Sled Dog Club Holding Annual Races this weekend

Following races in Preeceville and Loon Lake, the Meadow Lake Sled Dog Club is ready for their annual race weekend in Meadow Lake on Feb. 13 and 14.

“We had racers coming from as far as Calgary, south as Regina Beach, a bunch of mushers from Prince Albert and as far north as Southend, which is like three hours north of La Ronge,” Charlie Conner, one of the race organizers, said of the Feb. 6 and 7 Loon Lake races.

Conner added a lot of the racers from Loon Lake will also be in Meadow Lake. 

Sled dog races have been recorded to have happened as early as 1945 in downtown Meadow Lake, however the current Sled Dog Club has only been holding them for about 10 years.

“(In Meadow Lake) we’re going to be racing just off the speed curve on Highway 55 heading towards Rapid View, we’re just down from Home Hardware on the north side of the highway,” Conner said.

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 “We start by lining up in four, six and 10 dog classes as well as junior classes and we race in what’s called mass start racing and we all start together and run around the track together and the first team in is the winner,” he explained.

The weekend continues with the four dog team’s racing four miles, the six dog teams six, and the 10 dog teams racing 10 miles, with heats running anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes.

Fans can watch the races from the highway and signs will be up notifying traffic to slow down as they pass.

“It’s such a unique sport, it’s Canadian, it’s happening in our community. The neatest thing is the excitement of the dogs and how excited they are to run and just to see it and observe it. The flags ready to be dropped, the dogs are all screaming, jumping, lunging, barking, and they’re so excited to run and as soon as the race starts,” Conner said, explaining what it’s like to watch sled dog races.

“It’s completely silent and all the dogs are running as hard as they can and you get to watch it and see the different teams, mushers and different styles of racing and there’s really not much you can compare it to,” he added.

“It’s also an endurance event, we’re not running half a mile, we’re going four to 10 miles, so it’s exciting and lots of things happen and it’s not over in two minutes – it’ll take 30 minutes to 45 minutes for the ten dog races,” he said.

Races run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on both days. The Sled Dog Club will have a bonfire and concession set up for viewers and admission is free.

Conner added they are looking for volunteers to work over the weekend for a range of different jobs. To volunteer contact 306-226-6858.

cswiderski@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @coltonswiderski