Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer Poker Run + First Mate Freight Pull 2010 Races ON

Air North + Yukon Brewing + Hot Hounds $1250 combined purse confirmed. Best three hands take the money; no entry fee. YECL kindly cut the water to the creek across the trail by the "F***" Cabin (you'll see it, it's 3' high lettering) above Icy Waters Ltd so the creek crossing is flat strong ice. Sky High will be running the loop this coming week.

Card pick-ups at the start, Jackson Lake (Brian McDougall), Sunshine Valley (Ingabritt Scholven + Steve Reid), Sky High (Jocelyn LeBlanc), Mt Mac shoulder (Mike + Jessica Simon), and finish (Gaetan Pierrard, RM - no arguing), make your best 5 card hand.

Meet 10am Icy Waters Ltd, km 4.2 Fish Lake Rd, 4-6 dog teams start 11am, 7-12 dog teams 11.30 am ish

15 mushers signed up already, 15 places left

First Mate Extreme Freight Pull - meet IWL at 12 noon, $10 entry fee.

Lightweights 0-59lb

Mediums 60-99lb

Heavies 100lb+

Pull ever increasing loads 16' in under 60 seconds; must pull initial empty sled (120lb) then may skip up to 2 rounds.

1st - 3 bags dog food (120lb) First Mate Extreme

2nd - 2 bags

3rd 1 bag (40lb)

See you all there!

Alpine Vet Race Day - loads of snow, fast times!

Although both Jon and the KSA packed the trail on Saturday night, another 3" had fallen by morning and it kept snowing all day. A very good natured and fun loving group turned out to race the straightforward route, with few turns and little head on passing the races went off smoothly. Thanks to all the skidoos out there who were very courteous and slowed, pulling to the side of the trail whenever they met a team.

Cynthia Corriveau was triumphant in the somewhat straightened "Twister", the 2 dog skijorer "only started training 6 days ago"; "Oh dear, that's not good" thought Jon. "Why did I bother starting in August?" Persistance Kennel's 4 dog sled charged to second, pushing skijoring Snowpigs to third.

The Pet Dog was a 2 way fight between Jon n Asha the (fat) Rottie and Sandro Bumblebee and his dog with lots of teeth. The lead see-sawed through the surprisingly long 5km as both dogs took time out to roll around in the snow, pee, and generally enjoy themselves without actually pulling very much at all (which is what the pet dog race is all about). Sandro made a bid for the lead at the base of final hill, which Jon just managed to foil by stripping off his skis and canicrossing the last 80m of uphill.

Due to the low turnout the prizes were doubled up with the entrants winning Alpine Vet's Cash, Aurora's Booties, First Mate's Dog Food, Yukon Brewing's Beer and Yukon Honda's Certificates - a most satisfactory conclusion all round.

Results

10.5 mile Twister

Position/Bib/Name/vehicle/time

1...5...Cynthia Corriveau...2 dog skis...51.28

2...4...Pierre Duc...4 dog sled...53.17

3...3...Jon Lucas...3 dog skis...54.05

4...1...Claudia Wickert...4 dog sled...59.55

5...6...Fabian Shmidt...4 dog sled...1.04.10

6...10...Marine Gastard...4 dog sled...1.08.38

7...7...Alexandra Rochat...4 dog sled...1.10.44

5km Pet Dog

1...Asha, Jon Lucas, skis, 24.34

2...Toothy, Sandro Bumblebee, skis, 25.20

Many thanks to RM Gene Ennis and the volunteers who make it possible to race. Thanks also to Mike and Jessica Simon who have been great supporters of these races, and were sadly unable to make it today, we look forward to seeing you next time.

Next race Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer "Poker" Run, 4-12 dog sleds, 2-3 dog skijor, Sun Dec 5th, 10am IWL + First Mate Freight Pull 12 noon IWL - keep watching for updates.

18 places left in Poker Run, 12 signed up already.

Race Trail packed, smooth n white

After another 3" snowfall today, the trail was packed this evening, looks good for Sunday, and fine for skijoring.

Two notes - the City's concrete blocks are clearly movable, as two of them have moved from the gates 30m + 50m down the trail and two sets of truck gouge tracks bypassed the gates.

and mushers with quads - c'mon guys and gals, there's over 6" snow on the trail, why are you gouging it up with your quads? You're causing as much damage as the trucks. It's pretty ironic (not to say sad) to campaign for two years to get gates put in, to protect the trail and then have mushers chew it up with their quads. Yeah, they were mushers cos there were lots of little dog prints between the quad tyre gouges...you're busted.

Alpine Vet Race Day - Race ON

More light snow falling, and a final trail pack tonight means we're set for a great day tomorrow.

Meet at Icy Waters Ltd, km 4.2 Fish Lake Rd at 10am to register:

5km 1 pet dog

5km Kid's race 2-4 dog sled, 1-3 dog skijor

17km Twister, sleds 2-4 dogs, Skijor 1-3

End of 2010 Race updates

Asha - "awww do I have to do Freight Pull again, I wanna Reach for the Sky and try on a Yukon Brewing T-shirt, c'm'ooon"

Alpine Vet Race Day - race on - Jon packed the trail this evening and more snow is falling. The drag moved most of the skijor-damaging cobbles out of the way at the affectionally known "Abyss" section (don't worry, you don't go into it...unless you really want to...and you are mad) and he'll be running 9 dogs along it tomorrow. You'll see how successful that was on Sunday by counting the bruises. We welcome Gene Ennis back as Race Marshall, so don't even think of arguing. We are still under the DPSAY banner (just) so you do have to join DPSAY if you are not a member - a snip at a mere $15 membership fee. Cash from Alpine Vet for positions 1-5 in the Twister, Pet Dog, and Kid's Races - but never fear, most of the merchandise prizes for all the other positions are worth more than your entry fee and you get a block of Icy Waters Arctic Charr Heads and Racks dog food for finishing! Thanks in advance to Mike & Jessica Simon for being trail volunteers!

Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer Poker Run - Matthieu Renner is the first Mt Mac loop trail blazer tomorrow, followed by Jon on Tuesday - therefore race is ON, Dec 5th - FREE ENTRY (cos DPSAY didn't get their act together to get a Gambling Licence), 30 places, Gennesseee Keeevill just beat Harvey Van Patten to sign up first, followed by Peter Fleck (Hugh Neff dogs) and Ray Zaidan (running Snowpigs), so 26 places left - apply via the comments section! - Air North $400 Flight Certs; Yukon Brewing $300 cash; Hot Hounds $550 cash up for grabs to be split amongst the 3 best poker hands! 4-12 dog teams.

First Mate Freight Pull - Dec 5th - bring your Lightweights, Mediums (Asha will be there), and Monsters (hi Puck!) (Heavyweights) to win First Mate Dog Food, whilst the mushers are climbing 2,000 feet up Mt Mac to try on a T-shirt at the top!

OSCAR'S ELECTRIC RACE DAY - 19th Dec, 2nd CH Twister of the season Sleds 2-5, skis 2-3 dogs, with guest jockey Engineer (apprentice) Eilidh Lucas running the Snowpigs sled!

SNOW! 5" fall on Copper Haul today

Race trail looking good for Sunday - definitely good for sleds (6 dog sled team ran it this afternoon), still one small rocky section for skijorers - but you can take off your skis and canicross that 50m! Keep checking for trail updates.

Anyone want to bring a snowmachine out and pack it? Or shall we race "au naturale'?

Aurora Booties - Can You Help?

Cindy Carey of Aurora Booties has solidly supported with a significant amount of merchandise prizes the CHT since its start four seasons ago, and also four seasons of summer Hot Hounds racing.

Last year, Cindy was the victim of a horrific road accident and was unable to work, ie make booties, collars, dog jackets, fur and leather work - and now the insurance company is playing the tune of "well, how do you know you lost any earnings, who was going to buy your stuff last year, and how much were they going to buy?"

So, if you placed, or were even planning to place, an order with Cindy last year, please email her at aurorabooties@northwestel.net reminding her what you were going to order - it's the least we can do for such a staunch supporter!

Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer Poker Run + First Mate Freight Pull 2010

Josh Clark of Air North confirms $400 of Gift Certificates! + Yukon Brewing Confirms $300 cash - just waiting for DPSAY confirmation of cash from Hot Hounds races to finalise purse.

Race Date either Dec 5th or 19th, tbc depending on snow conditions

First Mate Extreme Dog Food have supplied 720lb for the Freight Pull Purse, held on the same day as the Poker Run.

CHT Trail Report

Nov 11th - another inch fell today and the 10.5 mile race loop looks better. Snowpigs' 2 x 5 dog teams ventured onto the 18.5 mile loop to Sima and found it passable, with slight roughness right at the end, and although worn, armour was not required. Jon was reminded that unlike in skijoring, where your team remains attached to you at all times, this is not the case in sledding. Consequently messing around behind the sled during a break is not recommended as when the hook is popped you have further to run to catch up - Jon can sprint when he has to...apparently.

Oh yes, black saloon EXE 73, please don't drive on the Trans Canada Trail and park on the Mt Mac Rd -it's against City By-Law and damages the trail, and to the owners of the light turquoise SUV that nearly ran the leaders down on the Mt Mac rd - get out and walk, it's non-motorised at this time of year.

Merry training

Copper Haul Trail report

Snowpigs sent two 5 dog sled teams from Icy Waters Ltd to the Mt Mac Road and back, 11 miles (so 10.5 from the start line) - Snow not deep but fine for a small team and sled, you can even get the hook in. Not yet passable for skijorers (even Jon won't try it), as three short stretches do have some rock/iced gravel showing, and needs another couple of inches of snow.

The new gates on the trail at the start line should prevent too much motorised trail vandalism this year, and they pose little problem if you are starting in the parking area there, however if approaching from the other side of Fish Lake rd and going towards Mt Sima exercise extreme caution on the approach, there is a way round on the right but it is flanked by hard concrete blocks and the camber for easy balancing is all wrong.

Merry training!

CHT Org

CHT Race Events (provisional) till Jan 1 2011

Asha says "It's time to rock n roll!"

(photo, Laura Jane Lucas)

Mark your calendars for:

Sunday Nov 21st, 10am mushers meeting - Alpine Vet Copper Haul Twister

10.5 mile, 2-4 dog sled/2-3 dog skijor; 5km Kids Race 2-4 dog sled/2 dog skijor; 5km 1 Pet Dog race

Sunday Dec 5th, 10am mushers meeting, Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer Poker Run

From Icy Waters Ltd, 22 miles up n over Mt Mac (2000 ft climb - enjoy) and back to Icy Waters Ltd, 4-12 dogs, 4 hour time limit

Sunday Dec 5th, 11.30am - FIRST MATE FREIGHT PULL, Icy Waters Ltd

Sunday Dec 19th, 10am mushers meeting - Oscar's Electric Copper Haul Twister

10.5 mile, 2-5 dog sled/2-3 dog skijor; 5km Kids Race 2-4 dog sled/2 dog skijor; 5km 1 Pet Dog race

All events meet at Icy Waters Ltd/Eagles Eye Estates, km 4.2 Fish Lake rd, Whitehorse

CHT Org