A local musher is set to once again embark on one of Canada’s greatest sled dog races.
Owner of Mush McMurray, Christina Traverse, will be taking part in the 2020 Canadian Challenge Sled Dog Race later this month,
The race is a 335-mile trek that stretches from Elk Ridge, Saskatchewan all the way to La Ronge.
In 2018, Traverse came in fourth place in the 12-dog-challenge.
After missing out on last year, she tells Mix News it’s always an exciting experience to be apart of.
“It is definitely one of my favourite races to go to just because of the race organizers, officials and even the other mushers. They’re just very caring and supportive and it’s just a great environment to be in.”
Traverse notes the toughest obstacle in the challenge is maintaining endurance.
In races like these, she says you must take advantage of every opportunity to conserve energy.
“You don’t really sleep on the trail while your dogs are resting. You’re preparing their meals, massaging them, making sure their feet are okay. By the time everything is done, you might get an hour or two of sleep, which is not a lot over the course of four days.”
Traverse says in circumstances like those, the biggest thing as a musher is maintaining a positive attitude for the sake of the dogs.
After her fourth-place finish in 2018, she says she’ll just be content to finish the race this year.
“I don’t know how competitive we’ll be. I just want to maintain that positive attitude for the dogs and I do want to make Fort McMurray proud but sometimes, just finishing the race is a challenge in itself.”
The Canadian Challenge officially gets underway on February 18.
