Camp Hale – By 9 o’clock Sunday morning, the palpable buzz of sled-dog racing overflowed from the parking lot at the base of Tennessee Pass and into the surrounding hills and hollows.
Truth be told, it was more of a whine, really, a yelping, yowling howl bayed in an off-key canine chorus assembled by its palpably buzzing keepers for the final event of the Colorado Mountain Mushers club race series season. As sleds and harnesses were laid out before the increasingly vocal hounds, the crescendo of enthusiasm grew equally rabid. The sled drivers – or “mushers” – on the other hand, remained, for the most part, chill.
Drawing nearly 50 “competitors” and their teams of up to 16 dogs, this season finale hardly qualified as the Sled Dog Super Bowl. That prestigious title already had been bestowed upon the event coinciding several thousand miles to the northwest, the 35th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, which will wrap up in Nome, Alaska, this week.
And although there might have been no more informed gathering of Iditarod enthusiasts anywhere in the state last weekend, the vast majority of those on hand remained a far cry from the big leagues. Which was just fine with them.
“It’s not real high-intensity racing out here, more just fun, friendly competition for people in the area,” said Dave Wurts of Morrison, race coordinator for Colorado Mountain Mushers. “For the huskies, their favorite thing in the whole world is to run. For us it’s just kind of a pleasure to be out on the trail with them. The race is just a fun way to get a bunch of people together all at the same site.”
An offshoot of the more competitive Rocky Mountain Sled Dog Club, Colorado Mountain Mushers was established in 1989 with the goal of fostering novice and family racing by organizing a top-quality recreational racing circuit and mentoring new mushers. Wurts estimated the club’s membership at just less than 100 (not counting the dogs), and growing.
“There’s pretty good interest right now from brand-new people who just want to find out more about the sport and the equipment that they need to get into it,” Wurts said. “Most people get into it by taking a ride with a tour company, and it just kind of hooks you.”
The Colorado Mountain Mushers website (www.coloradomtnmushers.org) lists more than a dozen commercial sledding tours in Colorado alone and several others in the surrounding region. A common first step for dog owners who have or have not taken commercial rides is to begin their sledding careers on skis.
Marijean Zacha of Golden is among the aspiring sled-dog sect, building up to a four-dog team through the discipline of skijoring, which she learned through club members after investing about $150 on harnesses for herself and her dogs. Riding skate skis behind her two Samoyed huskies, Zacha, 53, covered 9.6 miles in just less than an hour-and-a-half.
“It was really easy to get into. And the people in this club were really mentoring,” said Zacha, a three-year skijor racer. “I’ve never won a race, and probably won’t with Samoyeds. But it’s not about winning. It’s all about finding your personal best, kind of like running a 10K.”
Top dog from Sterling
Because it’s so obvious to her, Zacha fails to mention the most important ingredient in her preferred discipline. Skijoring is “like running a 10K” with your 50-pound dog. And that canine companionship is what ultimately attracts the breed of person that becomes passionate enough about the sport to devote themselves to even its most complex elements.
Take club member John Perry, for example. The 67-year- old musher from Sterling got his start breeding dogs long before learning he didn’t invent the sport of skijoring about a decade ago. Now the mastermind behind Perry’s Racing Hounds – a secret breeding recipe that includes English Shorthair Pointers in the mix – is recognized as a world champion in six-dog sprint racing (25 miles), silver medalist in eight-dog sprint and a seven-time International Sled Dog Racing Association points series champion.
“If you didn’t love that association with the dogs, you wouldn’t do it. It’s too much work,” said Perry, who won both of the 14-mile six- and eight-dog sprints last weekend by about 15 minutes. “For me in a deal like this, it’s not the competition. It’s about how the dogs are running. My main interest is to see that all the dogs are working together and they’re having a nice, enjoyable run where they’re all happy. That to me is more important than anything else.”
Building tradition
For Perry, a grandfather of five, it’s also important to pass along the tradition of sled-dog racing that he came upon virtually on his own so late in life. That’s where a club like Colorado Mountain Mushers is so valuable, he said, providing junior “Sportsman” racing for children like his 11-year-old granddaughter, Molly Perry, on up through 18-year-olds like Michaela Maddalena of Estes Park, who has taken what she has learned in Colorado races up to Alaska for competition in the 172-mile Junior Iditarod and the Junior Yukon Quest.
“It’s starting to come on, but the clubs have got to do a little more encouragement that way, as far as I see it,” Perry said. “It’s got to be a family affair, that’s for sure. But what a neat way to spend the weekend.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
