A glorious normal Yukon summer day - mild, cloudy, threat of rain, south breeze - met the teams, monkeys, officials, volunteers and spectators Sunday at Icy Waters Ltd. Nine kennels turned out, and fielded 17 teams, had fun and raised $$ for DPSAY.
The two dog two mile trail - the CHT Kid's loop and for 3 years the return section of the 12 mile CHT should have posed no problems....100m from the start Snowpig's newcomer Flicker in her first ever race took fright at a passing bee (or a ghost, whatever) and tangled, it took Jon a minute to remember it's easier (or actually possible) to untangle lines and dogs if you take your heavy protective gloves off first...by which time it was all over for Snowpigs...except that in the actual wooded loop Smokin' Paws team took off down the wrong trail, closely followed by Cynthia, oops sorry, Claudia Wickert, only alerted by a chasing Jon screaming "Gee" at leader Tutshi. And for a moment Snowpigs were back in with a chance....till Adam - Sky High Kennel Slave - Robinson motored past at the water stop. And then it was all over as more tangles slowed Snowpigs and Smokin' Paws' Darryl Sheepway finished first in a cloud of dust, 2 seconds ahead of Adam, and 3 seconds ahead of Claudia, with Snowpigs somewhere quite a lot further back. Meanwhile Sandro had gamely Canicrossed the 2 mile amongst the bikes and finished in a great time of 18.15.
2 mile (ish) 2 sled dog, all bikejour except Sandro
1 Darryl Sheepway Smokin' Paws 11.00
2 Adam Robinson Sky High 11.02
3 Claudia Wickert "No Name - PC brand kennel" 11.03
4 Jon Lucas Snowpigs 11.34
5 Sandro 18.15
1 Mile 1 sled dog + 1 mile 1 Pet dog (sole entrant, Sandro)
Sandro again ran the mile, almost catching Janet Keller and her cute puppy, and sleepy Mark Manolis - catching flies.....
The trail was rock and gravel downhill from the start (nice) then steep uphill (not nice at all) followed by a fast hard packed mud section through the trees, before returning to the gravel of the Copper Haul Trail and the steep downhill/rock chute (worrying), before uphill back to the start line - harder work than the 2 miles with 2 dogs - at least Snowpigs couldn't tangle with just one dog! (although they tried). Because all the racers were moving, we all thought trail vounteers Jennifer and Claudia were simply waving us on as they swung their arms around madly...we didn't notice the hordes of blackflies descending on the poor unfortunates who had to stay in position to make sure we made the turns...the organisers didn't want another outburst from Smokin' Paws about "bad trail marking" after the 2 dog......
Amil Dupuis-Rossi "Just follow the green tape, it's easy, if only people would listen in the Musher's meetings"
Bluto and Jon Lucas... concentrating on staying upright in the rock chute
1 mile 1 sled dog
1 - Darryl Sheepway - Smokin' Paws - 6.15
2 - Jon Lucas - Snowpigs - 6.20
3 - Amil Dupuis-Rossi - Smokin' Paws - 7.40
4 - Mark Manolis - 9.53
5 - Janet Keller - Grizzly Blizzard - 9.54
1 mile 1 pet dog
1 - Sandro - 9.58
Sandro having no trouble in the rock chute
Canicross! with 5 entrants the race was on - the same trail as the wheeled 1 dog - the racers soon discovered at what speed the blackfly could keep up.
Janet Keller with her first time racer!
Asha "See, running is FUN"; Jon "No, it isn't , it hurts"
Melanie Bedard
Simi Morrison
Unfortunately we don't have a photo of Mark, he was probably asleep under a bush somewhere - note how most of the Canicrossers are smiling, it's such a fun sport :)
1 mile Canicross
1 - Jon Lucas and Asha - 11.20
2 - Mark Manolis - 12.40
3 - Simi Morrison - 13.28
4 - Melanie Bedard - 16.50
5 - Janet Keller - 18.55
There followed a most enjoyable pot luck BBQ, and prize ceremony, with delicious prizes from the Chocolate Claim for places 1-3, and smaller prizes from Aurora Booties, Icy Waters Ltd, Muktuk Kennel and a special 2 dog Red Lantern prize from Gene Ennis.
Next races July 11th and the First Mate Summer Freight Pull. I know the location but I can't publicise it quite yet as I can't get in touch with the hosts...so they don't know they are the hosts..yet. All will be revealed in good time - merry training, and dodge those bears!
Yay! Good to see all the canicrossers!
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