FORT KENT, Maine — Martin Massicotte of Saint-Tite, Quebec, and Denis Tremblay of Saint-Michel-des-Saints, Quebec, were the only two mushers in the 250-mile Can-Am sled dog race to have reached the Camp Sylver checkpoint, as of 11 a.m. Sunday.
Of the 15 competitors racing in the 250-mile event, Jessica Holmes of Portage — in here first 250 — dropped out between the Portage Lake and Rocky Brook checkpoints, and Andy Bartleet of Albany Township had not yet reached Rocky Brook as of late Sunday morning.
Mushers in the 100-mile race began arriving Saturday night at Lonesome Pine trails ski facility in Fort Kent, with Bruce Langmaid of Kearney, Ontario, beating Jacob Golton of L’Amable, Ontario, by just five minutes. Langmaid finished the course in 12 hours, 20 minutes, to take the top spot.
The only Maine musher in the 100-mile event, Kasey McCarty of Lexington, finished 13th.
No racers dropped out of the 100-mile race, and the only musher scratched from the 30-mile race on Saturday was Jeffrey McRobbie of Wayne, who was injured in a collision with a snowmobile. He was recovering from his injuries Sunday at the Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent. The juvenile driver of the snowmobile involved in the accident has been charged with operating to endanger, according to Maine Warden Adrien Marquis.
Several mushers in the 250-mile race had dropped one or two dogs off at checkpoints so far, which is fairly common. Most teams start out with between 10 and 12 dogs. Race officials have a system of volunteers and transportation to return the dropped dogs back to Fort Kent.
Race officials said that a lot can happen between now and the end of the race, so predicting when the first 250-mile race teams may arrive at the finish in Fort Kent is difficult. If things go well, however, they could start arriving as early as Monday morning.