City comes through! Parks and Rec to emplace gates on Copper Haul Trail!!

Most excellent news today - at a meeting at the MacIntyre Marsh Gazebo (the historic Yukon Brewing Copper Haul Twister start line) Doug Hnatiuk of City Parks and Rec outlined the City's plans to emplace a winter gate across the Copper Haul Trail to be locked Nov 1st - March 31st. The CHT Org will have access to a key. Doug expects the gate to go in before Nov 1st. Other access points at the base of the Mt Mac Road and at Mt Sima are to be blocked with significantly sized pieces of jagged rock.

Very great thanks are due to Doug Hnatiuk for working towards this and leading it to completion, and also to City Planning (Pat Ross), Klondike Snowmachine Association (Harris Cox), DPSAY (Gene Ennis), CHT Org (Jon Lucas) and most importantly all of you who emailed Doug to show your support for such a project - well done! See, your voices can be heard!

Of course, bad people may try to wreck the gates, but then Cabela's does a very cheap line in motion activated sit and wait cameras, well worth the investment to identify the vandals :) - Gotcha!

First Race, Nov 22nd, Alpine Vet Race Day - on a trail that will have a much reduced chance of being rutted like the surface of the moon. Thank you Doug and the City of Whitehorse!

DPSAY Road Runner 100, Sponsorflash!!

ICY WATERS LTD confirms as first major sponsor with $1000 donated towards the purse.

For all Road Runner 100 (beep beep!) details keep following the DPSAY site (look to the right of this and just click the link).

Those Yukon Brewing Growler Race Results in full

A soft surprise awaited the racers on Sept 20th - fully a month earlier than last year's race, it hadn't occured to anyone we spoke to that the lovely frosted hard packed sand of Oct 2008, would be soft, squishy, treacle for the race of Sept 2009! there was a lot of uphill...and a lot of humans joined their dogs on foot by charging...running...walking..staggering uphill.

1 mile CANICROSS

1 - Alexandra Rochet - 8.40

2 - Pascale Hennifer - 10.36

1 mile 1 PET DOG (all bikejour)

1 - ASHA - Jon Lucas - 5.21

2 - PIPPA - --------------- 7.22

3 - Big Siberian Dog - Janet Keller - 7.36

1 mile 1 SLED DOG (all bikejour)

1 - Darryl Sheepway - Grizzly - 4.22

2 - Gaetan Pierrard - Ibex - 4.37

3 - Cynthia Corriveau - Nahanni - 4.42

4 - Jesse -K2 - 5.36

5 - Amil Dupuis-Rossi - Polar - 5.47

6 - Jon Lucas - Bogart - 6.20

7 - Eilidh Lucas - Bluto - 6.28

8 - Vern Selman - another big Siberian - 8.50

9 - Janet Keller with yet another large Siberian - DNF

2 mile 2 SLED DOG (all bikejour)

1 - Jon Lucas - Assman + Tutshi - 8.32

2 - Darryl Sheepway - Grizzly + Coho - 8.40

3 - Cynthia Corriveau - Nahanni - 9.49

4 - Amil D-R - Polar + Fry - 10.06

5 - Janet Keller - 2 large furry Siberians - 12.43

DNF - Jesse; Vern.

And that's it for Hot Hounds Dryland Season 3! Thanks to all the hosts, sponsors, volunteers - RM Gene Ennis for 5/5; organiser Jon Lucas, and of course all you racers who come out and make it fun - Remember if you want to win your money back come and race in the Dec 13th Poker Run: Reach for the Sky and Take the Beer: 22 miles from Icy Waters Ltd up and over Mt Mac and back in under 4 hours, 4-12 dogs, top 3 hands win. Prizes from Air North, Yukon Brewing, and Hot Hounds.

Season 4 of the Yukon Brewing Copper Haul Twister League kicks off (snow permitting) on Sunday November 22nd with the Alpine Vet Race Day, Sleds 2-4 dogs, skis 2-3 dogs. Let's get the snow dances going!

Merry Training and thanks for a great summer

Yukon Brewing Grr Grr Grrrowler Dryland Race

Slightly lower key, with about 21 entrants across 4 classes the races were nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable and great fun with a warm and friendly potluck afterwards. These were perhaps the hardest trails of the Dryland circuit with a lot of uphill through soft sand...

Official Results and photos delayed until Friday when our blog editor returns from Vancouver, however:

Canicross - 1st Alexandra Rochet

1 mile 1 Pet dog - 1st Asha + Jon Lucas

1 mile 1 sled dog - 1st Grizzly + Darryl Sheepway

2 mile 2 sled dog - 1st Assman + Tutshi, Jon Lucas

Tune in on Friday pm for all the rest of the info, & expect a post from host and Yukon novelist Jessica Simon!

Yukon Brewing Grr Grr Grrrowler Dryland Race - ON

Weather perfect - cool and damp - Trails marked on firm sand -

See you there! I'm racing for tasty refreshing T shirts!!

A mystery no more

Available October, along with t-shirts, fish, socks, booties, and other fabulous CHT prizes, From Ice to Ashes, the new mystery by trail volunteer Jessica Simon. The adventure crime novel features Aux. Const. Markus Fanger and everyone in the Yukon. You're invited to the launch at Mac's Fireweed Books on Friday, October 23 from 4 to 6 p.m. Mystery prize winners can pick up their autographed copies at Mac's as soon as they're signed. Look for this cover on your shelves.

Yukon Brewing Grr Grr Grrrowler Dryland Race

Sunday Sept 20th at 5pm is the Hot Hounds Dryland Racing Finale at Mike and Jessica Simon's, Mile 4,5 on the Mayo Rd - see map below.

Back to the usual format for these slightly hilly (just a tad) 1 and 2 mile loops. The uphill sections will favour bikes over scooters, but the trails are hard packed sand, so no worries about any early ice.

As always there is the 1 mile 1 pet dog, 1 mile 1 sled dog, 1 mile Canicross (and we're opening the field to 1-2 dogs, for extra power, or drag if you slip), and 2 mile 2 sled dog, and of course the Formula 1 for those with teams of 4-8 and a powered (or otherwise) quad.

Most imbibable prizes from Yukon Brewing of T shirt filled Growlers and brown bottles; Icy Waters Arctic Charr for the redoubtable Canicrossers, and good stuff from Aurora Booties and C&D Feeds, with a few "IWL "Dog Fish" certificates thrown in now it's getting cooler. In addition every race has a mystery prize (now it wouldn't be a surprise if I told you, but these mysteries are from Jessica Simon and the CHT Org; and Jennifer will nominate mystery prize position in each race once registration closes)

and on that, after a bit of chaos at the Mongrel Hordes - it's been decided that you need to

a) turn up on time

b) register at the Musher's Meeting for all the races you want to do

c) Pay at registration, which is before the race.

d) All races $5 - special offer!!

OK so the on time bit can be a little flexible (but it won't be in November at the CHT), but we just can't have people rushing up to the RM as the race is starting and asking to sign up...and pay later....

After the fantastic publicity we received regarding not actually wearing regulation helmets (front page of the News, inside the Star):

HELMETS ARE MANDATORY FOR UNPOWERED WHEELED RACES - NO HELMET, NO RACE

and helmets do stop your brains falling out, and your relatives suing the organisers

Right-oh, lectures over, don't forget the Pot Luck BBQ (winners of Yukon Brewing Growlers remember you win a Growler and certificate as they have a wide choice of T-Shirt on tap in the Brewery)

See you all 5pm Sharp on Sunday, please don't hassle the RM or Timer for your time - Race Marshall Gene Ennis is keen to enforce the penalty rule for such impatience!

Looking forward to skis myself!