....Second instalment of a three part blog regarding the Three Forts Sled Dog Race
The principal race organizers were new to sled dog racing, but they had done their homework. A concise schedule of events had been drafted and it was followed like clockwork. From the outset, participants and their handlers were made to feel welcome and very comfortable. With new event organizers came some new ideas. At the draw for positions, mushers were called up in the order that they had registered, they were given a marker and it was then their task to write their name on the large pre-numbered race poster, next to the position in which they would like to start….a nice touch.
Ten teams competed in this race. Organizers had limited the registration to fourteen teams and indeed there had been at least that many teams express interest and pay the registration fee, but in the end and for various reasons, only ten teams made it to the starting line.
The ten mushers were:
Ernie Campbell
Hometown: Yellowknife, North West Territories
Years Mushing: 30
The 1988 champion of the Fort to Fort to Fort Race returns to Wood Buffalo, with a 1997 first place prize in the North West Territory Championship sled dog race.
When Ernie Campbell is not keeping busy with Campbell’s kennel, he is enjoying the outdoors through fishing and hunting.
Ron Campbell
Hometown: Fort Chipewyan, Alberta
Years Mushing: 20+
Ron Campbell is no stranger to racing in the region, having competed in Fort
Chipewyan, Fort McMurray, Anzac and Lac LaBiche, or to long races after
completing the 150‐mile Canadian Championship Dog Derby in Yellowknife. The last time he raced from Fort Chipewyan to Fort McMurray he placed in first.
Jake Golton
Hometown: Bancroft, Ontario
Years Mushing: 15
Twice, Jake Golton has competed in the Can Am Crown International sled dog race, a 250 mile adventure in Kent, Maine. This year he has already placed first in the Elkford sled dog race in British Columbia.
Randy MacKenzie
Hometown: Bathurst, New Brunswick
Years Mushing: 9
Before he mushed sled dogs in distance events, Randy MacKenzie competed in races for six years as a sprinter. In 2010 he completed in the Canadian Challenge race and came in third. When he is not mushing dogs or busy at his boarding kennel, he enjoys horseback riding and camping.
Warren Palfrey
Hometown: Quesnel, British Columbia
Years Mushing: 24
Warren Dalfrey has raced dogs in The Canadian Challenge, The Yukon Quest,finishing in 9th place in 2009, and The Iditarod, coming in 19th place in 2009. Thefollowing year he finished first in the Flathead Sled Dog race of Whitefish, Montana.
When he is not racing, Warren enjoys prospecting for gold.
Aaron Peck
Hometown: Grafton, Ontario
Years Mushing: 18
This rancher who is currently living in Grande Prairie, Alberta, has raced in The Canadian Challenge in 2010 and 2011. He also came in second place at the Flathead Sled Dog race in Whitefish, Montana. 2011. This is the first time he is competing in a race in the Wood Buffalo region.
John Stewart
Hometown: Aberdeen, Scotland
Years Mushing: 20
This is the first Wood Buffalo sled dog race for John Stewart, native to Scotland who loves music and videography. In the past year he has contended in the Iditarod, the Elkford Wilderness Classic where he came in 3rd in distance, and the 200‐mile Seeley Lake Race in Montana. In 1997, John finished 1st in the Ushuaia South American Championship.
Blayne Streeper
Hometown: Fort Nelson, British Columbia
Years Mushing: 18
A five time Canadian Dog Derby winner, a five time Anchorage World Champion, and two time Atta Boy 300 champion. Blayne Streeper is the only Musher in history to win the “World Triple Crown” with wins at the Laconia World Championship in New Hampshire, the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous, and the Northern Manitoba Trapper’s Festival. He returns to the region for the first time since competing in Fort McMurray and Anzac races in 1997.
Christina Traverse
Hometown: Fort McMurray, Alberta
Years Mushing: 1
This is the first sled dog race in the Wood Buffalo region that Christina Traverse, a Fort McMurray local, has competed in. When she is not mushing, she is a real estate agent with a love for nature.
Gerry Walker
Hometown: Pierceland, Saskatchewan
Years Mushing: 10
This is the first Wood Buffalo race for Gerry Walker, a rancher and cowboy from South Central Saskatchewan. He has completed the Canadian Challenge seven times, coming in 1st in 2003 and 2010. and has finished the La Rouge Neck Bone 120 seventeen times with four 1st place wins
Temperatures throughout the whole race ranged above and below the -30C range, warming up to -16C in the heat of the day and dropping as low as -39C at night. The sky was clear with bright sunshine throughout the whole four day race. The trail ran 170 miles, all of it was on the Athabasca River. There was agreement that the trail was basically very good to excellent, it was well marked with hundreds of 8 foot bamboo poles sheathed in red plastic wrap. The race started at noon on day 1, 10:00 a.m. on days 2 and 3 and at 9:00 a.m. on day 4, so all of the running was in the daylight.
Day 1 started on a section of the Clearwater River known as the Snye. This is essentially adjacent to downtown Fort McMurray and there were hundreds of spectators to watch the start of the race. Teams left at three minute intervals to cover the 34.7 miles to Fort Mackay.
The Snye has a history. It started out as a small shallow channel of the Clearwater River flowing on the river left side of MacDonald Island, just above the point where the Clearwater flows into the Athabasca River. The main section of the Clearwater along with the majority of the current flows on the river right side of the island. The Snye has always served as a staging area for winter and summer river travel. Once bush planes became a reality in the 1920’s, these float equipped aircraft were based at the Snye with hangars, warehouses and repair shops along the shore.
During the spring break-up of the river, and because of the differences in the speeds of the current between the shallow Snye and the much larger main stream of the Clearwater, the Snye essentially became a back eddy and large amounts of ice would sweep around the end of MacDonald Island and build up in the Snye, contributing to severe flooding. To correct this, a causeway was built from the river left shore to MacDonald Island, preventing the ice from drifting back into the Snye and essentially turning the Snye into a non-moving backwater. The causeway, which is also referred to by locals as a dyke serves as an excellent connecting route with MacDonald Island, which is the site of some beautiful recreational facilities including a golf course. The Snye continues to be a staging area for water sports, outdoor hockey, for float planes and on Day 1 for dog teams. Because it is now essentially stagnant, it must be periodically dredged to remain viable for these activities.
The mushing crowd for this race was significantly different from those crowds that have watched sled dog teams leave this spot over the decades. Sure, there were a smattering of old fur "trapper's" hats and mocassins, but " Fort Mac" is not the place that it used to be. The huge Athabasca Tar Sands development that dominates this region has brought in thousands of people from all over the world. This was definitely a "different" dog mushing crowd, with the vast majority of the very large crowd no-doubt seeing sled dogs for the first time in their lives.
Mushers had a pool of 12 dogs to choose from, most seemed to run 10 or 11 on any given day, towards the end of the race a couple of teams were down to 8 dogs. The trail was (of course) flat and fast contributing to some muscle problems, sprains and strains but the nature of the injuries experienced by the dogs were relatively minor. There was excellent veterinary coverage over the whole race route, sometimes with as many as three vets present to look out for the dogs, but fortunately there were no major issues. In fact because business was so slow, the vets took time out to neuter a big up and coming Lab/Rottweiler cross that belonged to the full-time resident at one of the checkpoints.
Mushers report that the runs each day were relatively uneventful. There were few spectators out along the trail, and with the ideal conditions, it was possible to calculate with some certainty just when the first teams would be arriving at each checkpoint. Teams left in reverse order of finish after day 1, this meant that the teams arrived within an hour of each other on days 2, 3 and 4. There was significant day money available for the first three teams, so there was definitely an incentive to go all out. First place each day received $1000.00, second place received $500.00 and third place received $250.00.
In many ways the real race was taking place amongst the handlers and officials. Once the teams were underway each day, there was a scramble for the support teams to get to the next checkpoint before the teams. On day one this wasn’t much of a problem as the road to Fort McKay is paved and well used. Once in Fort McKay it was difficult to find out exactly where the teams were going to arrive and even more difficult to determine just where the checkpoint would be, but things were worked out and with a little truck jockeying, all of the rigs and trailers made it into a fairly confined area and were in place when the teams arrived. Race Marshall Irvin Wai set a positive tone when he encouraged everyone to look out for one another and this was true for both mushers and handlers. It also helped that without exception, the support teams knew how to handle themselves and their vehicles in freezing weather and difficult conditions.
Officials had made arrangements for some relatively high-tech circus tents to be erected at each checkpoint, heated by large commercial hot air blowers that were usually used to dry concrete or heat large warehouses. The end result was that as the temperature in these large tents rose, the snow on the ground melted and before too long the area proposed for sleeping was essentially a large shallow pond. Plan “B” was brought into action and almost everyone spent the night in the new and architecturally beautiful Fort McKay Band Office….it wasn’t too hard to take, especially the hot showers. Before going to bed, organizers arranged that all participants and handlers would share a delicious roast beef supper, prepared by the Band-owned catering company and served in the lovely Elder’s Centre.
Day two was the longest stage at 53.9 miles, the destination checkpoint was a spot along the river known as Poplar Point which is another piece of Reserve land belonging to the Fort MacKay Band. The shuttle started with a caravan to the bulk station where those who needed to were able to top up their fuel tanks and then it was onto the Fort Chipewyan winter road . A winter road is essentially the straightest line possible cut through the bush, the width of a two-lane roadway. Because the road is only used once everything has frozen, bridges do not exist as water crossings simply become ice crossings. It is hard not to think of the television show Ice Road Truckers as you travel along this route. Actually it is possible to travel in most spots along this road at almost highway speeds, unless you are pulling a 24 foot trailer and your heart is in your throat. At approximately the 65 km. mark there is a branch to the left, off of the winter road and onto a freshly ploughed “road” that had been put in a few days earlier by a D6 Cat. The soil was very sandy and the road was plowed right down to this sandy base. The mixture of sand and snow crystals can mean very poor traction and that is why it is necessary to keep a certain amount of momentum when travelling over this route…..not the best route for a somewhat timid, white knuckled driver with his heart in his throat.
We all made it the approximately 35 kilometres into the checkpoint and had things more-or-less set up before the first team arrived. We had company. The day before, a group of the Canadian Rangers from Fort Chipewyan had travelled to this spot and they were snugly established in the one and only cabin that existed on this property. Everyone noted that there was stew simmering on the wood-fired grill in anticipation of a great supper.
The sled dog world is very familiar with the Canadian Rangers who are responsible for putting in the excellent trail on the Canadian side of the Yukon Quest. There is also quite a bit of publicity about Canadian Ranger units located in communities throughout the Canadian Arctic. It was explained that there are also a large number of Canadian Ranger units in the smaller and essentially isolated communities spread throughout the western provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, and the Fort Chipewyan unit is one of these. They are affiliated with the Canadian military and receive direction and funding from this source. Their role is to be a locally organized presence in their small community in the event of an emergency or disaster that could lead to military involvement. With their training and familiarity with military procedures, they are in a position to provide invaluable local knowledge in the event that the military is called into the community. In keeping with this role, these men (and women) hone their backcountry and survival skills. Their proudly-worn Ranger uniform consists of a red baseball cap and red hoody. They are a remarkable group.
About this time the very hard working crew arrived to put up the circus tents. This time the tents went up faster and the crew had brought improvements. Once the tent was up, the ground was covered with a layer of plastic and on top of this went ¾” plywood. When it was all together it looked like a dance hall…probably the only dance hall Poplar Point has ever seen although the tent was right next to the arbor that had been built by the Band for drum dances. Time to fire up the generator that powered the heaters and the blowers. Well every mechanic and would-be mechanic in the place took a turn at trying to get the thing to start and run and everyone failed. We ended up with a freezing dance hall and everyone scrambling for a warm place to sleep.
There was a mobile home on the property but the owner was away. Fortunately some of the folks from Fort Chip knew him and they were sure he wouldn’t mind if about 20+ mushers and handlers and race officials and volunteers moved into the trailer for the night. After all it had two wood heaters in it. It went down to almost -40C that night and between the cabin full of the Canadian Rangers from Fort Chip, the heated camper that one musher had built into his dog trailer, the couple that wanted to keep each other company and warm in the cab of their truck and the mobile home full of 20+ souls, almost everyone was toasty warm. I say almost because there was one hardy soul who wanted to see just what it would be like to sleep in his car at -40C, just for the experience. He said that he was o.k. until about 1:00 a.m., the next 4 hours were an endurance contest….but he had the experience.
....to be continued in Part III
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