Outdoors/Adventure

Finding sled dog races online

If you're searching for a sled dog race to watch, enter, photograph, or volunteer to help with, there are a number of ways to find out where the dogs are running on any given weekend. Newspapers generally run notices of upcoming races, and many local radio stations will announce races in their area and give updates during the race season. The most reliable source, however, has become the Internet community, as race fans, race officials and mushers have all discovered the benefits of having a blog, a Web site, and Facebook and Twitter profiles.

team-trail-go-mush-logo-12-12-09One of the best Alaskan sled dog race Web sites is Theresa Daily's Go Mush site, which not only has the greatest title and most easily remembered URL, but which offers in-depth coverage of Alaskan sled dog races. Besides race schedules and information, Go Mush also presents complete race coverage, photo galleries, musher profiles, race videos, the history of mushing, reviews of books and videos on mushing, and a classified ad section for mushing gear, dogs for sale, handler positions and more.

team-trail-sled-dog-central-screen-shot-12-12-09On a broader scale, Sled Dog Central has long been recognized as a premier source of information about sled dog racing, not only in Alaska, but wherever dogs are being harnessed for a race. Site developer Judy Bergemann built the site to "provide access to sled dog products and information for all levels of mushing experience, across the spectrum of mushing activities."

There are handy race calendars at Sled Dog Central which separate the races into regions such as the USA (East, West, Midwest and Alaska), Canada (East, West, and North), and various European countries, with cross-references focusing on sprint races, distance races, skijoring & pulka, weight pulling, dryland and stage races. Like the Go Mush site, Sled Dog Central includes many other features, and the best single source of information about what's offered is the Sled Dog Central Index.

team-trail-cb300-lake-lucille-12-12-09
Helen Hegener/Northern Light Media photo
A team waits at Lake Lucille's Wolverine Lodge during the 2009 Copper Basin 300.

The two primary races in Alaska, the

and the

, are easy to find, as simply adding "dot com" to the ends of their names will bring up their huge and multifaceted Web sites. I'll be sharing features of each site as we get closer to their respective race times in February and March.

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Most smaller races have their own Web sites, and many are impressive in their own right, such as the Copper Basin 300, or the Tustumena 200. They're not, however, always easy to find online. A search for the name of the race will usually bring up the race's Web site, but not always; links often just go to news about past races. Generally speaking, the Go Mush and Sled Dog Central sites are the most reliable markers to almost any Alaskan sled dog race Web site.

Helen Hegener is an author and a documentary filmmaker specializing in long distance sled dog races and the men, women and dogs who run them. Learn more at Northern Light Media.

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