By Thia James

Local musher returns to the Canadian Challenge

Jan 12, 2015 | 5:33 AM

The 2015 Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race is weeks away, and a Christopher Lake musher is preparing to return to the competition.

Stefaan De Marie won the Canadian Challenge when he last competed in 2013. Last year, his brother Bart ran the dog team, but had to withdraw after a crash on a winding trail during the race injured a couple of the dogs.

“Last year, we were struggling because … we had so much snowfall that our trails really closed in too much that we really had to spend a lot of time in the bush opening up our trails,” Stefaan said of the training conditions.

But this year, he’s had to deal with just the opposite.

“And this year we struggled … especially out here, [with a] lack of snow cover to safely train bigger teams, and also having a whole bunch of work being done on the snowmobile trails.”

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Stefaan is tentative when it comes to his chances of winning the Canadian Challenge this year.

His brother stepped out of the business, which has meant they’ve had to split up the kennel. He said they had to let some good dogs go, and he’s had to work with some young dogs.

There are other factors he’s taking into consideration.

“There’s pretty good competition there in the field again. So, the dogs so far are doing good.”

However, he always steadies his mind to win, he said, and added it doesn’t mean to be first, but to have a good race.

“So, maybe with a little bit of luck … it might turn out to be another win like in 2013, so, you never know.”

Bart eyes return in a couple years

Younger brother Bart decided to step away from competition this year. He’s in the process of building his home and is starting a new job, and this wouldn’t leave him with enough time to properly train his dogs.

Bart kept a few dogs – the older ones that were not able to compete in this kind of race. He sold some of his dogs to a more recreational-level musher because he thought that was a better fit for them. Some of the dogs that were injured during last year’s Canadian Challenge have fully recovered and they’re a part of Stefaan’s racing team.

But he decided to keep one of the injured dogs that didn’t fully recover. He didn’t feel comfortable allowing that dog to race again, so he kept her on a recreational level.

Bart also sold his share of the business they co-owned, Akeela’s Den Sled Dog Supplies & Racing Kennel, to his brother as well.

“And I basically stepped down a little bit for a couple years on running dogs just to reorganize myself a little bit and maybe in a couple years, I might try to put in another racing team again,” Bart said.

This year’s Canadian Challenge

This year’s Canadian Challenge will start in downtown Prince Albert on Feb. 23 and will finish either late Feb. 27 or early Feb.28. The 12-dog race is 300 miles and will take teams from Prince Albert, to La Ronge, Grandmother’s Bay, Stanley Mission, then back to La Ronge.

The race will start a week later than normal, and that’s in an effort to draw more teams and volunteers.

Right now, there are 10 12-dog teams registered and four eight-dog teams. There are no junior entrants so far. Last year, no junior mushers signed up to take part in the Canadian Challenge.

But, Bernie Zintel, the Challenge’s treasurer, said they’re drawing mushers from all over. Many of the mushers are from Saskatchewan and Alberta, but there are two entrants this year from Quebec, the first-ever participants from that province.

They also don’t have enough volunteers signed up.

“We never have enough volunteers,” Zintel said.

“If we want to go all the way, we can take them all the way with us to La Ronge, because we got to run all check[points]. We got eight checkpoints that we have to look after.”

This year, the organizers are also hosting the first-ever Meet the Mushers night, which will offer the public a chance to speak with the mushers at the Prince Albert Exhibition Hall. It’s a free event, but attendees can donate at the door.

At the event, the mushers will select their bibs.

Organizers are hoping to set a prize purse of $20,000, but the final amount won’t be announced until about two weeks before the race.

The event will wrap up with the Awards Breakfast in La Ronge on Feb. 28.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames