Yukon Brewing Growler Races a hit with Canicross in Haines Junction

Four Canicross teams turned out Saturday, the best turnout of the season. Slippery ice in the afternoon sun made the trails treacherous and Carmen Muhlemann hit the ground hard at the turnaround when Mory spotted her husband and launched off to say hi. As compensation for the bruising Carmen wins the Yukon Brewing T shirt sympathy prize. That was the worst crash all season - Susie Rogan's flip over the handlebars in the first race barely caused a scratch and hardly justified the prize, however both went on to win their races so perhaps there is a lesson to be learnt. Carmen plans to repeat her victory celebrations by running the 5km Pet Dog with Mory in the SPORTEES Race Day of the YUKON BREWING CHT League on Dec 17th at ICY WATERS LTD.

Fran MacKeller and a possibly slightly overweight Clio tried, but couldn't close the gap and finished 1m 15s later.
Debbie Thomas planned to stroll around the course , but Taz had other ideas and "encouraged" Debbie into a brisk trot, whilst Katherine MacKeller and Kassie were passed by Mum Fran to come in 3rd.

AURORA BOOTIES ensured all competitors and volunteers took home booties, collars or jackets for their dogs.

In the wheeled categories Jon Lucas and Asha made it 4/4 with a win in the 1 mile pet dog, and lack of competition enabled the Snowpigs Kennel to sweep the board in all wheeled races and take home a large amount of YUKON BREWING's most excellent Growlers. Snowpigs had their INKSPIRATIONZ sponsored kennel flag flying high all day, and Jon pronounced himself happy with the days events: "Well obviously the pressure's off when no-one else bothers to show, but the dogs don't know that. I ran with inexperienced dogs today, to test their leadership ability and it all went very well. Very glad I had my body armour, what with all that ice." Jon is also sponsored by SKOOKUM BRANDS NORTHERN GARMENTS, and will be modelling their latest anorak at the SPORTEES race day on Nov 21st.

The race attracted over 10 spectators and Gene Ennis amd Martin Jahr did great service as Marshall/Timekeeper and turnaround volunteer respectively.

Results

1 mile 1 dog Canicross (1.2miles)

1st - Carmen Muhlemann - Mory - - - - 8m 34s
2nd - Fran MacKellar - Clio - - - - - - - 9m 49s
3rd - Katherine MacKellar - Kassie - - - 11m 46s
4th - Debbie Thomas - Taz - - - - - - - 21m

1 mile 1 pet dog (1.2miles)

1st - Jon Lucas (scooter) - Asha - - - - - - - - - -6m 52s

1 mile 1 sled dog (1.2 miles)

1st - Jon Lucas (scooter) - Bluto - - - - - - - - - -5m 40s

4 mile 2 sled dog (2.34miles)

1st - Jon Lucas (scooter) - Tutshi and Jedai - - - -10m 26s

The Hot Hounds Dryland racing season is now over for 2007. The races earned over $250 for the Copper Haul Twister organisation, and part of this will be ploughed into the purse for the Dec 1st "Beer Worth Climbing For" 22 mile race out of ICY WATERS LTD as YUKON BREWING, AIR NORTH, and CHT create a $1000 purse for the poker run race that "Reaches for the Sky" - that's what it feels like as you climb 2000' up over Mt MacIntyre.

Thanks again to the Hot Hounds Sponsors: YUKON GARDENS, PHILLIPE'S BIKE REPAIR, ICY WATERS LTD, YUKON BREWING; the organisers, volunteers, competitors, and overall the dogs that had such a good time this summer - clearly, they simply did not get too hot to run!