Let’s Race … kinda

Snow conditions are still not ideal for 40 amped up dog teams to hit the trails of Two Rivers in an early season race. Two Rivers has a confusing system of interlaced trails in multiple directions (see right) and even the folks who live on the ‘north side’ don’t know all the trails on the ‘south side’ and vice versa.

The current options available for a 100 mile race meant that sections of the trail would need to be used multiple times in different directions. On good trail years during races there can be lost teams and head-on passing (which is confusing to someone who doesn’t know our trails… Which way should I be going now?!) and maybe even a loose dog or two, so Two Rivers Dog Mushing Association made the conservative decision to delay the 100 Mile Solstice for two weeks to hopefully allow more trail options to be utilised. This was probably smart since finding lost teams and bummed out mushers is never a good way to start the racing season.

But… Ryne Olson has been chomping at the bit to race her awesome group of sled dogs. (Okay, let’s be honest, we all have!) But Ryne and Derek — Ryno Kennel — have taken the sled dog by the harness and organized a small, neighborhood “semi-race”. It will happen this Saturday on our local Two Rivers trails.

The catch is that all the entrants are local teams who know these trails like the back of their hands. We pass other dog teams constantly during training runs and I’m sure we will have multiple passes during the “race”. The biggie is: if any team gets lost during the race, they can simply mush home, put their dogs away and sulk on their own. This takes pressure off organisers and is essentially a few teams on a competitive training run, all taking the same, unmarked route with neighborhood bragging rights going to the winners. We’re excited to have our first “race” of the season – watch this space for the team rosters.

The Two Rivers 100 Solstice is now scheduled for January 3, 2015 and you can find information about that at TRDMA website and Facebook page. At that time SP Kennel will be preparing for the Copper Basin 300 that starts the next weekend. But, we will most likely still have a team or two in the Solstice.

Let’s race… kinda!