Patrick Beall's Rookie Iditarod

This site will be continually updated with information about my season and the goals that you are supporting. The following is just an introduction of my journey to my first Iditarod in March 2016. Your donations will go towards everything it takes to prepare and complete a race like the Iditarod. 



Hello friends, family, and just plain strangers interested in donating to my rookie Iditarod season. I can't thank you enough for even the mere fact you are visiting my gofundme. That's pretty rad of you, right out the gate. Firstly, to let you know who I am. 

I am from the great state of Oklahoma. I can’t describe how lucky I feel to have grown up in such a wonderful place. It truly shaped who I am today, thanks to my friends and family. As a young child I was covered in dirt and grass, water and muck. I never wanted to be inside and my mother can attest to the degree of difficulty it took to convince me otherwise. I was stubborn and hard headed when it came to leaving a good time outdoors. That passion only continued as I got older. Digging in the dirt with a stick turned into trying to dam up small creeks I would explore, to hiking 21 days in Colorado with nothing but the supplies on my back. The hunger for adventure was all too real and I had an endless appetite, which of course I am still trying to quench every chance I get.

I attended Edmond North High School where I was active in sports and student council, I was also active in annoying my teachers. After high school, I decided to attend the University of Oklahoma - Boomer Sooner! After a few changes in majors I was hardly interested in I changed to something I was always fond of and got my bachelors in Environmental Studies in four years time. After college I was like any post grad, scratching my head on the arduous task of deciding what’s next. In true form I stubbornly didn’t accept the fact that I would have to come back inside and continued my seemingly un-aimed attitude. In college I had an internship with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (birds) studying habits of Tree Swallows in Saskatchewan, Canada. I decided to try and continue my interest in ornithology and obtained and job with The Oklahoma Biological Survey. I worked in Lawton, Oklahoma and helped a group of South Americans establish a field site for migration studies on Western/Eastern Kingbirds and our state bird The Scissor-Tail Fly Catcher. When I was finished with this, I was ready for a new place, a new horizon, and some more adventure.

I joined a logging crew in Maine and learned to work chainsaws and heavy logging equipment. I also worked for a tree service where I learned to become a climbing arborist and really fell in love with the industry. I hope to continue this industry in the future and own a tree service and tree farm. However, after this stint, it was time for something different. Different is what I found. I found a job with a non-profit called Living Lands and Waters. Essentially our mission statement was to clean up garbage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. We also held educational workshops on the importance of clean rivers and the like. It was an amazing experience. I lived on a barge and went up and down the Mississippi River. Chad Pregracke, the founder, is one of the greatest individuals I have ever met. He truly taught me the value of how hard work will fulfill your passion. While I wasworking on the river I met some people that would talk about Alaska often. I had to go, plain and simple. It literally was fate knocking on my riverboat door. I found a lodge to work for in Bettles, Alaska. It was fly-in only, which meant, you were “IN” Alaska. It was an amazing experience where I met some wonderful people that are still in my life. I would be nowhere in this dream of mine if it weren’t for them. Furthermore, I started to take care of my first sled dogs. I had ten mangy Alaskan huskies to take care of before and after work. Suffice to say, I had no clue what I was doing or up against, but knew I was in love with the sport of mushing.

I found an opportunity to run sled dog tours on Mount Bachelor in Bend, Oregon. Oregron Trail of Dreams, owned and operated by the Scdoris family was where I acquired myfirst real knowledge of mushing dogs. I lived on the property with Jerry Scdoris, his daughter Rachael, Rachael’s fiancé Nick, and 120 Alaskan huskies. We loaded up 96 dogs, 7 days a week and trucked them up to Mount Bachelor for a full day of tours. It was a great experience and I learned a great deal from the Scdoris family. I like to blame them for my addiction to The Iditarod, as Rachael is a veteran to the Iditarod and Jerry has been running dogs for 35 plus years. They are truly unbelievable individuals and I wish everyone could meet them. After doing tours in Oregon, I decided it was time to try racing and/or qualifying for Iditarod. I had met a guy named Dallas Seavey back when I worked in Bettles, Alaska who had come off of his first Iditarod win. While hewas in Bettles he was filming for a show called Ultimate Survival Alaska, we had bartered for a few items he could use out in the bush. His name was already synonymous with sled dog racing as his family has been in it literally since the first Iditarod. I got in touch with Dallas and his wife Jennifer and they agreed that they needed a handler. So with a small stipend and housing, I was learning mushing from a kennel with its first win and an exceptional amount of potential for continued success. I trained all ages ofdogs with Dallas, my main focus being on his yearlings (one year olds). I also provided him the support he needed for his main A-team, but not limited to his B-team run by an Aussie musher named Christian Turner. By the end of the winter season I had earned my first qualifying race and couldn’t have been more excited. My first qualifier was in Fairbanks, Alaska and was 200 miles across frozen rivers and through hilly forests. To say the least, it was the most fun I had ever had mushing. I made a great deal of mistakes, but still ended up finishing and receiving qualifying grades on my Iditarod report card.  Also, Dallas had won his second Iditarod that season in a stunning ending that will forever go down in Iditarod race history. I couldn’t have been more ecstatic seeing his team come back from Nome as champions. All the work put in had paid off dividends.

As the next season approached I was dead set on qualifying for Iditarod 2016. It was going to be hard to stop me and I wouldn’t give up until I found a way. Fall training came around and I was back at the kennel with Dallas training dogs. Word on the street was that his dad’s kennel was short on help. Dallas and I had the conversation that I would go help his dad (which happens to be a rival kennel) and that way I could still finish up my qualifiers. It all worked out well, but I was sad to leave the kennel I had grown attached too, especially the dogs. When I went to Mitch’s kennel I was not guaranteed much of anything, but if I worked hard than I could earn racing privileges. Since I already knew the Seavey method of mushing I was naturally put in the position to help Mitch and tasked as his main handler for the A-team. However, we had a puppy team (2 year olds) and two teams being leased by customers to also help train. Long story short, I earnedmy racing privileges and finished the Copper Basin 300 and The Northern Lights 300 mile qualifying races. At Mitch’s kennel last season we managed to have four teams finish one thousand mile races, plus all of the qualifiers and training it took to get them there. Again, the hard work paid off and at the end of the season standing in front of me was Mitch Seavey himself asking if I wanted to run the two year olds in the 2016 Iditarod. The smile on my face stretched as far as the Alaska Range and lasted longerthan the night before The Winter Solstice. My passion for the sport and all of the hard work I put in finally had been awarded its ultimate dream. I will now be running Mitch Seavey’s 2-year-old puppy team in The Last Great Race. 16 dogs and myself will start in Willow, Alaska and together as rookies span 1,049 cold and uncertain miles to Nome, Alaska.

I have been hesitant about asking for donations to help fulfill my dream of running this race. However, my friends and family have finally convinced me that it is an acceptable thing to do. Mushing is an extremely expensive sport, especially qualifying as a handler and going the route of earning a puppy team. Your donations will go to my entry fee, booties for the dogs, fuel for transporting dogs to training grounds and races, my food during the race, and many other things that go into preparing and completing Iditarod. I hope that you will join me on my journey into the great unknown and I cant thank you enough for your endless support and interest in my life with dogs. Please contact me at anytime with any questions. To be honest, there is nothing more that I enjoy (besides mushing itself) than sharing myknowledge and passion for the sport. I love the freedom and everything mushing has to offer, but most of all I love the dogs that are allowing me to experience the meaningful life I have always sought. Thanks for your time in reading my story and I hope you enjoyed.  

Patrick Beall