 kcal per day. (Hard to believe, but Carla Cox, PhD. a nutrition professor at the University of Montana studied the mushers' caloric requirements on the trail last year, and found mushers were burning up to 5,800 kcal per day) Some of the meals you couldn't stomach under normal circumstances, as they are so high in fat, but we need and crave fat on the trail.
Then the extras go in: We ship out sliders for our runners, (Derrick Charbonnet, our team engineer, goes above and beyond to ensure we have the latest and greatest plastics and composite sliders for every snow condition), over 1200 dog booties per team, spare gloves, chemical hand warmers (yes, we cheat), batteries, medicines and salves, dry clothing, and a host of other things I am constantly forgetting. We have the tried and proven Master List, but for some reason we never really get organized.
The end result is 2 burlap bags per team per checkpoint, which seems like a lot, but when you have to travel 1100 miles across Alaska with no other supplies, you are thankful for every little but on the trail. The best part however, comes from Conway, my 9 year-old brother, who often slips notes of encouragement in the bags. The first time I ran Iditarod, Conway was only 5, and his handwriting and spelling left something to be desired, but he slipped a note into every drop bag. I enjoyed many a laugh with my fellow competitors on the trail trying to decipher his notes.
So if you sent me an e-mail or left a message in the past few days, I am really not ignoring you, but running in little circles trying to get each little thing in the right bag, and I will get back as soon as possible.

Danny Seavey

Jessica Hendricks wins Tustumena 200, Danny not last.
Jessica caught Jeff King in the final miles to defend her T-200 title, preventing a sweep of the mid-distance races by Jeff King. Jeff won the Knik 200 by an hour, and narrowly held of Mitch in the Kusko 300. Danny, after spending the majority of the race in last place, avoided the red lantern and caught 4 teams right before the finish. He finished with all 14 dogs running strong, and ready to go to Iditarod. For complete results visit www.tustumena200.com

King can laugh now about nearly letting Seavey catch him
KUSKOKWIM 300: Winner almost had a bit too much fun finishing.
By CRAIG MEDREDAnchorage Daily News
Published: January 26, 2006
A stop here, a little dillydallying there and some time spent jabbering nearly cost Jeff King of Denali Park his eighth victory in the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race on Tuesday.
When King crossed the finish line just before midnight, his team was only about a minute and a half in front of that of defending Kusko champ Mitch Seavey of Sterling, though King confessed Wednesday he didn't have a clue...Full Story

King survives late push from Seavey in frigid Kusko
By Jon Little for CabelasIditarod.com
BETHEL, Alaska, Jan. 25, 2006
– Jeff King built up a seemingly insurmountable lead and hung on to win, by a mere two minutes as it turned out, the frigid 2006 Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race. More than that, King finished with a large, healthy team and growing confidence in a magnificent three-year-old leader named Bernard...Full Story

Mitch leaving the last checkpoint on Kusko. Photo by Justina Phillip
 

King nips Seavey in Kusko stretch run
TIGHT: Denali Park musher beats Seward opponent by 95 seconds into finish line.
By CRAIG MEDREDAnchorage Daily News
Published: January 25, 2006

Jeff King of Denali Park held off a hard-charging Mitch Seavey just before midnight Tuesday night to win the Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race by just 95 seconds, the second closest finish in race history.
King, 46, saw his lead over Seavey dwindle from 42 minutes some 50 miles out to mere seconds before guiding his team across the Bethel finish line to win Alaska's premier mid-distance race and pocket $20,000...Full Story

Kuskokwim 300

Mitch and Jake flew out to Bethel for the Kuskokwim 300 last night. Bethel is a small town in western Alaska accessible only by air or barge, and has become one of the mushing capitals of Alaska. For the past couple of years, we have stayed with Paul O'Brien and family during the race. They let us move in with 28 dogs, 3 people, and enough clothing and gear to make Paris Hilton envious. They are gracious hosts, make us feel at home, and are a great help. Thanks Paul.

The Kusko is 300 miles long, from Bethel to Aniak and return, and is run almost entirely on the Kuskokwim River. Conditions are usually hard and fast, with small rests, and winning requires great speed and endurance. Teams often drop many dogs, not because of injury, but because this is still a warm up for the Iditarod, and no one is willing to risk a key dog, and also since the race is nearly perfectly flat, a small team can travel just as fast as a large one.

Mitch won the Kusko last year, and Dallas placed 6th with the second team. We are hoping for a repeat, but this year's Kusko boasts one of the most competitive field of mushers ever assembled. In fact, with the sole exception of Robert Sorlie of Norway, the 1st and 2nd place mushers from each of the past 15 Iditarods are all entered in this race. Rick Swenson, the 5 time Iditarod champ, signed up at the last moment completing the list.

You can follow the race online at www.k300.org, they will be posting updates as the mushers go through the checkpoints. Keep an especially close watch on Ed Iten - 2004 champion and 2005 runner-up; Doug Swingley - 4-time Iditarod champ, and 1999 Kusko champ; Jeff King, who has won this race 7 times; and of course, Mitch.

Exam Time.

January is the begining of racing season, we will run several mid-distance races for training experience, and to see how our teams match up to the other competitors. The mid-distance races are kind of like regular season games, they do matter, but the first priority is to prepare the dogs for Iditarod rather than to win a short race. Here is the racing plan for this winter, follow the links for race info and updates.

Daniel Wilbert and Danny ran the Clam Gulch Classic last weekend, a 72 mile local race, and had a great time. It is a very low-key race, mostly a chance to get our young dogs around other teams and race procedure. We are not really sure what place they finished, as some teams switched dogs, others started half way around the course, and others took shortcuts. But they had a lot of fun, Daniel did a great job on his first distance race, and our dogs gained some very valuable experience.

Mitch and Jake will race the Kusko 300 Jan 20-22, look for another update about that soon.

Danny will run the Tustumena 200 with the two-year-old team on January 28th-29th. Again, this is just a training run with young dogs, and we hope to give them a taste of long distance racing before Iditarod.

Daniel will run the Junior Iditarod (Feb 25-26) with the young team as well. The Junior is a 160 mile race for high school aged mushers. This will be Daniel's rookie race, and we wish him the best.

Mitch and Danny will both be in the Iditarod again, Mitch going to win, and Danny taking the young team for experience. The Iditarod start March 4th.

Dallas breaking trail over Devil's Pass Trail. 

We hope you all had a great Christmas. We were once again blessed to have the whole family here; the boys were home from school, etc. Spent Christmas day at Mom and Dad’s (Dan and Shirley), and family day on the 26th at home. The dogs were taking a much-deserved rest, until the 27th, when we started running again here at home. Pretty good trail though not a lot of snow still. Because we wanted to really put on the miles we decided to bail out and head north for better trails.

When I say “better trails” perhaps a little clarification is in order. My personal feeling is, at least to a point, the worse the trail is, the better. I feel worse trails can yield better training. I get bored real soon of just skating over perfectly groomed trails. “This is preparing us for what?” I think, “I’ve never seen a trail like this on the Iditarod.” So we go looking for new trail to break or the biggest hills, whatever makes it tougher. Some drivers groom the daylights out of everything so there isn’t so much as a bump on their trails. They feel they are preventing training injuries this way and keeping their team in better shape. “That’s nice, “ says I, but if I have a dog that will get sore in bad trail, I’d rather see it in December than on the Iditarod. Many times I have muttered through frozen lips on a training run, “If you want to wimp out Dog, do it now.”

With little snow cover, our home trails are challenging to say the least. One big, steep drop goes 200 feet down to Hazard Creek. Currently there is a little ice on the hill, less snow, and more rocks, each time we drag our brakes over it. I do mean rocks, too. Not gravel. We had a serious conversation about it yesterday and decided it would be possible to install a permanent climbing rope, and belay the team down the hill. I think we’ll try it.

On our last trip up north we racked up a ton of miles, and tried to hit all the most difficult trails available. One trail is groomed to perfection down a power line, which goes over some hills. In the section where the hills get larger, the groomed “highway,” diverts into the swamps for easier going, leaving the power line trail with only moose tracks in all winter’s snow. Tyrell is helping us train during Christmas break, and he was driving the lead team as we went down the power line for the first time. He saw the situation and as his team began to turn off the power line on the wide tail, he just said “No, straight ahead.” His leaders eagerly dove in, and plowed neck deep through the snow. My team followed, getting distracted only to sniff moose droppings.

A few miles of trail breaking is good for them, even on steep hills. These dogs are neither surprised at, nor afraid of anything. We didn’t injure any dogs. These guys have been bred for this, selected for this, and they are tough.

Right now we are on a break and we are letting our dogs loose-run in our big pen. This helps them not stiffen up, and recover more quickly. Just a few more runs before the Kusko.

Happy New Year,
Mitch

Howdy Folks. We’ve made it home from our trip up north. Lots of truck miles, and lots of dog miles, too. The southern part of the state went through a major meltdown, so we had to travel to keep on schedule. We didn’t find great trails. Too bumpy, and not enough snow, but we put on tons of miles and didn’t have any serious injuries to the dogs.

One of the interesting things about running on new trails is guessing how far we have gone. It seems that each time I added a little for “good measure” we ended up going a really long ways. I am trying to travel at a slow enough pace that we can do it almost forever, but these guys are just geared for speed, so we end up going pretty fast, almost forever. I time how long we have been running, subtract the time for the snack break and then multiply by my guess at how fast we have been traveling. So, depending on whether we are going 9 mph or 12.5 mph, it makes a big difference after running all day. In this case, on the last day we sat down with a local person who has traveled these trails by snowmachine for many years and used a GPS to measure all of them. Very interesting.

Anyway, whether by design or accident, we are way ahead of our normal training milestones. We try to establish the speed the team is capable of running for long distances and pretty much run them as much as we can without undue athletic type injury. Most of the so-called injuries we see in training are actually more like soreness or inflammation. If the trail is decent we shouldn’t get serious injuries.

This mileage question is an interesting one among mushers, and I suspect among other athletes as well. Some figure their mileage like this:

“Well it’s supposed to be 12 miles to the bridge, and it took us 1:10, so a little over an hour, call it an hour. We went for 2: 49 minutes, I think, so 3 hours at 12 MPH is 36 miles. Hey honey, we went 40 miles today!”

Actually, it’s 10 miles to the bridge and the 2:49 was really 2:45 because the team was stopped for a big tangle. Doing the math yields 27.5 miles, not 40. Our friend then does the same run all season calling it a 40, and goes into the Iditarod saying he has 2000 miles on his team, which is really 1375. During the race he can’t seem to get the speed out of the team he thought he had, and the stamina isn’t there.

Our situation on our home trails is quite simple. The gas-line trail we train on has a big orange mile marker every two miles, so cheating on the distance isn’t possible. But then sometimes the markers are snowed over, so we have to guess.

Mitch

What it takes to win the Iditarod.

A couple days ago my dad (Mitch) wrote about how wonderful the weather and trails were, and no sooner did we get it posted than the clouds rolled in from Hawaii. All day yesterday it reminded me of the pictures of the hurricanes around here. Blowing 30 knots, rain falling in sheets, trees crashing down, and all our beautiful snow melting away. We are down to 6 1/2 hours of daylight now, so it is usually dark, but I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning (10am) and all I that's left is dirt and occasional patches of ice on the ground. Last month we were setting record low temperatures, and now we are setting record highs. On one of the -30 days last month I saw a bumper sticker that said "Alaskans for Global Warming,” which at the time I thought was pretty funny. Be careful what you wish for.

Anyway, the show must go on, so my dad loaded his dogs and left for Nenana (about 500 miles north of here), looking for better snow conditions. We are in the middle of crunch week, which is actually three weeks of the hardest training imaginable, and he refuses to miss any runs.

The crew around here - Scott, Ralph, Jake, Heather, Daniel, and even a few of the family - refer to my dad as The Maniac. They mean this is the most endearing way; actually it is a compliment. I will explain. Every year, around December 1st, my dad becomes possessed by some mushing demon, and refuses to eat, sleep, or participate in any other normal human activity. He wants to run his dogs, and nothing else. He will return to the dog yard in the middle of the night after an 18 hour training run, feed his dogs, enter some numbers in his computerized training program, and then go harness up and leave again before anyone else is even out of bed.

At times we wonder how it is humanly possible to go that long without sleep, or why anyone would want to spend that much time on the runners. Even his dogs adopt his attitude. Last night (yeah, he was mushing in the rain, see what we mean) I helped him leave the yard on his third run of the day, and a couple of his young dogs looked back at him as if to say, “you have got to be kidding, we just got back.” But the older dogs, the ones who have been with him in all the races, without exception started barking and jumping to go. They love the trail and they love to travel. Soon the young ones picked up on the vibe, and he had 14 dogs screaming to go. (As a side note, he often switches teams, or at least a few dogs when he comes in the yard. So the dogs are not actually as crazy as he is.)
So he finished running late last night, will drive 500 miles this morning, and undoubtedly will be back on the runners tonight. You see how he earned the nickname.

-Danny

“Hello, yeah, it’s been awhile.”
But there has been a lot going on. We’ve been really “gittin’ ‘er done” lately, with lots of dogs going on long runs. Our trails are great, with adequate snow, though our main long trail has a lot of really steep hills and the brakes have turned up a few rocks going down. Our effort now is to slow the teams down to prevent injury and allow us to go further. I have nearly 200 pounds of weight in the sled, two big drags with bolts through them, and the worst runner plastic on that I can find. This allows me to run 14 dogs and nearly maintain control. We are doing some short camps too, getting used to parking on straw, and more importantly, leaving the straw and going again.

Jake is here now, running dogs and helping with chores every day, so we can get everything done. We are able to correctly train all of the Iditarod candidates on sleds, and not leave anyone out, though it requires a staggered schedule whereby the mushers go nearly every day, even if some of the dogs are enjoying a day off.

Danny has the puppy team tuned up nicely and a young guy, also named Daniel, is helping him. We had a virus in the yard, and it seemed to affect the younger dogs more than mine, so Danny gave his guys a few days off. This allowed him to get the new handlers out on sleds for the first time with tour dogs.

It is unbelievable the stories that can be generated on a four-mile run by a beginning musher. Every bump, every turn, each dog in detail, each slip or tangle is memorialized. Then it gets into the dogs relieving themselves on the trail, and on and on, all in four miles. It reminds me of the clubhouse after a sprint race. (A sprint race is a dog race of short distance and the teams go very fast.) Since they aren’t out there very long, the mushers have to fill up the rest of the day talking about every little thing that happened on a very brief run.

Distance mushers are usually different. We are out there all day and half of the night. Almost nothing that happens is considered a really big deal, and if it were, we can’t really remember it by the time we get home, because it was such a long time ago, and our brains are frozen. Eighteen hours later the yawning, bathrobe clad wife responds to the sound of the wood stove being refueled and asks, “How was your run?”

”Okay.”

“Good night.”

“Night.”

Well, I guess it’s that time of year again. Actually six months after that time of year. You see, female dogs come into heat about every six months, and we bred up a lot of these girls about half a year ago. Now the problem is to convince the males that this time is not actually that time, but rather six months past that time. I am more convinced as the days go by that neutered males (dogs only) are socially much more acceptable.

Yup, I have several neutered males and they are definitely easier from a management standpoint. While Tread and Zebra are eating all their meals and sleeping well, Piper, my main breeder, has lost ten percent of his body weight in the last few days. He runs in circles snapping his teeth and whining pathetically. He’s short tempered with his buddies. Food is of no interest, and he won’t even go in his house for fear of loosing sight of - Her. Sounds like material for a country song.

A smart musher can take advantage of this situation. One young female, Dolphin came into heat while on the Iditarod. The distraction she caused was unbelievable. I was in serious peril of a complete loss of focus and momentum in my team. Then I had a plan. Even though she had never run in front before, I put poor Dolphin in lead. She ran the next 500 miles trying to run away from a dozen amorous males and they ran like mad for 500 miles trying to catch her. Luckily, she was faster and we finished in the top twenty, to the complete surprise of nearly everyone. Except Dolphin. She became my best leader for a total of eight Iditarod finishes.

This plan does not always work out. Another young potential leader named Harlem put me into a similar situation with her semi-annual cycle, and even though she was fast as a bullet and able to run ahead of the team, she didn’t. In fact, where the boys were concerned, she was downright cooperative. No, make that aggressive. We screeched to a jumbled halt on the blindest of corners, and while I was collecting myself and scoping out the situation, one of the boys had already zeroed-in. I narrowly missed the aggravation of a consummation right there in my mode of transportation.

So this was the situation as Danny and I went on the first road trip of the season this week. We had 34 dogs, one in heat, nine in fear, seven indifferent, and the rest in love. Feeding and caring for this many dogs under these conditions, on short chains, in close proximity around the dog truck was interesting. We avoided any fights or breedings among our crew, due only to our experience, expert dog care abilities and dumb luck. “Are you sure that one is neutered?”

The training went very well actually, and we knocked out several great runs, from Wolverine Lodge on Lake Louise. Because of Thanksgiving coming up, we were on a limited time schedule so we thought we’d push these guys and see what they are made of. We put on four long runs in less than three days and Piper was still running in circles snapping his teeth back at the truck. I wonder how he would react to a cold shower.

Happy thanksgiving,
Mitch

Today is a clean up and repair day as the weather is terrible. Well, maybe not terrible, but I’d say at least horrible. Warm, rain, ice. We have been spoiled lately with nice cold temperatures and at least a little snow. It looks like the weather sites online are forecasting snow so that’s good news. Well, some of them are forecasting snow. It just depends which site one reads. I have four well-recognized weather sites bookmarked on my computer, so I can find whatever forecast suits me.

That’s the thing about weather forecasting. Of the four sites I check, they never agree and none of them is ever correct. Not ever. How can there be a profession called “Weather Forecaster Person,” which does not require the person to ever get the forecast right? On second thought, maybe they get fired if they get it wrong and so the forecaster person is always a new guy and not very good at it. That would explain it. Glad I could clear that up for you.

This weather doesn’t bother me much. I have a lot of miles on my dogs already this season, and I don’t think there is a lot to be gained by slipping and sliding around, and possibly hurting a dog. On yesterday’s run I had 22 dogs hooked to the pickup over on Skilak Lake Road, and the conditions were pretty good except for the last couple of miles when the temperature dropped below freezing and the snow got crunchy. That can be pretty abrasive on dogs’ feet. Today it’s glare ice. Best to make the most of it by getting something done that needs doing. Then, when the conditions are better, I am ready to go.

There is a proper time for everything, right? Except for cleaning the shop. There is no proper time for that. So I did it today instead. You wouldn’t believe the stuff that can be discovered in the shop of a musher who is cleaning challenged. One item I couldn’t actually identify but I was pretty sure it had once been a piece of equipment or gear of some kind, until it was chewed into oblivion by a member of last year’s puppy team. Another item may have been alive at one time, but we think it must have been a long time ago. I actually have nothing against cleaning. I would let someone do it to my shop most any time.

It looks like we may be packing up the dog truck and trailer and heading for better conditions up north. Our son Dallas will soon be home for a week and may be able to help out, and Jake, one of our summer employees and an Iditarod veteran, should be here soon to help me out for the rest of the winter. I’ll have the help I need to stay on our aggressive training schedule. Now all I need is to figure out where to go “up north”. Guess I’d better check the online weather sites.

Mitch

Daniel drives the 4 wheeler in training near Sterling. Beetle Juice and Griz are the first two dogs you can see. There is just enough snow to protect the dog's feet and make the ground white, but not nearly enough to run sleds. Daniel and I are training the puppy team, 24 two-year-old dogs that will run the Iditarod race just for experience. We hook up 18 dogs at once to the four-wheeler, and run our 20 mile loop. Danny Seavey

Not much snow here yet, but everything is very frozen due to a lot of sub-zero weather. So, the pooches and I have been scampering all over the place, having the time of our lives (if freezing all day aboard an ATV is your idea of the time of your life.) Running over the swamps in their frozen state sure beats trying to run through them when they are not frozen. My ATV did the bullfrog look-alike thing more than once earlier in the year, and let me tell you, frozen is definitely better. Once I had to turn around a very long string of mud-covered huskies and hook it to the back of my ATV and let them pull me out. Worked pretty well. Driving home at 14 mph backwards was a challenge. We have a lot of corners in our trail.

I started training over 40 dogs for my Iditarod team, and I sold some of them but I am still training a lot of dogs. I don’t need this many dogs. I can’t seem to convince any of them that they all can’t be on my race team. We have all the great veterans of many races, including the championship ’04 team and the third place ’05 team, as well as a whole herd from Dallas’ pup team last year. I say “herd” because some of these boys are big enough to chew a cud. If these big guys can hang with their home dogs until the saints go marching in, I’m going to need a bigger brake on my sled.

A couple of weeks ago I was training with 18 dogs on a dirt road near here. The snow on the road was actually gravel, and the dog sled was actually a pickup. Since it was a 38-mile trip, I stopped to snack and rebootie the team. Now these dogs are vocal when demanding their food, but suddenly the tone turned to alarm and I turned to see two large brown bears. I couldn’t help but recall the recent news article about the two people mauled by bears near here, very near here. It was the third mauling in this area just this summer. There are too many bears around here. I scared the bears off with a couple of shots into the air, and went on about my business. I continued to use the road for several more runs, as it was the best option at the time. You should see me bootie 18 dogs with a shotgun in one hand.

Anyway, as long as we’re on wheels, I can train with big teams, but when we get on sleds, I’d like to slim it down a bit. A couple of the buffaloes will have to draw straws for a position. If anyone else out there is tempted to run more than, say 16 dogs in one team, I would recommend using double cable or heavier cable for the back few sections, because, well, you can probably figure out why. You can break your towline if you hit something with your ATV. Especially at 14 mph. Especially if your ATV is hooked up backwards.

-Mitch

Seavey Family at Iditarod 2005 

Welcome to the Seavey Family's training journal. We are currently training two Iditarod teams: Mitch has the A team, and is racing to defend his 2004 Iditarod title. Meanwhile, Danny is training the yearling team for a fun trip to Nome. Check back often, as we will be posting training updates regularly. Happy Trails, Danny Seavey