Gunflint Mail Run 2026 Recap!

What a race! The Gunflint will always be one of my favourite races. The race organization is SO friendly and welcoming and do an amazing job putting the race together. There are happy smiling volunteers at every spot along the trail, and the trail is always fantastic. Thank you race organizers and volunteers for all that you do!

The race itself went great for my team. I am always there to have a good time on the trail with my happy dogs and that is just what we did!

Truck dogs Kip and JB catching some ZZZ's on the way to the race

Leg 1 was fairly uneventful. Started with Brooks and Demon in lead, who rocked the soft punchy 3 miles on the lake. Brooks is such a steady reliable leader and did a great job getting us across the tough conditions. I had a plan to keep him in lead until after the two 90 degree turns since he’s not as fast of a guy and would help maintain our speed through those tight corners. He did a great job doing just that. We got through the tight corners flawlessly (I actually enjoy that spot on the trail, it’s fun sled driving - a 90 degree corner on to a Plowed road and then a second 90 degree corner back on to the trail). I kept him up front for a few more miles before swapping him out for JB since she’s a bit faster and a lot more experienced with head on passing, which there would be 11 teams worth! The run up to the turn around point went great. Dogs moving nicely on the packed trail, completing head on passes with ease. Little Demon, whom it was her first race in lead and only second race ever, rocked those head on passes like she’d been doing them her whole life! Big boy Brooks was having a bit of a tough time on the fast trail, running fine but not entirely contributing in the team. He’s a very big boy and has never been a speed dog, which I knew going in to this race. He just didn’t enjoy going faster speeds.

Anti gravity boy Kip at the start line. Photo credit - WDIO

In to the turn around loop, dubbed the “goat path”. This is a narrow loop off the main trail that turns you around to head back towards the start/finish. It’s not travelled much except for during this race, and is therefore pretty soft and punchy. If the dogs go too far off to the left or right, they will fall through deep snow. Unfortunately one of my wheel dogs, Hawkeye, took a stumble in the deep snow. He popped right back up and kept charging ahead, and ran without a hitch in his gait, but I had a feeling he would come out of our 3 hour rest with some tight muscles.

We made it back to the finish without any issues and started getting the dogs bedded down for their 3 hour rest. For half of the dogs on this team, it was their first checkpoint type race, so I knew it would likely take them a bit to figure out to rest with all the commotion of other teams and people.

My checkpoint routine starts with taking booties off, giving fresh water, putting straw down, giving trail snacks, then offering a meal. Most of the team had a good drink - hydration is vital for these dogs! They ate their yummy trail snacks - a special blend of fancy meat patties, probiotics and water frozen in to little pucks. Then everyone got straw and given a nice meat soup with kibble. Those that didn’t want the warm meal were happy to munch on frozen meals, still getting the same hydration and calories, just in a frozen form. Then rest time. Demon was a bit distracted trying to flirt with some pretty boy dogs, so had to move around a few dogs to remove the distraction. Kip was just not interested in napping (if you know Kip, he likes to be involved in all the action, doesn’t want to miss anything!). He spent most of the time watching everything around him, with periods of sleeping sitting up (which he does quite frequently at home too). Queen Bee Jitterbug wasn’t impressed at having to sleep outside on the straw - she is a house dog and wanted to go in the truck to her comfy blanket. I ended up putting a blanket down for her beside the truck and she was much happier with that. Everyone got some rest and before long it was time to start getting everyone up an stretched and ready for the next leg. I knew I was going to be dropping atleast two dogs, not because there was anything physically wrong with them, but they just weren’t having much fun or contributing as much as I would like in the team. Charlie, a 9 year old from Brian Bergen just wasn’t enjoying the run and looked really tired. The vet team looked him over and his physical exam checked out fine, nothing to note. I dropped him just out of precaution. Big boy Brooks I knew I was going to drop. It just wasn’t fair to him to ask him to run on a fast trail when he didn’t enjoy it. Again, nothing physically wrong with him, he was barking to go and trying to drag me around, and would probably have done fine, but their mental attitude on the trail is just as important as the physical aspect. Hawkeye, as expected, was a bit tight in his shoulders from his stumble in the soft snow. I left him behind too. That meant I was leaving with 7 strong happy dogs. To me it’s not always a numbers game. 7 strong dogs can perform as well as 10 dogs if you have the right 7 dogs. Sled dog racing is a lot about knowing the team in front of you and what is the right decision for those dogs. I was confident in the 7 I was taking for the last leg. And it was very successful as my 7 held very similar run times to the other 10 dog teams!

Beautiful photo of the team courtesy of K. Slanga

I had planned on running Kip and Demon in lead together since they are my faster lead pair. We left the chute with them in front, with a very excited and amped up team with everyone barking and feeling ready to hit the trail. The two of them did good up front, but I could tell Kip was struggling a bit leading through the soft conditions on the lake. Kip is a very sensitive boy, and was just not enjoying leading through the tough trail. Once we got off the lake and on to the trail, he did a bit better. Him and Demon rocked the two 90 degree turns, and continued charging down the trail. Immediately after the second 90 degree turn, a volunteer yelled to watch out, there’s a lost dog team up ahead. Immediately as a musher you think oh crap, that’s not good. I didn’t see the musher around so was hoping they had caught their team. I continued down the trail and came around the trail to see one of the other mushers walking down the trail. I immediately offered for her to hop on my sled with me and that I’ll carry her as far as I can to hopefully catch her team. We travelled along together just chatting about dogs for a bit until we came to a tight corner and I wasn’t able to keep the other musher on my sled with me. I apologized to her and yelled back that I’d try to go catch her team. I called my dogs up and we went charging ahead to try to find the other team. After a short while I could hear dogs barking up ahead, and saw that someone had been able to catch her team, stop them safely, and tie them off so they didn’t take off. Luckily it wasn’t too far ahead from where the other musher got off my sled. I went a bit further up before swapping leaders again to have miss reliable - JB - back up in lead since Kip was goofing off a bit and not totally focused forward. With the leader swap we continued charging down the trail. The rest of the run was mostly uneventful. There were a lot of snowmachines that were travelling extremely fast on the trail, despite signage indicating there was a dog race occurring. One particular group I met head on right at a tight corner, and had a near collision with my dog team. My life flashed before my eyes as we went in to the corner and were immediately met with a snowmachine flying in to the corner. He tried to slow down but started fish tailing because he was going so fast. My leaders were able to jump out of the way, Kip in swing went flying right in to the air to avoid being hit (good thing he’s an expert in the anti gravity department) and landed half on top of his running mate, Ginger. I yelled at the rider that he needs to slow the **** down, checked over my dogs, and continued on my way. The rest of the run to the turn around and back to the lake was very uneventful. The dogs were moving well as one unit. Even though this leg ended up being quite a bit slower than the first, I felt as though it was a better run for the dogs. They were moving more in unison and felt more like a team. We got through the two 90’s for the last time with some epic drifting around the corners, and headed back on to the lake right at about dusk. This time on the lake there were a lot more different trails from all the machine traffic, which can be a lot more confusing for the dogs. Jitterbug, my Rock solid best lead dog, has always hated running lead on lakes for this reason. She always seems to get frustrated with all the different trails. Her and Demon picked to me what seemed like the hardest packed of the trail options, and continued down the lake. That nice harder packed trail started to veer away to the left from the main marked trail. I knew I had to get them back over to the main trail as the one we were on would end up at someone’s house. I used my headlamp and shone it to the closest reflector up ahead to the right, and called a firm gee to Jitterbug and Demon, despite there not being any actual travelled pathway over to the right trail. My best girl JB leaned right in to Demon and pushed her over heading in the right direction to the trail. I couldn’t believe it, my little lead dog who hated doing just that, took an absolutely flawless gee through no trail to get to where we needed to go. Once back on the main trail I quickly stopped my team and ran up and gave my leaders lots of praise. I was so proud of them! I pulled the hooks and we continued back on to the finish line. Once we hit no man’s land I called them up and could feel the power jolt as they all leaned in to their harnesses charging in to the finish. As we rounded the last corner in to the finish, there were two trails, one that went to the left around the finish chute that had fresh tracks from recent teams, and the one that went right in to the chute and had less tracks. My dogs started to take the left trail around the chute, I called another gee and those awesome little leaders Demon and JB took a right and went in to the chute! We finished strong and happy and I am so proud of the dogs! Kip thought everyone at the finish line was for him, he was looking to the right at every single person wagging his tail as fast as he could while still running. Once stopped in the chute some of the dogs started barking again to keep going, which is exactly what I want from my team. Still happy and healthy after each run.

Overall I am really happy with how the race went. The dogs did great, learned a lot, and finished strong! I received a compliment from one of the vet team on my dogs’ feet, that whatever I am doing to their feet to keep doing, as they looked really healthy. This made me really happy since I spend a lot of time on foot care. Constantly working on their feet and massaging them and maintain them. If the dog doesn’t have a good foot, then you won’t have a good dog. Their feet are the backbone of their career and it’s so important so keep them healthy!

Photo courtesy of LHR Images

Thank you to all the volunteers, vets and race organizers for all that you do to put on such a great race, it will always be one of my favourites!

Thank you to my amazing handler crew - my parents, Sam, and Brian W for helping with my dog team! Couldn’t have done it without you!

Thank you to Brian Bergen for allowing me to run 5 of his dogs, they were great in the team!

Thank you to Abitibi Sled Dogs for the lead dog that could, Demon! She was such an amazing steady dog up front, and made lots of new friends!

Thank you Matt and Erin for Gingersnap for the season, she is such a reliable dog and I’m so thankful to have her in my team!

Happy Trails!!