Imagine this: You’re all alone in the middle of the frozen tundra that is the Yukon Territory. When the sun sets, the temperature might dip to -60 C, and all you have to rely on are 14 Alaskan husky dogs and a sled.
Bart de Marie calls this paradise.
And the Christopher Lake musher is now in the late stages of preparing for this, the biggest sled-dog race of his life.
Starting on Feb. 6, the 26-year-old de Marie, who is originally from Belgium, will become the first Saskatchewan musher to compete in the Yukon Quest, a
1,000-mile race from Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon. And at Akela’s Den, the acreage where de Marie lives, the excitement is palpable.
“The dogs know the race is getting close,” de Marie said this week before jogging off, with an obvious bounce in his gait, to help tend to the barking animals. “When I start filling the truck with straw (for the trip), they start going nuts.”
And the dogs seem to know this time, the adventure is as big as they come.
Toughest race in the world
The Yukon Quest is considered by many, including sled-dog racer extraordinaire and four-time champion Lance Mackey, to be the toughest race in the world.
So as a rookie, albeit one who is the reigning champion of the Canadian Challenge sled-dog race, de Marie is going to Fairbanks with realistic expectations.
“Because it’s so new to me and we’re doing it all on our own … you cannot expect to do super well in the first time you try and run this race,” he said. “My first goal is to have a healthy team. The second goal is to finish the race with a healthy team. The third goal is to finish top 10.”
But that doesn’t mean De Marie, who confesses to having been scared of dogs as a child, isn’t doing everything he can to prepare.
Most recently, he spent December in Fort St. James, B.C., training his dogs where there was actually snow and real mountains.
“We tend to have a problem, here in Saskatchewan, with mountains,” de Marie said with a laugh.
While out west, he was also conditioning his team for sleeping beneath the stars in the elements.
“You want to get them ready to lay down on the straw, eat outside, sleep outside and sleep with a blanket over them instead of a dog house.”
Canine training camp
That, and it was also one of the last opportunities for the dogs to prove they’re worthy of the Quest. De Marie took 19 dogs to Fort St. James — and added two more from friend and fellow musher Jerry Joinson’s lot — but only 14 will make the final “cut.”
“I’m looking at performance (and) endurance,” de Marie said. “If they’re prone to injuries or not, their eating attitude, their camping attitude and, of course, which dog goes along with which dogs and how they fit in.”
The relationship between dog and dog and between musher and dog is tough to quantify but imperative for success.
“The bond gets really strong when you’re out on the trail and especially in those races,” de Marie said. “To get somewhere you really have to grow a relationship with each individual (dog). There are no words to describe it, but you can see it in the little things that a bond is there.”
Trek begins next week
De Marie leaves early next week for Whitehorse, where he will begin the final stage of preparation for what is likely to be 10 days in the northern wilderness and a first for his adopted province.
“(Mushing) is part of why I immigrated to Canada, When I came here, it felt like my second home. The people when I came here were so welcoming, and because I’m now living here permanently, I feel like I’m representing them as well.
“It’s a tradition here that you try to keep alive, and that’s important to me.”
mjanzen@paherald.sk.ca
