By Sarah Stone

VIDEO: 500-km race a ‘magic carpet ride’ for winner

Feb 27, 2015 | 4:20 PM

And the winner is …. Rick Wannamaker of Didsbury, Alta.

At 5 a.m. Friday Wannamaker crossed the finished line of the 2015 Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race in La Ronge, Sask.

 “It was a weird sensation; it was like a magic carpet ride for most of it and got to the end there at night in the dark and stuff it was just kind of a feeling, a good feeling about it,” he said hours later.

He explained that sometimes a dog race is a struggle with really cold weather and rough trails or the dogs aren’t running well, but that wasn’t the case this time. “Things went pretty darn nice, it was nice. And the trail was wonderful.”

The biggest struggle was keeping his mind straight because the dogs know what they’re doing.

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“Lots of times us dog mushers go with no sleep and we sometimes make bad decisions; we leave too soon or we leave too late or something like that,” he said.  “A matter of fact I made no plan when I come here. I just would let the dogs tell me when it was time to do certain things and it seemed to work out real well.  It seemed whatever decision we made, it worked.”

With seven dogs left on his original 12-dog team when he crossed the line, he said they are keys to a good race.

The dogs have different ways of telling the musher when it’s time to rest. Wannamaker said some signs of fatigue include a small limp or their ears aren’t perky or they slow down. 

That’s when they get the full treatment.

“If they just don’t look like they’re having fun then it’s time to stop and get some food in them and give them a big hug. Then they trust you more and then they kind of think this is a pretty cool deal,” he said.

Wannamaker took a small rest for his team at Grandmother’s Bay, which proved to be a winning idea to gain speed before the second to last checkpoints before the end even though he was close with the second place finisher Gerry Walker.

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 “Grandmother’s Bay was kind of one of those things where you quit worrying about your stats and you quit worrying about where you’re at and start worrying about what’s going to happen to your team,” Wannamaker said.

It was at this point where one of Wannamaker’s strong dogs, Dexter, was looking tired, so they stopped for a rest before heading to the last checkpoint.

“So then we went down to Stanley Mission where we had a five-hour mandatory and we went down there fine and we really worked on him for the five hours and made sure he was really comfortable and gave him lots of massages and lots of water and lots of food and man, he did wonderful last night—he never wavered once,” he said, adding it’s exciting to see the dog’s excitement and heart.

Wannamaker is no stranger to the Canadian Challenge, taking home first place twice in the past.  The purse for first place is $5,000.

Taking third place was Laura Neese. 

The Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race kicks off from Prince Albert annually and included different categories from the junior dog and open dog race to the eight-dog and 12-dog race.

The 12-dog race is 500 kilometres and ends in La Ronge, Sask. 

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sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84