Dirty Dog Lived Up To Its Name

As I noted in last week’s blast from the past newsletter about Doty 2022, Riley and I (Hannah) have become more and more involved with sled dogs and racing every year. This becomes even more evident because just two weeks after Doty in October of 2022, we went back to northern Wisconsin for another dryland race - Redpaw’s Dirty Dog Dryland Race. And Dirty Dog definitely lived up to its name.

Bear with me as this newsletter is slightly longer than previous ones, but includes some behind-the-scenes information that wasn’t publicly shared before!

It was our first time ever at this race in Pearson, Wisconsin. We hadn’t seen the trail before. When we arrived on Saturday morning, it was absolutely pouring rain. Riley, Quince Mountain (Q), and I walked part of the trail to get an idea of any potentially troubling areas. The trail was definitely more challenging than the trail at Doty, with many more hills, sharp turns, sticks and roots, and because of the rain - flooded areas.

The conditions alone made us nervous, especially hearing about someone breaking a bone on the trail the previous year. It was also both of our first times competing in two divisions in one weekend. I was running in both one dog and two dog scooter and Riley was running in both one dog and two dog bike.

Although it was still pouring rain, the races began as scheduled with the six dog rig class. Just to give you an idea of some of the trail conditions, check out these photos below of well-known sprint and stage race musher Ryan Beaber in the start chute! Wakes of water flying up off his tires.

He was a very brave soul for going out in those conditions! I was nervous for him! When he arrived back in the dog yard, he was caked in mud from head to toe.

I don’t remember if it was after the 6 dog rig class or if 4 dog went next, but a musher meeting was called soon after. The trail was deemed to be unsafe for mushers and dogs, and it was decided that the remainder of the classes were cancelled for Saturday.

Once again, we were left with only one day to compete. Of course I was bummed that our races were cut in half again after several hours of travel, but I was not wanting to compete in those unsafe conditions either. So after a few hours of getting soaking wet in the rain and cold, we went back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we arrived back at the race site. The trail was still muddy, but definitely better than the previous day.

Riley was up first for our group, in the two dog bike event. But there was a slight problem. Q had the bike Riley was going to use, and also the dogs. But Q was having vehicle trouble. There was no cell signal at the race site, so we didn’t know how far he was or where he was. But Riley’s race was in like, two minutes at this point.

I went around the dog yard asking mushers I somewhat knew if they had an extra bike. If Riley didn’t have a bike, nothing else mattered. A musher friend of Qs, I believe Rich Kisseloff, asked the race to make an announcement that we were looking for a bike. Sure enough, a lady came over and offered for Riley to use hers as long as we sprayed the mud off when he was done. SWEET. We got a bike!

I (Riley) was a little nervous about using someone else’s bike for a couple of reasons. The biggest being I didn’t want to crash and break the bike and be responsible for replacing it. With the wet conditions, I knew anything was possible. I also didn’t have time to test out the bike. The gearshift was different than what I was used to and the seat was not where I wanted it. But hey, at least I had a functioning bike! It would have to do.

Now we needed two dogs. We had Boo with us, but running him by himself wouldn’t have worked - he wasn’t great running alone at this point and pairing him with another random dog at the last minute could end poorly too. Musher friend Chris Speers was there, and his dogs have seemingly endless energy. I (back to Hannah again) asked Chris if any of his dogs would like to run again. He said yes! Now we had dogs. Two beautiful, strong dogs - a German Shorthaired Pointer and a Pointer mix.

Riley ran the bike up to the start chute while Chris ran to get his dogs harnessed up. Then we realized we needed a two dog line. Someone at the start chute said they had one! We threw everything together and got Riley up to the line just as the countdown began.

Talk about stressful. When we first got into handling/mushing more seriously, we found it stressful how it was common practice to wait until the last minute to get the dogs ready and up to the chute. We’ve now learned that there are benefits to doing so and have accepted the practice ourselves.

BUT this whole adventure of finding a bike, dogs and line literally two minutes before chute time took the stress to another level.

This trail isn’t as spectator-friendly as others, so we didn’t get any photos out in the middle of the trail, but above is a shot from the start and below is a shot from just before the finish.

Chris’ dogs are FAST. They’re perfect for these sprint races and they carried Riley through a great run. For never running with, or even meeting these dogs, they responded well to all commands and they didn’t have any hiccups out on the course. It was such a fun run.

I (Hannah) was up next with two dog scooter. For this race, I was borrowing a BULLA scooter from one of Q’s friends, Mandy Collins (I think?). This was a super light-weight scooter, and much different than the one I had raced two weekends before. The trail was still muddy, so I was definitely nervous.

Q made it to the race site before I ran, so we had several options for dog combinations. Of course, I brought Boo. But after seeing the hills on the trail, I realized I needed two bigger, stronger dogs. It is harder to help the dogs when you’re on a scooter versus a bike. So I ended up running Pepe and Tenzing.

Check out snippets from our race via my GoPro here. The start chute was still very muddy. At the beginning of the trail, there was a sharp, downhill turn. You can probably hear my brakes squealing as I very cautiously took the corner. Luckily, there was trail help at the bottom of the hill, but I didn’t need it.

There were many hills throughout the course, and some dry areas. But other areas were flooded over or covered in inches of mud. At one point, I nearly lost it around a corner. It was super muddy and the scooter was so light that it threw me around. In the video, you can hear me say “SAVED IT!”. The trail help around that corner almost saw me eat it. Somehow, in the middle of the scooter slipping sideways, I switched feet back and forth to catch myself and stay upright, and I had never switched my feet mid run like that before. I remember Pepe looking back at me like “you alright back there?”.

The trail was gorgeous though, with different scenery around every corner. The lake was beautiful. This race was 2.5 miles long and we finished in 9 minutes and 55 seconds. It was a thrill to cross the finish line on one of the most challenging and longest races I’d done at that point.

Shortly after my 2 dog scooter race, the one dog events began. Next up was Riley again, with one dog bike. This time, he raced with Forrest, and the trail was shorter - only 1.5 miles. Thankfully, the sun had been out for a couple hours and the trail was slowly drying.

This should be no surprise, but Forrest was a complete badass on this course. With all the hills, it could be challenging for one dog, but he was a pro and they crushed it! It felt good to have a familiar dog back on the line.

And for my last race, I competed in one dog scooter with Blizzard. I was super excited to run with Blizzard again. He was an absolute beast through the hills, and it felt like we were absolutely flying on the straight aways. He’s a great combination of strength and speed. We ran 1.5 miles in 6 minutes and 28 seconds. You can check out video highlights from our race here. Shoutout to Rich Besler for taking my favorite mushing photo of myself of all time.

I ended up placing first in both 2 dog and 1 dog scooter sport classes. I believe the 1 dog class had 3 competitors in it even though only two of us are in the photo, but I think someone dropped and I was the only one in the 2 dog scooter class. Or maybe it was the other way around. Regardless, I learned a lot from that weekend!

When the races and awards were finished, we stuck around to run more dogs for fun with Q, including Boo. He had been anxiously awaiting his turn all day. Once everyone else cleared out, we let the dogs free run and play together while we loaded up all the equipment, including our NEW SCOOTER.

That’s right - we were so hooked on dryland racing at this point, we bought our very first dog scooter after the races! It’s a Kickbike Cross Max. Thanks to Mandy Collins for bringing it to the race with her. It has gotten very good use since then! Also shoutout to the many friends on Twitter who helped us source and fund the scooter!

We hope you’ve been enjoying the Urban Mushers newsletter so far. We’ve only got a few more “blast from the past” newsletters left until we’re caught up to current times!

A quick PS… Riley’s birthday is next Friday, Feb. 16th. Be on the lookout for a special promo to help celebrate his birthday ;)