March 28, 2024
CAN-AM CROWN SLED DOG RACE

Thousands gather for 16th Can-Am race

FORT KENT – Light snow Saturday morning did not deter fans for the start of the 16th running of the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races at Fort Kent where crowds were estimated to be the largest ever.

Hundreds lined the Main Street chute when the first mushers headed out of the starting gate at 8 a.m. for the Willard Jalbert Jr. Can-Am 60-mile race.

Temperatures were barely above zero but the crowd warmed quickly as the 29 mushers took off through the downtown.

By the time mushers lined up for the Pepsi Bottling Can-Am 30-mile race, temperatures had risen to 10 degrees and the crowd had grown to thousands. People lined the gated-off chute for a quarter-mile up Main Street.

People of all ages attended the carnival-like start of the now classic races. They included everyone from very young children hauled around by their parents on sleds, to people in their 80s.

“Isn’t this just marvelous,” Maine Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told the crowd before the start of the Irving Woodlands 250-mile race, which started shortly after 10 a.m. “Only in Fort Kent.”

Fort Kent Police Chief Kenneth Michaud said it was the largest crowd he had seen in the 16 years of the race. He said people stood several deep at the starting gate on Main Street.

“I’ve never seen as many people here,” he said after the mushers had taken off. “Early on I thought the crowd would be small because only a few hundred were here early. They just kept coming.”

“This is the fourth year we’ve sponsored the 250-mile race, and isn’t it just a great event,” James Irving, president of Irving Woodlands, said in an interview after addressing the crowd. “There are people here from all over and it’s great to see everyone out here.

“I see there is great political support for this event as well,” he said, pointing out the politicians who were there. “We will be sponsoring this through at least 2010.”

Politicians on the deck of a tractor-trailer used by the official starter, Alain Ouellette, included Collins, Democratic U.S. 1st District Rep. Michael Michaud, state Sen. John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake, and state Rep. Troy Jackson, D-Fort Kent. Others from Augusta included Attorney General Steven Rowe and John Richardson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.

Jim Michaud of Madawaska and his daughter were just feet away from the starting line where they counted down the seconds to each musher’s departure.

“We come every year to the races,” Michaud said after all the teams had left. “For my daughter it’s a date with Dad, and we both enjoy this very much.”

Throughout the morning lines of people were at the Irving tent where coffee and food were distributed. Although the lines were shorter, scores of people also got their coffee and doughnuts from FairPoint, another major sponsor of the races, at an outdoor table just behind the starting line.

Other companies passed out scarves, bright yellow ones from Allen’s Coffee Brandy, and notepads, pens, candy bars and hand heating pouches from FairPoint.

Hot food was available for purchase at several sidewalk outlets, and a group from Fort Kent Community High School was selling whoopie pies to fans along the gated raceway.

Shortly after the last teams left for the 250-mile race, which will wrap up Tuesday, the first finishers in the 30-mile race were coming across the finish line at the Lonesome Pine Ski Trails Lodge.

All races finish at the ski lodge. In the three races, 81 teams of athlete-dogs and mushers were competing for $40,000 in cash prizes. Winners of the 30- and 60-mile races were feted at a Sunday morning brunch at the Lonesome Pine lodge. The banquet for the 250-mile race is scheduled for Tuesday night at the same venue.


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