Dog gone cold
Freezing temps negatively affect Kivalliq dog teams
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
Dog musher Harry Towtongie of Rankin Inlet remains confident the traditional sport can survive and grow despite the challenges it faces.
Elder David Oolooyuk raises his arm in triumph after finishing the second leg of the Pakallak Tyme dog-team race in Rankin Inlet this past month. - photo courtesy of Page Burt
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The annual Pakallak Tyme (Qimuksiqtiit) Kivalliq Dog Derby Championship only attracted six mushers in Rankin this past month, and none of them were exactly new to the sport.
Towtongie finished second in the three-day race, trailing only Andrew Porter of Gjoa Haven.
In a touching gesture, Porter donated half of his $5,000 winner's purse to his cousin, Janice Simailak of Baker Lake, who is receiving cancer treatment in Toronto.
David Oolooyuk placed third at the event, followed by Michael Ivo, Donny Baker and Jack Kabvitok.
Towtongie, who finished first in the Arviat dog-team race earlier this month, said the weather had a lot to do with only six racers taking part.
He said this year's freezing-cold temperatures were tough on everyone involved with the sport.
"Because of the long, cold, -50 C almost every day winter, we had to shorten the Rankin race because nobody could do any training this year," said Towtongie.
"I was also hoping to go to the race in Baker Lake, but the three are held one after another -- bang, bang, bang -- and the dogs just didn't have time to recover.
"The lack of training because of the cold was the main reason we didn't have as many racers as we did in years past.
"But we still have teams training and people wanting to compete, so we'll continue to try and keep the race alive because it's our tradition."
Towtongie said he never really had a chance to overcome Porter during the final day of the eight-dog-per-team derby.
He said he's training young dogs this year, and they didn't have the experience to be able to catch a team like Porter's.
"I had four young dogs in the team who were in their first race in Rankin.
"Those dogs are just learning, so it was hard to keep them focused because they had never seen other teams out on the trail before and they were curious about them.
"Each day we went about 10 miles to the Whale Cove Ski-Doo trail, did about a three-mile loop inland, and then went back to Rankin.
"Normally, we do 30 to 35 miles a day, but we kept it to about 23 this year."
Towtongie said the mushers usually hold small weekend races, here and there, between December and February, but it was simply too cold this year.
He said it's amazing to think it was that cold, for so long, this winter, nobody could run their dogs properly.
"We usually get the dogs going in September or October, but we never really had a chance to get them going this year until early March.
"The cold has really been too much this year.
"Hopefully, things will be more normal next winter and we'll see more training, especially with younger people running the dogs.
"They're the hope if our sport is going to continue to survive."
