La Ronge Neckbone Sled Dog Race | A Mid-Distance Sled Dog Race: Stanley Mission to La Ronge to Weyakwin

2006 POST-RACE SUMMARY

The 2006 Neckbone went ahead as scheduled on the weekend of January 28 & 29, 2006 under the guidance of Race Marshal Tom Charles. Weather conditions were good with temperatures mainly in the minus 15 to minus 20 degree C. range throughout the weekend. The trail had a good hard base throughout most of its length. Dogs did have to contend with some fairly heavy willow growth in some sections.

This year's Neckbone winner was Gerry Walker of Pierceland who finished both days with a combined time of 11:25:00. 2nd place went to Gerry's daughter Dee Walker, also of Pierceland. 3rd place went to Stefaan De Marie of Christopher Lake.

After the race, mushers and handlers met at Gordon Denny School in Air Ronge for supper and awards. They were then entertained by a slide show of pictures taken by Miriam Korner and Quincy Miller of dog races and dog mushing trips in the La Ronge, Stanley Mission and Southend areas.

The Neckbone Race Committee would like to thank mushers for attending this year's race. The Committe would also like to thank all the sponsors and volunteers who made the race possible.

2007 POST-RACE SUMMARY

    The 5th annual La Ronge Neckbone Sled Dog Race went ahead on the weekend of January 13 & 14. Despite cold temperatures, 13 mushers showed up Saturday morning at the parking lot of the Lac la Ronge Indian Band's Jeannie Bird medical clinic with their teams ready to race.

    This year’s Neckbone had 2 teams come from Manitoba and 4 teams come from Alberta. Of special note, the Alberta teams included 3 teams of registered Siberians—those driven by Karen Ramstead, her husband Mark Ramstead and Rick Austin. Karen is especially well known in the mushing world for her work with Siberians. She has had considerable success as a distance musher and is the only person to ever finish Alaska’s 1,800-km long Iditarod sled dog race with a team of registered Siberians.

    This year, the Neckbone trail ran out from the Jeannie Bird Clinic onto Highway 2 and then straight down the west ditch to Weyakwin. The usual Neckbone trail for day #1 leads through Bigstone Lake and a corner of Egg Lake before reaching Highway 2.   However, this year, part of the regular trail had been scraped bare of snow to allow Highways contractors to reach a gravel pit west of Highway 2. Race organizers decided to avoid this part of the trail to save wear and tear on sled runners. This shortened the day #1 distance from 102 km to 89 km.

    On day #1, after registration and coffee at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band's main offices, mushers headed over to the start area. Race Marshal Tom Charles and Chief Timer Gill Gracie then sent teams off from the start line separated by 3-minute time intervals. It was cold—about – 30 degrees C.—so the dogs were eager to get down the trail. Gerry Walker, former rodeo cowboy turned dog musher from Pierceland, soon took a commanding lead and got to Weyakwin in just over 5 hours. His nearest competition, Stefaan de Marie from Christopher Lake, came in 18 minutes later. By supper time, all the mushers were in Weyakwin.

    At Weyakwin, Medric Thomas and Linda Nelson of the Weyakwin Community School along with several other community members gave all the mushers and handlers a hot supper and a place to sleep. After being out in the cold, everyone appreciated the roasted neckbones served at the supper.

    On day #2, things got even colder. It was officially – 35 degrees C. at Weyakwin in the morning, but Medric said some truck thermometers were showing – 40 C. in low areas. But by daylight, all the mushers were ready to go again. Stefaan de Marie set out to catch Gerry Walker, and he was able to improve on his day #1 time. However, Gerry’s dogs were still faster, and he raced back to La Ronge in first place with a time of 4 hours, 50 minutes.

    For the most part, mushers found their dogs running well in the cold weather on day #2. The thick-coated Siberians did especially well with Karen Ramstead’s team right in the middle of the pack. There were, however, a couple of small adventures. South of La Ronge, the cold had forced overflow out of the muskeg and out onto a section of the trail. Some dogs ran through the 6 inches of cold water without missing a beat. Others put the brakes on to cause huge harness tangles. And Irvin Wai from Alberta found that a bad back would not let him make it all the way home to La Ronge. With the permission of the Race Marshall, his friend John Ross of La Ronge took over the sled at Highway Creek. John ways a little less than Irvin, so the dogs actually sped up!

    When all the teams were in (there were no scratches), mushers and handlers had another hot supper of neckbones at Kitsaki Hall cooked up by volunteers from Boreal Dental and Race Marshal Tom Charles’s family. There was then an excellent slide presentation put on by Miriam Korner and Quincy Miller about a dog race they ran in April, 2006 between Churchill, Manitoba and Arviat, Nunavut. After the slide show, an awards ceremony was held with cash prizes going to mushers according to their finish times. A first place plaque went to Gerry Walker for the second year in a row. 2nd place went to Stefaan de Marie, while 3rd place to Charlie Conner of Meadow Lake.   The 2007 Neckbone was then wrapped up for another year.

    For another report on the 2007 Neckbone, mushers are encouraged to go to Karen Ramstead's website at http://www.northwapiti.com/Iditarod2K7/011407neckbone.html.

Neckbone Race Committee

2008 Post-Race Summary

The 6th annual La Ronge Neckbone wrapped up Sunday, January 20, at Weyakwin. The race entries were down somewhat---possibly due to the cold weather forecast. However, the 8 mushers who entered were all able to complete the race. The competition for top spot was strong. Things ended with with Stefaan de Marie of Christopher Lake taking 1st place with a combined 2-day time of 9:06:09. Gerry Walker of Pierceland took 2nd place with total time of 9:18:30. Stefaan and Gerry have now both won the Neckbone twice.

Day #1 started with a mushers' breakfast put on by the Stanley Mission community at the old High School. Mushers loaded up with ham, bacon and sausages to get ready for the day. At the same time, Race Marshal Tom Charles gave a short briefing on the day's route.

On Day #1, the temperature threatened to be a factor when mushers harnessed up to leave Stanley Mission. The temperature was -- 36 degrees C. Fortunately, when the team got out onto Lac la Ronge and started moving between the islands at the north end of the lake, the wind was dead calm. Mushers could relax a bit and just watch the spruce trees march by.

All the teams were into La Ronge by 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. The final kilometre to the finish line was also a ski plane runway. Both Single Otter and Twin Otter de Havillands were coming and going as the mushers came in. But the pilots kept well clear of the mushers heading for the finish.

For Day #2, the temperature moderated considerably. It was still -- 21 degrees C., but that seemed positively balmy compared to the day before. The Day #2 trail was quite different from the day before as it was mainly on land. Teams started from Highway 165 (about 30 km south of La Ronge) and then headed south on the new Canadian Challenge trail. Soon after mushers turned into the bush, they got to see the remains (mainly just hair) of a moose killed by a wolf pack a couple weeks back. They then headed south-east towards Molanosa Lake. On the way there, the main challenge was a section of trail through an old burn where snow drifts had dogs wallowing up to their bellies. Gerry Walker's dogs were leading the race at this point, so they had their work cut out for them. The trail got better in the mature timber. Teams eventually made their way out and across Molanosa Lake, across the north end of Montreal Lake, and then down a final 8 km of bush trail to reach the finish at Weyakwin.

At Weyakwin, the community hosted a wind-up supper for the mushers. Both Race Marshal Tom Charles and Weyakwin mayor, Stella Brown, congratulated all the finishers. The meal following was excellent, so all the calories burned off during the day were soon gained back by mushers. Cash awards were then handed out, and the top 3 finishers--Stefaan de Marie, Gerry Walker and Bart de Marie--also received plaques. Mushers then headed for home to start getting ready for the Canadian Challenge.

2009 Post-Race Summary

[February 26, 2009]

On the weekend of January 24 & 25, 2009, the 7^th annual La Ronge Neckbone Sled Dog Race ran between Stanley Mission and Weyakwin. 10 mushers showed up at the old High School in Stanley Mission early on Saturday, January 24 to sign up for the race. Before sign up got under way, some of Stanley Mission’s best cooks, headed up by Theresa McLeod, fed the mushers and their handlers an excellent breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs. Neckbone Race Marshal Tom Charles, with help from his daughter Kim, then made sure everyone was signed up. He also gave a race briefing to explain the route and the race rules. Finally, before everyone headed off to hook up, Councillor Brian Hardlotte presented every musher with a very sharp looking Stanley Mission toque.

Teams left Stanley Mission at two-minute intervals decided by random draw. The first to go out was Dee Roy of Lloydminster, driving a team of 9 females and 1 male belonging to her Dad Gerry Walker. Dee and the other mushers had pretty good going for the first 10 km out of Stanley as the trail went through a series of portages and small lakes. But Dee had a tough job ahead when she got to Russell Bay on Lac la Ronge and left the shelter of the bush behind. Race Marshall Tom Charles had marked a trail across Lac la Ronge with branches and had gone over it with a snow machine the day before, but the wind overnight had blown in Tom’s track and caused most of it to disappear. A west north-west wind was blowing at about 30 km per hour and gusting to 48. Dee’s dogs had to be tough-headed to face into the wind and make their way from one spruce branch to another. Things were not a lot better for the teams that came behind, but they could at least follow the runner tracks that Dee had left behind. Some teams had more trouble than some. Both Sid Robinson and Tanya Tabel had some difficulty getting their teams to stay on the trail after Russell Bay opened into the main part of the lake. And Stacey Neubuhr lost the trail to Nut Portage and ended up travelling to La Ronge via McGibbon Bay. But eventually, all teams made it to the Day #1 finish line in front of the Band Office at La Ronge.

At La Ronge, all the mushers had a hot chili supper served up by Jenna Charles and Doreen Laliberte at the old Kitsaki Hall next to the Band Office. It was nice to be out of the cold wind. When mushers had eaten, they headed out to feed their dogs and get ready for the next day.

Sunday, January 25, the teams started out from the Creighton junction to head on an 80-km journey to Weyakwin. The morning was cool at minus 29 degrees C., but, thankfully, the wind had almost died away. Tom Charles had left ahead of the teams with a snow machine, and there was now a good trail to follow. From the Creighton junction, teams first travelled down the east side of Highway 2 to a point near the Pinehouse junction. They then went east via "route 66" and then east across old Highway 169 to get to Molanosa Lake. They next headed back west to re-cross Highway 169, through what was the community of Molanosa (which has an unusual collection of abandoned cook stoves and cars scattered amid the trees), west across Montreal Lake and, finally, down an old fish haul trail to get to Weyakwin.

The Neckbone’s chief timer, Gill Gracie, reported that Dee Roy had the fastest time from the Creighton junction to Weyakwin, beating out her Dad Gerry by 28 seconds. However, as Gerry had been 9 minutes faster on Saturday, he was declared the overall winner. This was Gerry’s third win at the Neckbone.

At Weyakwin, community member Bob Nelson and his wife Marlene came out to see the dog teams. Bob was a serious sprint musher "back in the day." Marlene showed mushers an old photograph from the Prince Albert Winter Festival race where Bob is shown passing the late John Calvert and Franklin Carriere. Franklin was just a youngster in the picture!

When all the dogs were put away, Weyakwin Mayor Stella Brown and the community gave mushers a warm reception and a neckbone supper at the local hall. School principal Medric Thomas and his wife and fellow teacher, Linda Nelson, helped organize the food. They had also decorated the walls of the hall with colourful pictures of dog mushing that their students had drawn. In appreciation of the students' support, the Neckbone presented Weyakwin's students with a box of books and other school supplies. When everyone had eaten, Tom Charles and Sid Robinson presented plaques and cash awards to the Neckbone's top 3 mushers for 2009. 1st place went to Gerry Walker, 2nd place to Dee Roy and 3rd place to Bart de Marie. The remaining 7 mushers were awarded cash based on their finishing position.

With the Neckbone is wrapped up for another year, several mushers began to look ahead to the Canadian Challenge set to start in Prince Albert on Wednesday, February 18. And, a total of 7 mushers from the 2009 Neckbone did sign up for the Challenge. Gerry Walker, Bart de Marie and Sid Robinson signed up for the Challenge's 12-dog event. Ron Shaw, Dave Neubuhr, Tanya Table and Stacey Neubuhr signed up for the Challenge's 8-dog event. All of these mushers were able to finish their Challenge race with Bart de Marie winning the 12-dog event and Tanya Tabel winning the 8-dog event.

The Neckbone's organizing committee is now making plans for the 2010 Neckbone!

Neckbone Organizing Committee