You might not think the worlds of coastal Maine and sled dog racing would intersect. But you’d be wrong.
It takes hundreds of volunteers to make the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races happen. Many are from Aroostook County, but one small group travels nearly 300 miles north from Harpswell every year to help.
The Can-Am is Fort Kent’s largest annual event, drawing 30 or more teams of mushers and dogs along with well over a thousand spectators. The race is a crucial part of Fort Kent’s economy. Hotels are often booked a year in advance, and many restaurants depend on the additional revenue from customers during the Can-Am to fund one-time purchases like equipment upgrades.
But before the crowds come and the excitement of hundreds of barking dogs fills the air, there’s a staggering amount of work to do — including marking, packing and grooming 300 or so miles of trail through the Valley’s winter landscape.
The races begin on Saturday, Feb. 28, with all racers taking off on Main Street in Fort Kent. The 100-mile race begins first at 8 a.m., the 30-mile race starts at 9:10 a.m., and the 250-mile race starts about an hour after that. The 250-mile race is also an official qualifier for the Iditarod and Yukon Quest sled dog races.
For the trail prep team of volunteers from Harpswell, the journey north is something they wouldn’t miss.
The three men have made the trip for decades and have even bought homes in the area to stay in while they work. They all share a passion for the outdoors.
“These men are so dedicated. I mean, it’s in their blood,” Can-Am Vice President Sarah Brooks said. They’ve bought little cottages here on the lake, or here in town in Portage.”
Steve Hodgkins has been part of the crew for nearly 20 years. It all began when he and his best friend, Wayne Gagnon, also of Harpswell, visited a mutual friend who had a camp in Winterville.
“They were out snowmobiling and came across a fellow that was working on the trail, so they stopped and talked to him, and before you knew it they were volunteering to help out on the trails,” Hodgkins said. “So I came up and fell right into it.”
Each week, Hodgkins started packing every Thursday to drive up to Aroostook County, returning home on Sundays. His wife finally asked him why he didn’t just find a place up there, he said. So he bought a house in Portage as a home base for the winter.
Now, he, Gagnon, and their friend George Bradbury are out working their part of the trail system. Their friend Jim Dumond of Portage also joins in.
“We all just kind of divide and conquer,” Hodgkins said. “We do close to 150 miles.”
It takes weeks to prepare the trails. The timing depends on how much snow is on the ground. Though there was enough in early February to have run the race, it would be ideal if they could get another foot and a half of snow before the race starts, he said.
The safety of the dogs is his top concern. Moose, for example, love walking on the groomed trails, and Hodgkins often goes out just before the race to make sure there are no moose tracks present. The moose leave ruts, and a dog could break its leg if it stepped in one.
They also look out for one another. Nobody is ever completely alone on the trails, he said. They always go in groups of at least two.
The crew does all their work on heavy-duty snowmobiles worth roughly $20,000 each, which have wide tracks for packing down the trails.
They first make the trails roughly three sleds wide. Then they do another pass with a heavy, flat piece of metal that packs it down and smooths it out. If the trail is still bumpy, they bring out a 5-foot drag that knocks off the high bumps and fills in the low spots, Hodgkins said.
“I love being on snowmobiles,” he said. “I love being out in the woods where no one else is. It’s a thrill and it’s a challenge.”
The Harpswell crew isn’t alone. A separate group of about six volunteers prepares another trail, on which mushers race the Can-Am 30- and 100-mile races. John Pelletier, Fort Kent resident and trail boss, leads them.
Because his area covers common trails used in all three races, it needs to be managed and packed down more solidly.
“It doesn’t sound like much, but since it’s the beginning of the race and everything goes through it, we’ve got to make sure everything is hard,” Pelletier said. “If you take one team, and multiply that by the amount of teams going through, you’ll see how many little paws go through that trail.”
Pelletier’s group, and another six-member crew handling trails near the Allagash, also clip branches and keep the paths clean.
The crews are already hard at work, Brooks said. They arrive late at night and leave early in the morning. And, as happens every year, they’ve had to reroute parts of the trails around logging operations in the area.
The workers do everything from taking care of signage to general trail maintenance. They also mark the trails using GPS and provide information that will be used to help people at home follow along with the race online. The website, Track Leaders, will display live GPS information of the mushers, their speed, and how many miles they’ve traveled.
There’s plenty of work for other volunteers, Brooks said.
Some, including the Portage Lakers Snowmobile Club, also help groom the trails. Others set up dog yards, where the dogs can rest at the end of the day once they reach that checkpoint. Trail crews also put blinking red lights out on the lake that mark the race trails to ensure that snowmobilers do not interfere with the mushers.
As the race gets closer, hundreds of volunteers will begin working together, Can-Am media adviser Andrew Birden said. Among other jobs, they will handle registration, coordinate veterinarians and make sure that each checkpoint is stocked with the appropriate materials and gear. Some even host racing families and their dogs who are traveling from afar.
Both Birden and Brooks said the volunteers are a critical part of the race.
Brooks commended her crew for the work they do every year to make sure the dogs are safe.
“I cannot say enough about my trail crew here,” she said. “They know every little twist and turn.”