Alaska Land Day 5: Seavey Dog Sled, Scenic Drive

 Wednesday morning, we checked out of our lodging and headed to Seavey's IdidaRide. Even though we already did a dog sled ride, the kids wanted to go again and we had reservations. It was a fun experience. The Seaveys definitely have a robust dog sledding business machine! They have an A team, a B team and a 2 year old team in the Iditarod. They like to have 2 litters of puppies in the spring and 2 in the fall. Ideal make up (which they can't control) is 5 boys and 2 girls. Their son, Dallas, won the Iditarod this past year and some of their dogs were part of the team.

We went on the dog sled ride right away. There were 14 dogs pulling us.

View from the front of the dogs. The lead dogs were Buford and Zephrom. There is a lot of cow parsnip on the ground. If you get it on the skin and expose it to the sun, it gives a nasty burn. However, the dogs learned that there is no sunlight in their stomachs and so they think it makes a tasty treat!

Dog sled cart with a couple of the dogs.

Video from on the dog sled ride.

We enjoyed petting the dogs for a bit after our ride.

Prophet, who was part of the winning Iditarod team this year.

We then watched a demonstration where they showed us different gear the dogs use. Notice the jacket (which they only wear when it gets really cold), ankle brace on front right paw and bootie on front left paw. They wear the booties all the time when they are running and put the ankle bracelets on when they rest.

We got to hold puppies! These were much younger then the ones we held in the Yukon. The first set was just 6 days old and their eyes were not yet open. Gem, their mom, was quite concerned about where her babies were.

Matthew holding a little brown puppy.

All of us held this little black puppy who was the only female and the smallest in the litter. She whimpered a lot and was very cute!

We then held 3.5 week puppies. They were whitish and much more alert with open eyes and interested in seeing where their mom was.

Puppies looking at their mom. Mom was much more interested in getting attention from the humans.

Mitch Seavey and team in 2017 on the way to winning his third Iditarod championship in 8 days, 3 hours, 40 minutes and 13 seconds. Dogs sleep about half the time during the race. Mushers, on the other hand, get much less sleep. In one race, for example, Mitch Seavey got a total of 15 hours of sleep.

Pretty flowers.

We stopped at Tern Lake on our way north.

Gull

Arctic tern

Arctic tern

A bald eagle came. The other birds were NOT ok with this and kept attacking the eagle and making lots of noise.

Eagle landing while other birds dive bomb it.

Eagle deciding to leave.

A few pictures of the birds chasing the eagle away. It was really incredible to watch this.

One more arctic tern picture. We enjoyed watching them swoop down and get fish right in front of us.

Stunning scenery.

We saw some Dall sheep on Turnagain Arm.

View of Glacier Valley overlooking Matanuska River. It was a very pretty drive with lots of mountains and river valleys.

Me and U

Matanuska Glacier