Back in April, I went mushing on the Denali Highway with my grandpa, Mitch Seavey (Pops), and friends Gabby, Ron and Richard.
This trip involved mushing 120 miles, most of it in the dark, sleeping in a sleeping bag at -10 and trying not to freeze! It started off like any mush, getting the dogs ready, putting the gear in the sleds and getting ourselves ready. It was fun until it got dark! It was the first time I had ever mushed in the dark. I wasn't really fan of it but I did it.
I had 4 dogs: Flower, Trident, Vivian and Junior. My lead dogs were either Flower and Vivian(sisters) or Flower and Junior. I love all my dogs. It was awesome mushing with them. After a lot of mushing your dogs become your friends, and partners. Also if I didn't have them I would still be out there walking!
We had mushed about 3 hours when we stopped to give the dog some rest. We took off the booties that the dogs had run in and started heating up their food. We fed the dogs and then got in our sleeping bags.
My hands were so cold from taking off booties that I could not feel them when I got in my sleeping bag!! We were practicing a run/rest schedule like the Iditarod and we only had 2 1/2 hours to sleep. It felt like I had just gone to sleep when I had to get up again!!
We got up, fed the dog, bootied them and got ready to go. It was about 4am when we left the campsite. We mushed for about 5 hours and finally got to Alpine Creek Lodge. It was a great feeling to get there! We gave food and straw to our dogs and then went up to the lodge. I got some breakfast and then went to bed. I slept all day! We left the lodge about 9pm and mushed all the way back the the campsite were we had camped the night before. We camped there a few hours in the middle of the night, and it was about 7am when we got back the the truck.Pops claimed he was teaching us how to mush but the whole way he was riding a snowmachine with heated handle bars!!
I didn't really enjoy any of this trip but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It must be because I'm a Seavey, it's in my blood!
He was riding a snow machine with heated handlebars! That is SO not fair! lol Allikz, you are a great writer, like your pops. I will be introducing my students to dog mushing next week (today was the first day of school here in Oregon), and I have a report that somebody (your dad?) published that you wrote in 5th grade about "How to Mush Dogs." Since I teach 5th grade, they really love it. They will love following your blog this year!
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