The DogPaddle Adventures Trapline Run is a traditional trapline style race that pays tribute to the pioneers who opened this land by dogteam. There will be no check points, mushers must carry everything they need for the run. There will be no dog drops, so dogs must be hearty enough to run the entire race. Mushers must take care of their dogs, so their dogs will take care of them. This will not be a sprint race.
For the 2004/2005 season, we are planning 3 Trapline runs. The first run will be 8km long and have 5 traps, the second run will be approximately 10km long with 10 traps, and the third will be 20km with 20 traps.
At each "trap" the mushers must pick up a bag weighing 10 kilograms, which they must carry on their sled to the end of the race. Each of the bags will be marked with the "trap" number. The musher must pick up and carry each of the bags to the finish line. It is the mushers responsibility to ensure that their dogs, sled, and gear are sturdy enough to handle the weights and conditions of the run.
As with the settlers of old, any breed of dog is allowed. Mushers are allowed to help each other, with the exceptions of that listed in the Rules. Mushers may choose to travel alone or with a companion, as in the days of old.
Breaking any of the Trapline Run Rules will result in disqualification. Abuse of dogs will result in disqualification. Under no circumstances is DogPaddle Adventures condoning the running of an unfit dog. If it is necessary to drop a dog then the team will be scratched from the run. Take care of your dogs so your dogs can take care of you.
Each team will be required to carry a compass or GPS, a map of the race area and a fire kit. The fire kit must consist of matches and tinder in a waterproof container.
Since there are no check points, personal safety is the responsibility of the mushers. It is recommended that each team carry a radio and/or cell phone. A first aid kit suitable for the mushers and their dogs is also recommended. If a team does not return to the finish line a search party will be sent.
Our 1st Training Run was held on January 8th and was a big success. The plan was to have only a handful of mushers for this first practice run, just to give a few mushers the general idea of the race and to start spreading the word. We would like to thank all the mushers and handlers who participated in this inaugural event. 4 teams participated in this first run and since it was merely a practice event, it was not timed.
The first musher to head out on to the trail was John Evanitski, accompanied by his 11 year old daughter. John's team consisted of 3 Canadian Inuit Dogs, 1 Dene Trapline Dog, and 2 Inuit Dog Crosses, running in standard tandem hitch. The other mushers asked John to go first because he was the one who had marked the trail.
The second musher to leave was Boyd Warner. Page Burte was there to help Boyd with his dogs but declined accompanying him on the sled. Boyd's team consisted of 4 Siberian Huskies and 2 mixed breeds, running in traditional single file formation. It didn't take Boyd and his quick Siberians long to catch and pass John.
The third musher was Laurence Casaway. He was running a team of 6 Alaskan Huskies running in traditional single file formation as well. Laurence also quickly caught and passed John, and then passed Boyd. He led the way for most of the run, but was passed by Boyd on the last lake before the finish. Laurence's dogs were not used to pulling extra weight and slowed down every time he loaded a sandbag onto his sled. He plans to train his dogs to handle the heavier loads before the big run.
The last musher to leave the start was Terry Woolf. Terry's brother Steven was there to help Terry get on his way. Terry's team was made up of 6 Canadian Inuit Dog crosses, running in tandem hitch formation. Terry also passed John during the run and finished just a few minutes ahead of him.
The media was represented at this event by Chris Puglia from The Yellowknifer and Jeff Hipfner from Outcrop Communications. There were also a number of spectators enjoying the start of the run. A special thank you to Everett McQueen and Kevin Hildahl who provided snowmobile support.
Because this event was not timed, the finish was very low key, with the mushers just returning to the start, packing up their dogs, and unloading their sandbags. All of the mushers returned with the required numbered sandbags. Because 5 sandbags had originally been left at each trap, John Evanitski picked up 2 sandbags from each trap (to save himself another trip).
After evaluating the responses to this initial run, DogPaddle Adventures has made a few changes to the upcoming runs, such as the second training run will be 15 km instead of 10, with 10 traps instead of 5. Although some mushers expressed concern about the 300 kg total weight planned for the big run, we still plan on continuing with this weight. We are hoping this weight will separate the working dogs from the recreational dogs.
2nd Training Run Update
Our 2nd training run was held on February 19th, and was another success. The only problem was that there was some confusion about which trail to follow so some mushers missed one of the 'traps'. Again we'd like to thank all the mushers and handlers who came out and participated. This time we had 5 teams running, 3 teams who had participated in the first training run and 2 new teams.
The first musher to leave was Boyd Warner. This practice run was held on one of his trails so it was decided to let him lead the way. He led for the entire run and finished the 10km in approximately 45 minutes.
Terry Woolf was the second musher to leave, just shortly after Boyd, in fact Terry almost passed Boyd right at the start as Boyd's leader took a few minutes to get up to speed. But Boyd stayed ahead and Terry finished less than 10 minutes after Boyd. Assisting Terry with his dogs again at the start and finish was his brother Steven.
The 3rd musher to go was one of the newcomers, Barb Cameron. Barb had only just learned about the Run a couple of days earlier, so her dogs were not in peak shape. Despite this she still finished the Run in just over an hour, in 4th place. Accompanying Barb on her sled was a student she was working with whose name I did not get and assisting Barb at the start and finish was a friend whose name I also did not get, sorry guys.
Another newcomer, Martin Dubeau, was the 4th musher to leave. Not only was Martin a newcomer to this race, but a newcomer to formal dogsledding in general. Martin owned 4 sled dogs but had done very little sledding with them. He was at the Run to show us (here at DogPaddle Adventures) what his dogs were capable of, so we could decide if we would become their new owners. We gave Martin 2 more dogs to round out his team. Even though the dogs and musher were very new to dogsledding, they performed exceedingly well, passing Barb on the trail (with a little assistance from Barb) to finish in 3rd place. They completed the Run in just under an hour. Needless to say we became the happy new owners of 3 new sled dogs.
The last musher to leave was Run organizer John Evanitski. John's dogs had to wait before the start of the Run while John went on the snowmobile to place the last few sandbags on the trail, and in their eagerness to go, one of his dogs broke a nail. This slowed up John considerably, as he had to stop quite often to boot (and reboot as she kept throwing the boot off,) the injured paw. John finished the Run in approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. John was again accompanied by his 11 year old daughter, who who was off the sled and running for a good portion of the Run (as was John) because the dog with the broken nail was not pulling.
Lisa from the Yellowknifer was at there to photograph the pre-Run excitement, and Jo Kelly, from Above and Beyond Magazine, took many pictures of the Run (some of which will be posted here soon). We would like to thank Kevin and Sheryl (and Nicholas) Hildahl for coming out and helping with the dogs and providing snowmobile support.
At the end of the Run some of the Mushers expressed concern about the weight involved in the big Trapline Run, and after much consideration we have decided to drop the final weight for the March 12th Run to 200kg, down from our original 300kg. Next year we won't be making things quite so easy.
We are happy to report that this year's Trapline Run was a big success. We decided to change the weight distribution, so for this final Run there were 10 'traps', with 20kg sand bags at each trap, with the distance still being 20km. Due to some last minute injuries, we only had 6 mushers participating, but that was enough to pass out all the prizes. The results were as follows:
1st Place - Ian Steeves - 2:20
<--- 2nd Place - Warren Palfrey - 2:30
3rd Place - Terry Woolf - 2:43 --->
4th Place
- Boyd Warner - 2:52
(Boyd's Dogs) ---->
5th Place - John Evanitski - 3:23
6th Place - Martin Dubeau - 3:24
All the mushers agreed on a mass start, but as the gun went off (so to speak) some of the mushers held back so as to not cause too much bottle necking. Terry Woolf was the first one out of the 'gate' with his Eskimo crosses, followed closely by John Evanitski, who was running a combination of Eskimo dogs and mixed breeds. Warren Palfrey was the third out with his Alaskan Huskies but quickly passed both John and Terry, then led for most of the race. Boyd Warner's lead dog was a little hesitant off the start but after he and his team of mostly Siberian Huskies got up to speed he over took the slower John Evanitski and then Terry. Terry stayed close to Boyd, and as Boyd was struggling to get up the big hill, Terry passed and was able to stay ahead for the rest of the race, Boyd's dogs were the smallest out of all the dogs participating, and therefore were pulling the most weight relative to their own weight.
Ian Steeves waited until the first 4 teams got under way before lifting his hook. He and his Alaskan Huskies passed John on the first lake, passed Terry and Boyd mid-race and passed Warren closer to the finish. Ian was the only musher not using a traditional oak toboggan, so it seemed fitting that he won one as the 1st prize.
Martin Dubeau was last out of the start, and he also passed John on the first lake. Martin was running fairly big, inexperienced dogs, who found the day too hot for such a workout. Martin's team was the most diverse of the group, he had 1 Siberian Husky, 1 Eskimo Dog, 1 Siberian/Eskimo cross, and 3 Eskimo/Alaskan Husky crosses. Halfway through the Run, Martin's dogs were starting to overheat, so in the best interests of the dogs, he dumped out his sandbags and rested his dogs for half an hour and helped them cool down. John and Martin stayed in close proximity for the entire Run, John also rested his dogs while he helped Martin cool his dogs. (I should mention that the team Martin was running was owned by John.) Martin then finished the Run with an empty sled. John Evanitski's dogs also had trouble with the heat but he was still able to finish with all the weight, just slightly ahead of Martin.
There was one hill on the course that gave all of the mushers (and some of the snowmobiles) a bit of a problem. A trap was placed at the bottom of the hill just to make it even more challenging, so by the time the mushers reached this hill they had 140kgs on the sled (7 traps). Some of the mushers helped out the dogs by carrying up some of the sandbags, some made it up by only going a few feet at a time then resting, while others were able to muscle it up the hill without too many breaks.
The biggest problem faced by the mushers, except for the mushers in the lead, was that a number of snowmobiles followed the lead mushers around the trail, chewing up the trail, leaving 2 inches of soft snow on what should have been a progressively harder trail. This made the dogs in the rear teams have to work twice as hard as the dogs in the lead. This is why there was more than an hour between the first and last mushers at the finish.
We plan on holding this event next year, but we will not make it quite so easy. We plan on keeping the weight at 200kgs, as this weight seemed to be the maximum capacity for the small toboggans that most of the the mushers use. But, the distance will get longer, and the trails will be more adventurous, with more big hills and norrow spots. Dogs running in single file will have a definite advantage. We will be encouraging as many mushers as we can to run this way.
After the Run, all of the mushers attended the Awards Banquet held at Mike Mark's Chinese Restaurant. Steven Woolf (Terry's brother) made some collages from pictures taken during the Run and passed them out at the dinner, thanks Steven. We would also like to thank all the people who came out and helped make this event the success it was, the mushers, the handlers, the sponsors, and especially the volunteers.
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The DogPaddle Adventures Trapline Run is a traditional trapline style race that pays tribute to the pioneers who opened this land by dogteam. There will be no check points, mushers must carry everything they need for the run. There will be no dog drops, so dogs must be hearty enough to run the entire race. Mushers must take care of their dogs, so their dogs will take care of them. This will not be a sprint race. 
