First Fire !!!

So as many of you know, I recently joined the Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Dept. in Bear Creek, Alaska. I have been on several emergency calls. The first real call I went on was a motor vehicle collision in which I used the equipment to cut the car open in able to extricate the victims inside. I was then on a call in which the whole entire town of Seward was pretty much all under water. We had to evacuate many people. But the best call I have ever gone on happened last night at around 11:30 pm. We had just left the Chinese restaurant, where I had opened my fortune cookie and read that my dream would come true tonight! So we made the joke that an RV would catch on fire and that I would pull people out and save them. We were on our way to Safeway to pick up some pudding when my pager goes off. I heard the tone so I stopped and everyone went on ahead of me. I waited for Dispatch to tell us what the call was, when I heard this "We have a report of a fire. Reporting parties said it looked like a structure fire, across from Nautical and the gravel pit." My heart started racing. I started yelling at everyone that I had to go. And they asked if it was a fire. We ran back to the Van and drove off to the fire station. On the way to the station we passed the scene and off in the woods I could see the glow of the fire. This was a real Fire!!!! I pull into the station and throw my gear on as everyone else shows up. But me being a rookie, the older Fire Fighters got first seats in the trucks. I watched as Rescue Truck 124 took of out of the station. But the Chief yells from behind me "Rookie get in!" I turned to see Chief in our Forestry truck 161. I jump in the truck and we take off down the road with siren wailing. As we are driving along we see Rescue Truck 124 along the side of the road. They couldn’t get their siren or lights on and they let us pass. We arrive on scene and I jump out of the truck. What I see is a fully involved RV. One of the medium sized ones. Chief knocks me on the head and tells me to deploy an inch and three quarters hose. So I grab the hose off the truck and my heart is going crazy. Chuck arrives and engineers the truck. We charge the line and chief tells me to stay with him on the line. He then runs up to the RV, breaks open a window and shoves the hose inside and starts deploying water while I’m behind helping him guide the hose. This is the coolest thing in the world!! My first fire and I’m on the Fire Line!!!! We work our way until the fire is almost completely out. Chief then tells the guys to bust down the door. When they do, we step just inside the door and start to squirt more water. After the fire is all out we spend the next hour tearing it all apart to make sure it is completely out while secondary units water down the trees to make sure we don’t have a forest fire. We pack up all the hoses and head back to the station where I find out that one of the guys we left behind was on the Dept. for seven years and he has never seen a fire. I’ve only been on the Dept. for four months and I have seen more action than he has!! I was really lucky!! And it was pretty much the coolest thing ever!!!!

I am now officially a Fire Fighter

Hey everyone. Just a little update for you all. I am now on the Bear Creek Volunteer Fire Dept.!!! So I officially have no free time what so ever!! But I love it!! Nothing really new other than that at the moment but I will keep everyone informed and I will post some pictures of my Dept. as soon as I can!!!!

Another Summer

Well, we have moved to Seward and the tourist season has started off really well. Since being at the cabin I've been seeing moose and bear and it's been really fun actually getting days off!!! Other than that its pretty much been the same old. I miss running dogs on the snow but the season will be here before I know it. My fiance, Meghan, came up to work for the summer and we are looking forward to having lots of fun in the great Alaskan wilderness. Sorry I haven't been blogging for a while, it's hard when we have no internet! Keep on looking for more though!!! Ill try to post more often!!

Cory and Cozmo have made the summer move to Seward. If you are planning a trip to Alaska this summer be sure to include a trip to Seward and Ididaride Tours. You may recognize the tour guide!

2009 Iditarod results

Winner - Lance Mackey in 9 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes, 46 seconds (This is the third straight year that Lance has won)

Seavey Racing results (my kennel) ...

4th place - Mitch Seavey in 10 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 0 seconds

6th place - Dallas Seavey in 10 days, 14 hours, 49 minutes, 45 seconds

43rd place - Jen Seavey (rookie) in 14 days, 1 hour, 47 minutes, 50 seconds (4th out of 15 rookies to run the race this year)

2008 Horizon Iditarod Most Improved Musher Award- Was awarded to Dallas Seavey from Seward Alaska. Dallas went from 41st position in 2007 to sixth in 2009.

For more information and race coverage archives visit http://www.iditarod.com/

Iditarod here I come !!

Well, The Iditarod has come and is almost done for the 2009 season. I had the opportunity to go and help out with the Iditarod false start and restart on the 7th and 8th of March. It was one of the coolest things I have seen. We got to fourth street in down town Anchorage at about 7:30 AM. And there were dog trucks everywhere. It was an awesome sight to see. I talked to Lance Mackey (who just won the Iditarod once again for the third time in a row) I saw Jeff King, Tim Osmar, Dee Dee Jonrowe, and many other musher super stars. After we dropped dogs and they all went to the bathroom I walked around the area for a bit. There were so many people walking around! There was even a group of people that wanted my autograph. I explained to them that I wasn't running the race just helping out but they insisted that they still wanted it and I even posed with their group for a picture! It was crazy! But I couldn't wander for too long, I had to get back and help get Mitch ready to leave. I arrived back at the truck right as everyone started to bootie and harness the dogs. I harnessed a couple dogs until Danny told me to stand by the lead dogs and don't let anyone within five feet of them. So that is what I did. I even had to yell at a few people to please step away from the dogs. It wasn't long before we had his team all hooked up and ready to go. Danny ran up and gave me a leash. I hooked it to the lead dogs. I got to lead the team to the chute! We were about 10 blocks away from the starting line and we had to run the entire way. Which doesn't sound that bad, but they haul in 4 feet of snow for the race and we had to run ten blocks in slushy ankle deep snow. But even harder than that was getting the dogs to stop! They were so jazzed up and ready to take off for Nome! We made it to the start line just fine though! The countdown started then, "2 minutes" The timer said. It was a rush. I wasn't even racing but my adrenaline was pumping now! "1 Minute" Check to make sure all the dogs are hooked up right "30 seconds" fix one dog that was tangled. "15 Seconds" Undo my leash and get ready to get out of the way "10 seconds" step off to the side and double check every thing. "5..4..3..2..1..GO!!!!" The dogs took off and Mitch went off down the road! Oh man, I can't wait until that's me going down 4th avenue!! But I can't daydream for too long we still have two more teams to get out of here. I head over to Jen's truck. She greets me with her normal smile! We start to bootie up her dogs and get them harnessed. We get her Iditarider into the sled. And then Jen asks me to drive her sled to the start for her because she wants to walk with her leaders. So I step on the runners and stand on the brake she gives me a smile and a nod. I reach down and pull the quick stick which releases us and we start moving to the start chute. Although Travis and I were standing on the brake and we had three people helping us keep the team under control it was a crazy ride the two blocks to the start line! But then I saw it. The archway that was over the start line. And I was on the sled. I couldn't help but pretend that this was my rookie year and the I would be flying down that chute in a few minutes. But that didn't last long. Once we got to the chute Jen took my place and I took my post to make sure her team got out ok. Her team got a little tangled out of the chute but she quickly fixed it and was off! Dallas was right behind her and he flew past me as I ran back to the truck. We now had to drive the 11 miles to the airstrip so we could get the teams loaded up and taken back to the hotel. We made it there fine and got back to the hotel. Travis, Scott and I took Mitch's dogs to a friend of Scott's where we spent the night. Most of the night though I was outside with all the Vet work we had to do with the dogs. But once I was inside I was looking at this gentleman's walls where he had all his war medals and certificates. I then spotted a letter that looked a little out of place. It was in the middle of all the plaques kind of in a place of honor. As I got closer realized it was an Iditarod finishers letter from 1975! It was really cool. I talked with this guy for most of the night about what his race was like, it was really different from what we have now. But soon I had to get some sleep. It would be a long day tomorrow and I needed my sleep!! The morning of the 8th was the restart and official start of the 2009 Iditarod. We pulled up to the Ice and parked our truck. We immediately pulled out all the dogs and watered them and started on the Vet work. Mitch started to pack his sled and I was always being asked questions by all the tourists that came to see the mushers take off. By the time I was done with vet work the teams had already started to leave the chute and soon it would be our turn. We harnessed and bootied the same as the day before and then we took off towards the starting line. Mitch went flying down the chute past the thousands of fans all cheering him off! I went over to help Jen and she said that I should go and get her a cheeseburger which I did and by the time I got back Mrs. Seavey had food for the rest of us and we had a five minute break while Jen had all her mandatory gear checked. Soon we harnessed all her dogs and once again we headed off to the starting line. This time her team took off with no tangles looking like an experienced Iditarod team! Next came Dallas. Once he pulled up he shook my hand and said "Thanks for all your help" I said no problem and wished him good luck before he pulled away. One day that will be me!!! But I have some time before that happens. Since then its really been the same back here at the home base except the random moose encounters at 4 AM that make me have to get out of bed to get the moose out of the dog lot. I have just been daydreaming every day about my turn to go underneath the Burled Arch in Nome and get my belt buckle. Well, better get training!!!

Iditarod 2009

If you watch this clip real closely at the beginning, you will see Cory moving away from the sled after helping Jen at the start of the race. He is wearing a jacket with yellow sleeves.

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=9829938

Moosey

This is a quick video clip of our resident moose visiting the dog lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPStEoTcxdE

It has been crazy lately!

So, where to begin... I've pretty much been mushing non-stop since the snows started to fall. I have around thirty little puppies that I am responsible for running and training to be real dogs so that one day Mitch Seavey might take them and win the Iditarod with them! It gets really frustrating sometimes because they are just goofy puppies who only want to run so it can be difficult to calm them down enough so that you can leave the chute!! I also ran my first race a couple days ago. Just a small little race but I felt that I and especially my little pups did the best that we could have done. The best thing was that I got to go run dogs with Dallas (one of Mitch's sons) in his mini Iditarod training run! Before the Iditarod the Seavey's do what they call their mini Iditarod where they run 300 to 400 miles. They do this because they have found out that after 400 miles the dogs are actually truly warmed up and will perform their best. They do this before the race so that when they leave the starting chute at Willow their dogs are already warmed up and ready to bust tail to Nome!! The trip was awesome! The farthest I had ever gone on a dog sled previous to it was about 20 miles. Going from 20 miles to a couple hundred miles is NUTS!!!! I never knew it could be so much fun! We left the dog lot and ran Dallas's dogs for 5 hours 30 minutes straight!! These dogs are incredible athletes to be able to run like this and the thing is, they were barely even tired! By the time we got camp set up and the dogs all taken care of it was dark. I pulled all my gear out of my sled bag and put down my Caribou hide and slipped into my sleeping bag. I was amazed at how well I could sleep outside with it being well below zero. I woke up about an hour later and got up to get my dogs ready to go out again. Now at this point the dogs had been resting for 4 hours, me for only 1. We got the dogs all ready and headed off again, this time at 2:30 AM so it was cold and dark. Watching these dogs was amazing. After about another 6 hours we made it back to Dallas's house and unhooked the dogs, fed them and went inside the house to sleep for about 2 hours. I got up and helped Dallas harness up his team. He was going out on this run alone. His wife, Jen, wanted me to help with her team so I went on a twenty mile run with her. By this point I was pretty well exhausted but it was still so much fun, and I started to wonder... Why is this so much fun? I should be miserable right now. Running on only a couple hours of sleep and doing all this work? No sane person would think this is fun!!!! But alas I thought it was amazing fun! Later on, Dallas came back and we drove a couple miles away to run on some different trails. Once again we started at about 3 in the morning and the trail was nice and icy making it really fun going around some of the corners!! You would come flying around and smash right into the trees!! As we were running, I remember looking up at the sky and it seemed every time I would look up I would see a couple shooting stars . I kept watching and I kept seeing them. There were a lot of stars that night. I kept looking up and I thought that the clouds looked really goofy and funny but the more I looked the more clear they became. I was watching the northern lights dance around the sky. It was a beautiful night with the shooting stars and the northern lights. Morning came soon and washed all those pictures from the sky like a giant Etch-a-Sketch. We camped out in the trailer for a few hours and then headed back out. This time the sun was out and the sky was blue. It was beautiful. We saw so many moose that run too. There was one part of the trail where we stopped and Dallas pointed to the trees by me and right in front of my team, a moose stuck his head out of the trees, looked up and down the trail and then disappeared back into the trees. The training run was very cool but unfortunately it had to end, and I am now back at the main front to take care of my unruly puppies and train them to go 40 miles!! Well, I will talk later. Gotta go scoop the lot!!

Ididaride Sled Dog Tours

Here is the link to where I work. It includes links to other articles and the different locations we work out of. You can also read up on the Seavey family.

http://www.ididaride.com/

Redoubt volcano

An article about the scramble we will have to make once the volcano erupts. This is the Seavey kennel where I work! Mitch Seavey (in the picture) is my boss.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/05/volcano.dogs/index.html

There's also a video. In the video you will see Danny Seavey who has been training me. He is my supervisor and runs the tour business.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/02/05/volcano.dogs/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Videos

One of my duties getting ready for the Iditarod

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK7hU4Ss8rQ&feature=channel


A quick trip around our living space

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtBtnZB4G2s

Back in Alaska

Dogs are a lot of work

Hey! So as everyone knows I am back in Alaska. Well starting off at the beginning, the plane ride was...interesting. It was Eric's first time on a plane and it was a long 16 hours. The first flight was really uneventful. Take off and landing were boring. The second flight got pretty bumpy in the middle. But the third when we were approaching the runway and we were getting thrown around and it was getting really scary. But as you can tell we made it! It has been an interesting few days of work though. Today we woke up to beautiful sky's that soon turned into freezing rain and 65 mile per hour winds. Not to fun! But I love it here and once it starts to snow we will start to go mushing again!! Well I'm writing this while on a break so I can't stay too long. I will write later so peace out!!!

Alaska 2009

North to Alaska I'm going north the rush is on!!

So as many of you well know I spent last summer working with the Seavey family as a dog handler for their tour, Ididaride. Well I will be heading back up there on the 14th of this month to start training to be one of their kennel mushers! I will be training and running my own 16 dog team and hopefully running some races soon! I will keep everyone updated through my blogs and pictures so keep an eye out for them! I'm not sure when I am coming back. I'm so excited to be going back up!!Well I will keep you guys updated!!