By Chelsea Laskowski

Local man chalks up scratch in Canadian Challenge to bad timing

Feb 22, 2014 | 3:05 PM

Earlier this week, a local man had to make a tough choice on the trail.

Before the third check point in the 512 km 12-dog race, things were looking good for Bart de Marie, a Christopher Lake-area man originally from Belgium, and his sled dogs.

He had taken second place from competitor Sam Palfrey at Montreal Lake. De Marie was now catching up to the leader of the race, Warren Palfrey, who was only half an hour ahead.

However, things quickly changed after a crash de Marie had on a winding, narrow trail. With one dog already injured, he had a few more to add.

“I injured myself a little bit and two dogs… I had a dog in the basket already having a little limp. When a dog gets injured we put him in the sled so he doesn’t run anymore,” he explained.When de Marie decided to camp out early, there was even more bad news. 

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“Sitting there and checking over all the dogs I found there was one more dog with a fairly severe leg injury that he couldn’t run anymore. And then I started to think, you know, I have all my camping gear with me, I have to haul two dogs on my sled, I have to go 30 miles to my next check point,” he said.

A stretched Achilles tendon on the third dog had a risk of tearing that muscle for one of his dogs. This would make it impossible for the dog to race in the future.

On top of that, having three dogs in the basket would be risky since despite their injuries they still want to run on the trail with the others.

Had he been closer to a check point, de Marie could have dropped the three dogs off and continued. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

“I made the decision to say, it’s better for the dogs to call it quits this year, make sure that everybody gets healthy again at home and give it another try next year,” de Marie said.

De Marie said the injuries his dogs incurred were very rare, since usually it’s a shoulder, wrist, or front legs.

With dogs occasionally punching through snow with high temperatures at the start of the race, he expected more overall injuries.

“I’m actually surprised it was only me and Megan Routley that pulled out of the race, and pretty much the entire crew, all the other teams finished in a pretty decent manner,” he said.

Warren Palfrey made it to the end of the race in first place with all twelve of his dogs in good condition.

“Unfortunately for me it was just the other way. That’s the sport. There’s a very small difference between glory and fame and being out of the race,” de Marie said.

This isn’t the first time he’s had to scratch a race, which keeps him from getting discouraged. In 2008, de Marie had to back out. However, the next year he won.

“So if I keep doing that record, maybe it’ll give me another win again,” he said with a laugh.

He said he’s already looking forward to next September.

claskowsk@panow.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow