Can-Am musher fine after ordeal

FORT KENT – A sigh of relief went through the nearly two dozen people at Can-Am central about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday when search and rescue people radioed to say they had spotted Liz Como and her sled dogs on the trail.

Concern for the musher from Lovell had been building through the morning at the headquarters of the Can-Am Crown Sled Dog Race because the veteran musher had been on the trail to Fort Kent from Allagash for more than 12 hours. She left Allagash at 12:23 a.m. Tuesday and had not been seen since.

An hour later, the radios came alive again with the information that Como had pulled out of the 250-mile race, less than 15 miles from the finish line. She and her dogs were removed from the woods by search and rescue personnel.

Race marshal George Theriault said Como and her dogs were OK.

From that point, Mary Wolf of St. Francis was the lone musher left on the race trail. She had until the Tuesday night mushers banquet to reach the finish line.

After 10:25 a.m. Tuesday, Como and Wolf were the only two mushers left on the trail. Sixteen mushers had finished the race. Barry Dana of Solon had come into Fort Kent at 10:25, and 12 mushers failed to finish the race.

Both women were in their second 250-mile race at Fort Kent. Como finished in 16th place when she ran the race in 2002. Wolf scratched at Big Machias Lake in her first attempt in the 250-mile race last year.

The 48-mile trail from Allagash to Fort Kent was covered with nearly a foot of snow. The going was slow since Sunday when mushers were hit with 3 to 12 inches of new snow.

After a brief respite Sunday night and Monday morning, more snow fell. By Tuesday morning the new accumulation was approaching 8 inches on the trail.

“There are two women out there and they are very determined,” Stephane Duplessis of St. Zenon, Quebec, a musher who finished in fifth place on Monday, said while waiting Tuesday. “If it was two men out there they would scratch, but not these two.

“Mary Wolf is very determined. She’s put it into her head to finish, and she will, even if it’s after the banquet,” he said. “She put it in her head to finish when the weather turned bad.”

Eight mushers finished the race by 5 p.m. Monday, and another eight arrived at the finish line at Lonesome Pine Lodge at Fort Kent between 5 p.m. Monday and 10:25 a.m. Tuesday.

During the same period, three other mushers ended their quest, scratching from the race.

All three of the races had full complements of 30 teams each Saturday. It was Fort Kent’s largest race in the 13 years it has been run. Thousands of people watched the Main Street start Saturday morning in temperatures that ranged between 10 and 20 degrees.

There was $40,000 in cash up for grabs in the three races. Irving provided $20,000 for the 250-mile race. The winner receives $4,500, and the other top 11 mushers split the remainder, with the 12th musher receiving $600. That race also has stage prizes, $1,000 split among the top five fastest teams between checkpoints. The Finishing Touch purse of $4,000 is split among all finishers of the race.