Dog mischief skewed all odds on the inaugural 22 mile Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer poker run.
Luc Twedell got things started when his 10-dog team peeled away from the start without a brake pad. At mile 4 he lost his claws on the first ice patch. Unstoppable, the team took their head and one took off. Luc kept control of the nine, and in a hairy ride with three in the basket he returned to scratch at the finish line.
There he found his renegade hound at the Taplow Freight Pull where Fred Last’s heavyweight, Titan, a veteran of the Rendezvous One-Dog Pull, hauled 600 pounds over 16 feet. The Lucas family Rottweiler, Asha, pulled 450 pounds to take the hotly contested middleweight class, and Genesee Keevil’s Severn, the lone featherweight, pulled 85 pounds to win five bags of First Mate Extreme Dog Food.
Meanwhile, a few miles down the trail at the Jackson Lake Road, Lucie Waidhaus’ 8-dog team bolted for Kyla Boivin’s dog yard and dove into the nearest empty house. With energetic coaxing Lucie untangled the furballs and continued on to earn the red lantern in 3:21:41.
On the crest of Mount McIntyre, Harvey Van Patten took time out of his 2:29:38 run to toast his 6-dog team with a complimentary Yukon Gold. “Brilliant idea, brilliant view, what a race!”
At the end of the day, Ian MacDougall of Sky High Ranch finished in the money, awarded by Air North, Yukon Brewing and the Hot Hounds Dryland Race. In 3:10:20 Ian collected three nines, topping the two pair (jacks over threes) dealt to Jeff Butler in 2:33:30, and Moe Boska’s tens over twos gathered in 2:09:56.
Crispin Studer posted the fastest overall time with nine dogs in 1:58:10, just five minutes quicker than Jeremie Matrishon’s 8-dog finish of 2:02.56.
Thanks to the sponsors, all the volunteers, and the Whitehorse 2685 Army Cadet Corps for ensuring trail and team safety during the most entertaining day of dog sports yet.
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