YUKON MEAT & SAUSAGE, The Deli - Dryland Race is ON!

Sunday 8th saw an intrepid Hugh Neff, sans any protective gear whatsoever, attach a dog to himself for the first time and get on his new bike, whilst Jon Lucas attached an awful lot of protective gear to himself along with two dogs and got on his bike, and Normand Casavant safely sat on a quad in support - and they took off down Sunday 15th's hot hounds trail!

1) Your hounds will not get hot

2) bring a change of clothes

Within the first 400m of trail there are about 4 ponds (I lost count) that cross the trail, or rather, they are the trail. You can't go round them, as there is no "side" to them as such; they extend way off the sides of the trail. But you can cycle through them, wetly - that was fun (no, it was, honest). The trail becomes hard sand and passes the FN encampment, then a gentle climb, across a shallow creek, then up the big sandy hill - once you are up there it is great, twisting and turning, a little up and down, and another creek, then another one, and then a BIG one with a choice of two routes to cross, take your pick but get back on the trail (in this creek Jon's front wheel stopped on a rock, rather than be hauled off, Jon jumped off, knee deep, nice n cooling), then carry on to the turnaround (there will be a quad and volunteer there for the race), and come back through all that luverly water and sand and race for the finish - except Hugh didn't do that cos his brakes magically got jammed on at the top of the sandy hill, and Jon didn't race very far at all after his rear tyre blew out at the bottom of hte sandy hill - a bike pushing canicross/caniwade back through the ponds. Beware the turn at the bottom of hte sandy hill, it's still soft sand and if you let the brakes off too early the front wheel slides out from under you (well, Jon's did).

Normand ran it on the quad and said later "That is excellent, your dogs cannot get too hot, I am bringing mine down here!"

It really is a fun, interesting trail. I suspect if you try to race it, you'll have more problems and be slower than if you just go and enjoy it. It certainly is not an "out n back" blast like Cadence Cycle's Drag n Fly Kennel trail.

RM is Simi Morrison, Timer Maren Bradley. Don't forget to buy many many DPSAY raffle tickets.

The post race BBQ is at Km 3 Annie Lake Rd, Normand and Carine's place, please bring food and drinks, BBQ will be fired up and ready.

Oh yes, race registartions, race start etc at approx km 15-16 Annie Lake Rd, at the pull-out where the road first meets the Lake.

Many thanks to Sponsors Yukon Meat and Sausage, the Deli, supported by Icy Waters Ltd, C&D Feeds, Aurora Booties, Grizzly Pigs Farm, and Yukon Ag Association.

Have fun, helmets mandatory (apart from canicrossers)