After several years of bad winters (and covid), we finally had the snow for our local snow race—the Tug Hill Challenge. In fact, the race had to be delayed by an hour due to actively falling snow.
I went into this race feeling a bit underprepared. We have been on the sled all of January, but with the frequent storms, we spent most of our time breaking trail. Even with Sheridan regularly grooming with the snowmobile, the ultra cold temperatures kept things fairly soft and slow. The dogs are strong, but their stamina for going fast had not been built.
Photo by Eric Haase of Echo Image Photography
My race team was Faye and Hopper in lead, Sagan and Atlas in team, and Hubble and Blitz in wheel. I didn’t really have a choice for this race, since the other dogs are either benched or running fewer miles. We were the first out of the chute in the 6-dog class, after 8-dog and the skijorers.
The race organizers did their best to smooth out the trail, since groomers didn’t have time to get out prior to the race. There was a solid base under about 8” of fluff, but the trail was still pretty punchy. The dogs ran well despite the softer conditions, loping about 90% of the trail. We finished third in 6-dog open and third overall on day one.
I’m always proud of this team, but day one left quite a bit to work on. The not-so-good stuff:
At a road crossing, Hopper tried to turn us down the plowed road, instead of staying straight. Honestly this surprised me, but in hindsight, something I should’ve anticipated since he tends to choose the path of least resistance. We also took out the trail help (so sorry!) and lead the team behind us the wrong direction (sorry again, Nova!)
We had a few sloppy passes, which really bothers me. We had to stop to fix some tangles after the messy road crossing, and I think it gave Hubble time to notice the team gaining on us. Hubble is fine with passing teams as long as it happens quickly, but when he has time to get anxious about it, he’ll shark—especially if they slow down on their approach. It’s empty threats, because even when the team stops right beside us, he just stands there. Still, it’s not appropriate and one day he’s going to shark at the wrong team.
Pooping. There was a lot of pooping on the trail.
Our lack of speed training was evident by the end. They were pretty gassed out by the last half mile. The next morning, my bigger boys (Atlas, Hubble, and Blitz) were all a little sore.
On race day two, we woke up to white-out lake effect snow centered directly over our house. I had barely slept all weekend (thanks, anxiety!) and with half the team sore, decided it was in our best interest to scratch. The race site actually wasn’t hit with the same band of snow and the trails were better groomed, but I knew my gang needed the rest. Especially Hubble, who I didn’t want to put back on the trail in a compromised condition. If he wasn’t feeling 100%, it would translate to insecurity, and that turns into sharky behavior. So for everyone’s sake, we stayed home.
I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t finish this race, but I know I made the right call for the whole team (myself and Sheridan included). We were also moderately snowed in, so getting over to the forest wasn’t really an option anyway. I am still so glad I got to see friends, both the locals and dog-friends, and support this event. Here’s hoping we’ll be back next year!
Photo by Emily Ferrans Photography
(Oh yea—Atlas bit his tongue in the starting chute. Hence the crazy joker face at the end. He’s fine, don’t worry!)
