March 29, 2024
CAN-AM CROWN SLED DOG RACE

Can-Am mushers ready for race Annual dog sled event set to kick off Saturday

FORT KENT – Rita Cannan moved from table to table Friday at the Lonesome Pine Trails Lodge making sure there were no glitches during the registrations for the 15th running of the three races in the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Race.

Cannan, a semiretired businesswoman, is overseeing her 10th race of the 15 races held since February 1993. Friday she was overseeing the work of three other women taking documents from some 90 mushers registering for Saturday’s 30-, 60- and 250-mile sled dog races.

The mushers are looking for their share of purses ranging from $4,000 in the 30-mile race to $40,000 in the multiday, 250-mile race.

Thousands of people are expected to line Main Street on Saturday morning for the start of all three races. The 30- and 60-mile races start and end Saturday, but the 250-mile race won’t see anyone coming across the finish line until the early morning hours Monday.

“Everything is fine and ready for tomorrow,” Cannan said Friday afternoon. “Even the snow that’s coming is OK.

“This will be another good year,” she said. “The race is gaining in popularity all the time.”

That was an understatement. The 30-team limit for each race was filled within seven days of the registration opening in early August. Many mushers, some veterans at Fort Kent, were on waiting lists.

That included Don Hibbs of Millinocket. He was able to get into the 250-mile race just earlier this week when another entrant scratched her name from the competition.

Six people remained on the waiting list for the 250-mile classic Friday.

Mother Nature was working on making the annual races a bit tougher Friday. It was predicted that as much as 15 inches of snow could fall in the area from Friday noon through Saturday morning.

The Irving Woodlands Can-Am Crown 250-mile race roster was filled with capable competitors. They included Hibbs, a three-time winner, Martin Massicotte of Quebec, another three-time winner, Bruce Langmaid of Ontario, a two-time winner, and defending champion Matt Carstens of New Hampshire.

Carstens also won the Eagle Lake 100-mile race a month ago.

There are also some women mushers who bear watching in the race. They include Rita Wehseler of Minnesota and Amy Dugan of Shirley Mills, a former finisher of the race returning to competition at Fort Kent after five years away.

The 250-mile classic has brought in mushers from Montana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Quebec and Ontario in Canada.

The winner takes home $4,500 of the $40,000 purse divided among the top 12 mushers. The race also has stage cash prizes and a $4,000 finishing touch purse divided among all the finishers.

The 60-mile Willard Jalbert Memorial Race has a total purse of $7,000. The winner gets $2,000 and the remainder is divided among the next 11 finishers.

The 30-mile Pepsi-Budweiser Race has a purse of $4,000 with the winner getting $1,200. The rest is divided among the next 11 finishers.

The competitors in the 60-mile race are the first out of the gate Saturday morning, starting at 8 a.m. Mushers leave at two-minute intervals from the gate located at the intersection of Main Street and Meadow Lane.

They run a loop that goes to the Allagash-St. Francis town line and back to Fort Kent.

The mushers in the 30-mile race leave starting at 9 a.m. from the same location. Their loop goes from Fort Kent to St. John Plantation, east to Wallagrass and back to Fort Kent.

The shorter races are usually done by 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Irving 250 starts at 10 a.m. The mushers run to Portage Lake, then west through the woods to a Rocky Brook lumber camp for checkpoint two. Then it’s through the woods to Maibec’s Lumber Camp and on to Allagash for the fourth checkpoint. Finally, there is one last leg back to Fort Kent.

All races finish at the Lonesome Pine Trails Lodge.


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