The Dog Powered Sports Association of Yukon (DPSAY) held a dryland race at Fox Creek Saturday. Fox Creek is located about a 30 minute drive from Whitehorse on the North Klondike Highway.

Ben Simard took second place in the 3.5 mile bikejoring.

Simard said it went “pretty good. It was a little warmer for the older one but it go pretty good for the little one. She was still just giving it til the end.”

Simard’s older dog is Rye and the youngster is Suka.

“It was pretty fun … new track with a big hill. It was a big challenge coming back up but definitely worth it. A lot of fun.”

Simard added, “We had a really nice day and I think everybody had a lot of fun. Beautiful fall day, too.

Luke Butler came all the way from England to race. Well, at least to the Yukon anyway. Butler ran the five mile canicross with Lobster.

“Really enjoyed it. It was good fun. My first time doing a canicross, so it was a good experience. A nice mix of trail, some open road at the beginning where you can get up a little speed and when you get in the trees, it’s a bit more technical, a few turns and it’s an interesting skill to … form a partnership wth a dog, make sure we get on the same pace and going in the right direction … so it was really pretty good fun. I enjoyed it.”

John Hopkins-Hill was forced to scratch due to unforeseen circumstances.

“My dog just kind of stopped and I tried to get him to keep going but he decided to dip behind my bike and go the other way, which doesn’t work too well, so instantly the bungee was wrapped around the wheel. The bike went down, I went down, so, not exactly the race I was hoping for.”

That was pretty well the end of the race for Hopkins-Hill and Tiger.

“Damage to the bike chain, gear systems, so, it was a bit of a walk back,” recalled Hopkins-Hill. “Luckily, my friends came and picked me up, so I can’t complain about that.”

Despite their troubles, Tiger did well in the race.

“Tiger was doing awesome. He’s crazy fast. He’s a feral racing dog. He’s one of Connor (McMahon)’s retired dogs, so he’s run lots of mid-distance races. He’s super fast. He’s a great dog for this but yeah, just unlucky.”

It looked like Tiger decided to play Red light, Green Light on the walk back with Hopkins-Hill.

“The beauty of having to walk a dog back after you’ve been bikejoring is the only leash I had was the bungee and that gives enough slack in the harness that he was just harness-banging the whole way, thinking that we were out now doing canicross, so that wasn’t too fun either.”

Hopkins-Hill added it was great to be out there on a beautiful day.

“It’s awesome. This is the first DPSAY race I’ve taken part in. I’ve been to dozens of them and the people involved in the organization are so great and everyone’s so friendly and helpful. This was Tiger and I’s first race, our first time on the bike and everybody just helped us get started.”

Greg Newby and his partner Ilana Kingsley organized the race.

“The race went really well. I think people appreciated – despite the long drive – having some nice trails and of course some great weather.”

Around 30 people participated.

“More than we expected because it is a pretty long haul from Whitehorse although we’ve gone down to Mount Lorne and out to Ibex, so this is probably the furthest we’ve been from Whitehorse for this series.”

Newby added “I just really appreciate everyone making the effort to come out and I think people got to appreciate the great trails that we live on and see every day, so it was a pleasure for us to share them.”

Full results of the race can be found at https://www.facebook.com/groups/dpsay/