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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1994-02-09, Page 29VIEWEITVDFR Tirnes-Advocate, February 9, 1994 Page 29 MUS 11 Leaping away from the starting line of one of the dog sled races at the Grand Bend Winter Camiva! on Saturday was Judy French and her team of huskies from Springfield. Grand Bend Winter Carnival 1994 Dog sled racing is the higlilight of Carnival's opening weekend By Fred Groves T -A staff GRAND BEND - If you can't beat the cold weather, you might as well join it. And when Mother Nature dishes out a little sunshine and the mercury in the old thermome- ter pushes upwards for a change. it's pretty hard not to join it. This past weekend, hundreds of people of all ages travelled to Grand Bend for the annual Win- ter Carnival to watch dog sled racing, play a little sno-pitch and enjoy the large snow sculptures. While the International Snow Sculpting Competition will be the featured attraction this upcoming weekend, this past Saturday and Sunday saw snow-enjoyers come 4 to the Pinery Provincial Park for the races. For competitors, once you get involved in sled dog racing, it's something which you just want to keep doing winter after winter. Eric and Mark Lanser from Michigan brought their dogs and sleds to the Pinery Park and were vying for a share of this year's $6,500 in prize money. "The last six years is when we really started racing, not just rec- reational," said Eric Lanser. He said an older brother got them in- volved in the activity about 18 years ago. As the brothers went about their chores of feeding the dogs and making adjustments to equip- ment, the Alaskan Huskies great - fully drank a lot of water as they had just done the over five mile course in 17 minutes. "This is a nice course. The snow (which fell Friday) helped a lot. It's a beautiful trail out there." said Eric. Last year the races were not held because of lack of snow. In fact, there was so little snow that the white stuff had to be trucked in to help make the snow sculp- tures. Two years ago it was bitterly cold and the number of spectators was way down. However, 1994 could go down as one of the best attended Grand Bend Sled Dog Derby's ever. Those who came to watch were allowed to line the side of the track and between races went to see the dogs and some were even treated to explanations about the huskies. The Lanser brothers have a plan which helps them get their dogs ready for the racing season. "I start in the middle of October and I go three or four times a week with small mileage," said Eric on getting the dogs ready. "First I build muscle then condi- tioning then attitude." At the starting line all those ele- ments came into play as specta- tors watched handlers hang on tightly to the lines before the starter gave the final countdown. Upon command the four, six and eight -dog teams burst away from the crowd and down the Dogs await their turn to get on the trail at the Pinery Park during races held Saturday. Children and adults enjoyed Grand Bend Winter Car- nival's opening weekend as they climbed up and down the snow castle which will be a highlight of the annual event all Fr week long. trail. While the dogs were strutting their stuff at the park, in Grand Bend youngsters enjoyed the slid- ing down the Targe ice sculpture at the Colonial Inn parking lot. Others, more of the sporting na- ture got a head start on the hall season as they played sno-pitch. Some of the many activities which will go on during the sec- ond weekend of the Grand Bend Winter Carnival include the pop- ular Waiter's Race, Amateur Tal- ent Contests, Barbeques and of course the judging of the snow sculpting.