Two mushers use Canadian Challenge to ‘qualify’
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Nicholas Mears dashed through the start line on Tuesday just past noon. Mears is running the full 550 kilometres of the Canadian Challenge with one of Gerry Walker's 12-dog teams. He came all the way form Maitland, Australia and is new to racing. His arrival time at the first checkpoint at Anglin Lake was 3:54 p.m.
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Herald photo by KJ Dakin -
Checking in with the pooches before the race gets started on Tuesday morning at about 11 a.m. Most mushers are doing this route with access to their trucks and dog boxes or kennels, like this one. However, two of the 15 teams are using this race as a qualifier for longer races, which means they must carry all their own supplies and do not have access to a truck or a kennel for their dogs. Those two mushers are Megan Routley and Lisa Joinson.
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Herald photo by KJ Dakin -
Megan Routley leaves the starting line. She and Lisa Joinson are the only to mushers using this event to qualify them for other longer runs. This means the rules are a little different for them. Routley arrived at the first checkpoint at Anglin Lake at 4:15 p.m.
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Herald photo by KJ Dakin -
The ceremonial red lantern was lit at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday as the official start of the 16th Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race. Race marshal Dave Young helps to rehang the lit lantern. The history of the red lantern is long-standing. In the old days when a musher was on the trails delivering medicine or mail or anything to the far-fledged and secluded communities of the north, a red lantern would be lit. That lantern would stay lit until the last musher on the trails had made it safely to their destination. As part of that tradition, the last musher to cross the finish line is awarded the red lantern as a symbol of their endurance despite the challenges.
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Herald photo by KJ Dakin
The ceremonial red lantern was lit at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday as the official start of the 16th Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race. Race marshal Dave Young helps to rehang the lit lantern. The history of the red lantern is long-standing. In the old days when a musher was on the trails delivering medicine or mail or anything to the far-fledged and secluded communities of the north, a red lantern would be lit. That lantern would stay lit until the last musher on the trails had made it safely to their destination. As part of that tradition, the last musher to cross the finish line is awarded the red lantern as a symbol of their endurance despite the challenges.
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Lighting the red lantern.
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Stefaan de Marie leaves the starting line just after noon on Tuesday. He is not qualifying this year but he will have done this route 11 times after this one. His arrival time at Anglin Lake was 3:39 p.m.
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- Published on February 19, 2013
- Keely Dakin
The weather was bitingly cold for fingers, toes and cheeks on Tuesday as the mushers and their dogs crossed the starting line and headed for the first checkpoint at Anglin Lake.
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