Haliburton’s Pinestone Resort is going back to the dogs – as Winterdance Dogsled Tours brings its dogsled derby back after a five-year hiatus.
The last iteration was in 2020, before COVID-19 put the brakes on the dogs.
Winterdance co-owner Tanya McCready said they had never planned for the popular event not to return after the pandemic. However, there were poor winter conditions, and a missed season due to the Winterdance team being involved in filming for Frankenstein.
McCready said the Pinestone reached out in the fall to ask if they would think about bringing it back.
She said with last winter bringing tons of snow and this year looking favourable for the Jan. 24-25 weekend, they said yes.
McCready added “every year, I get notes from the mushers saying please tell us Haliburton is coming back because there are so few races left.”
McCready said when she and Hank DeBruin first got into dogsledding, there was a race every winter weekend in Ontario, and sometimes two. Now, she said there is one in Kearney and South River has started a race.
The Winterdance co-lead said mushers love the Pinestone because it is the only place they can stay and race at the same venue.
The event was staged for 16 years at the Pinestone and will be heading into its 20th year in 2027.
McCready said, “we never got to build it as big as we originally wanted it to … so we thought let’s see what we can do … keep it simple this year, and if all goes well, next year we’ll go bigger.”
She said DeBruin and his team have been working on the trails for a few weeks.
“The same races will be back that we’ve always had; the four dog, six dog, eight dog, skijoring, and the crowd favourite, the kid and mutt. She added there would be a youth race and a two-dog novice race.
She noted the latter is “because the sport has changed so much. It used to be four and six dog classes were huge and eight was decent but because of the cost of having a lot of dogs now, there are a lot of people who just have two to three dogs, so the two-dog class has become a huge class in Kearney. We had quite a few in 2020.”
She said they are still seeking sponsors and are not even sure they will have prize money as they have put the event together hastily. And while they already have volunteers, they can always use more. There will be no on-site vendors, but Pinestone’s restaurant will be open. As always, the event is free to the public, who can turn up between 9:30-10 a.m. both days.
There will be a few locals to watch, and McCready expects a good contingent of out-of-towners. In the past, they have attracted mushers from all over Ontario, parts of Quebec and the northern U.S.
McCready promised: “two great days of tons of dogs and lots of happy people.”
Go to haliburtondogsledderby.com for more.
