Iditarod

The Other Half of Iditarod

Sarah · November 20, 2013 ·

Without saying, there is obviously a lot that goes into Iditarod. But, what exactly does it entail? For this kennel, what Iditarod has meant this year is lots of time apart. The realities of training a competitive distance dog team mean that you need to log lots and lots of training miles.

How many miles?

Well, different mushers have different strategies and that “special number” is something that many mushers actually like to keep “under-wraps.” Why? I have no idea…perhaps they think it is their “special” formula for success… But The reality is that most competitive teams have somewhere between 3,000-5,000 miles on their dogs before the start of the race. Of course, like everything, there are exceptions: older dogs who have travelled to Nome several times before often don’t require as much training as dogs who have only done the race once or twice. Still, miles are important

And miles, ultimately, means time apart — especially when our home base is Seward. There is a reason we are the only year-round kennel in this town: it’s because there are no trails. In the winter, when we have snow (which we don’t at the moment), we are able to put about 20 miles on the dogs by running out to Kenai Fjords National Park and back…in order to train the dogs, we often have to do at least a 60 mile run meaning we do the whole course 3 times. Because we run out to the Park and then back, we actually will cover the same trail approximately 6 times on one run. An

This however gets very repetitive and the dogs often grow “sour.” Just imagine how you would feel if you had to run a marathon on a highschool track. It might be ok the first time. The next time you might get a little bored. By the 6th or 7th time, no matter how much you love to run, you are inevitably going to ask: why am I doing this?

We want to keep our dogs attitudes up and our own attitudes. So this year, Travis has been training all over the state. Most of the time, he is Knik, Alaska mushing with friend Wade Marrs. Together, they also travelled north to the Denali Highway where they did a series of camping trips.

But where exactly does this leave me?

Stuck at home.

With only myself and Travis currently working with the dogs, it means that I get to take care of the next generation of our kennel. We had several litters of puppies this year because our goal is ultimately to field two competitive Iditarod teams. So far, even though being at home means I cannot train, I have had a blast working with our puppies who are going to be the heart and soul of our kennel in the coming years. Still, I will admit it is definitely tough staying at home. There a lot of work involved in the day to day running of a kennel; but more importantly, I just miss Travis. But, it’s all for the greater good… we are training to have a stellar season and being successful ultimately means we have to make certain sacrifices.

Wish us luck as we train. Have questions about Iditarod? Please, make sure to email us and we will post about them! If you enjoyed our post, please make sure you share it with your friends.

And they’re off!

Sarah · September 28, 2013 ·

They have left.

The houses, save a few, sit empty — their inhabitants now traveling northward in search of colder temperatures and longer trails. The dogs who were left behind, either too old or too young to travel, howl one at a time, never together, filling up the incredible black silence of night. It is a lonesome howl. It is a where-has-my-family-gone howl and a why-was-I-left-behind howl.

Fortunately, it won’t last long. In the morning I will tie up the younger dogs so that they are together. I’ll let them run loose for hours and tire them out. We’ll have fun. We’ll forget that the dog lot and house are empty. We’ll play games and go on walks and they will learn things they can’t learn when they are running with the team and they will think Life Is Good.

Life is good.

The puppies that were born this year are my future Iditarod team and school for them officially starts tomorrow.

Travis has signed up for Iditarod 2014

Sarah · July 1, 2013 ·

It may be summer, but we are already preparing for Iditarod 2014. Saturday marked the first day of sign ups. Travis left our Seward tour business for a day to go and sign up while I manned the kennel and ran our summer dog sled tour.

We are more than thrilled with his performance this past year and are already working on putting together our team for next year. We are hoping that many of the challenges we faced in 2013 will not plague us — mainly flooding and warm weather.

Now that both the dogs and Travis have experience the trail once, we are hoping to compete. This past year, the goal was to familiarize both Travis and the dogs with what it takes to run the Iditarod. Believe me when I say, we learned a lot! From packing food drops to how to train, there are many things we plan on doing differently.

What did we learn?

Make a plan

Having a good plan for the race sets the tone — not only for the race but for training. The best way to train is to train the way you race, having a good plan early on will be key to our success this year.

Prepare Early

Figuring out what we need and learning to ASK FOR HELP will really improve our lives this year! Last year, we waited until the last minute to do our food drops. This was stressful and caused us to rush packing. Now that we’ve packed for Iditarod once, we have a pretty good idea of what we need and how much. We also have a much better idea of figuring out how much it will cost us and can better plan. As we really on our summer tours and our winter dog sled tours for all of our income, being able to financialy plan is key.

Fundraise

We are really excited to have the Breeze Inn located in Seward, Alaska on our side to help us plan some wonderful fundraisers. Last year, because of the flood, we actually had little time to prepare a fundraise. This year, the Breeze Inn has stepped in and will be hosting a few events to help us get to the starting line. We couldn’t be more excited! Want to help? We can always use items to donate at these events! Or you can sponsor us directly too!

Train. Train. Train.

Last fall, we were really held back due to the flood. While most teams began training mid September, we really couldn’t kick things in gear until mid November. Repairing our house and dog lot took a lot out of us physically and financially. We started off behind. This year, we are going to start fall training on time! In fact… our summer tours have allowed us the privilege of already starting! Every time we take the dogs out, we consider that a training run. It is AWESOME getting to work with the dogs day in and day out and see them grow in the sport!

We are really looking forward to another year of running dogs and chasing our dream of being the next Iditarod Champions!

2014 Iditarod Sign Ups

Sarah · June 1, 2013 ·

We are already preparing for the 2014 Iditarod. On June 29th, Travis will travel to Wasilla to Iditarod Headquarters for the annual first day of sign-ups. He will be accompanied by Grayson Bruton, our handler. Grayson is being honored this year by the Iditarod for his outstanding commitment to the race. Grayson ran the junior Iditarod two years ago and has volunteer for the race 9 times. This year, he will be attending the volunteer’s picnic as the Guest of Honor.

We are incredibly proud of Grayson for all his achievements and are looking forward to a great year (and rest of the summer!) working together!

Come out and Meet Travis and Grayson at one of our Seward Tours or meet them up in Wasilla at the Picnic.

2013 Iditarod: Meet Copper

Sarah · March 7, 2013 ·

Travis introduces 2013 Iditarod team member COPPER. We bought Copper this fall. Copper is an outstanding cheer leader and has a really smooth gait — he runs beautifully down the trail. When you are watching sled dogs, you always look for the dogs that make it look effortless and that’s Copper to a T. He’s a lover at heart and enjoys running near the front of the team. He is not, by definition a “lead dog” but prefers to run one or two pairs back from the front.

Copper can be a little grumpy but enjoys running next to his best friend, KERMIT. Copper and Kermit ran on Jen Seavey’s Iditarod team in 2009 and ran all the way to Nome together under her leadership. They will be doing the same this year with Travis.