btb01
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- Jul 26, 2008
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Today we attended our first sled dog race, the Lake Minnetonka Klondike Dog Derby. The race starts and ends in downtown Excelsior, MN, going right down the aptly named (well, not this time of year) Water Street and out onto Lake Minnetonka, where the teams race two laps around the Lower Lake, a total of about 40 miles.
It was chilly out when we arrived for the start of the race, 6°F and windy (wind chill was -14°F). The girls, although thoroughly bundled up, were understandably less than thrilled about standing around outside for too long, so after watching the first few teams start, my wife took them to get warm while I took some pictures.
We started off pretty close to the starting line.
The teams took off in 2-minute intervals, and the dogs would get pretty excited while waiting their turn.
After watching the first dozen or so teams from the starting line, I walked down towards the lake. I had hoped to get out on the ice and see the last few teams (there were 22) as they got out onto the lake. Unfortunately I couldn’t get on the lake from the side of the street I was on, and by the time I was able to get around to the other side, they had all gone. I did get a couple more photos from different points along the street, though.
After all the teams had started, we packed the girls up in the truck and headed back to the house, where I dropped them off and headed back to the lake on my own to see if I could see some of the teams along the course.
The first two teams I saw from the spot I chose on the lake were, it turned out, at the back of the pack (which I learned by checking the leaderboard online after they had passed). The dogs on those teams did seem to be going at a somewhat leisurely pace.
This meant that all the other teams had already passed this location once, and while they’d all be coming around again, I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait. It ended up being 20 or 30 minutes before more teams came by, and they were definitely moving at a quicker pace.
If you look at the map at the top of this post, my spot on the lake was just to the southwest of the E in “Echo Bay.” This meant I could look toward the point just north of there and see when teams were coming my way.
At one point, I saw three teams come around the point, one right behind the other. Just before they reached my position, one of the teams overtook the other.
All three teams were still running close together as they went past.
One of the last teams I saw before heading back toward Excelsior was number 23, who I later found out won the race with a time of 2 hours 40 minutes and 23 seconds and an average speed of 13.8 mph.
I headed back to downtown Excelsior to see some of the teams finish. Unfortunately, the sun was out in full force by that point, and most of my photos didn’t turn out too great. That said, I wanted to share these couple photos, because I thought it was a cool story.
The musher wearing bib number 7 is an 11-year-old girl from Northern Minnesota, and this was her first big race. Coming in right behind her in bib number 6 was her dad. Pretty cool to see, and she got a big cheer as she came down the final stretch.
It was a fun experience, and it did thankfully warm up a bit in the afternoon (although the wind stuck around, and the wind chill remained below 0°). Now I just need to find out where this guy got his hat and gloves.
It was chilly out when we arrived for the start of the race, 6°F and windy (wind chill was -14°F). The girls, although thoroughly bundled up, were understandably less than thrilled about standing around outside for too long, so after watching the first few teams start, my wife took them to get warm while I took some pictures.
We started off pretty close to the starting line.
The teams took off in 2-minute intervals, and the dogs would get pretty excited while waiting their turn.
After watching the first dozen or so teams from the starting line, I walked down towards the lake. I had hoped to get out on the ice and see the last few teams (there were 22) as they got out onto the lake. Unfortunately I couldn’t get on the lake from the side of the street I was on, and by the time I was able to get around to the other side, they had all gone. I did get a couple more photos from different points along the street, though.
After all the teams had started, we packed the girls up in the truck and headed back to the house, where I dropped them off and headed back to the lake on my own to see if I could see some of the teams along the course.
The first two teams I saw from the spot I chose on the lake were, it turned out, at the back of the pack (which I learned by checking the leaderboard online after they had passed). The dogs on those teams did seem to be going at a somewhat leisurely pace.
This meant that all the other teams had already passed this location once, and while they’d all be coming around again, I didn’t know how long I’d have to wait. It ended up being 20 or 30 minutes before more teams came by, and they were definitely moving at a quicker pace.
If you look at the map at the top of this post, my spot on the lake was just to the southwest of the E in “Echo Bay.” This meant I could look toward the point just north of there and see when teams were coming my way.
At one point, I saw three teams come around the point, one right behind the other. Just before they reached my position, one of the teams overtook the other.
All three teams were still running close together as they went past.
One of the last teams I saw before heading back toward Excelsior was number 23, who I later found out won the race with a time of 2 hours 40 minutes and 23 seconds and an average speed of 13.8 mph.
I headed back to downtown Excelsior to see some of the teams finish. Unfortunately, the sun was out in full force by that point, and most of my photos didn’t turn out too great. That said, I wanted to share these couple photos, because I thought it was a cool story.
The musher wearing bib number 7 is an 11-year-old girl from Northern Minnesota, and this was her first big race. Coming in right behind her in bib number 6 was her dad. Pretty cool to see, and she got a big cheer as she came down the final stretch.
It was a fun experience, and it did thankfully warm up a bit in the afternoon (although the wind stuck around, and the wind chill remained below 0°). Now I just need to find out where this guy got his hat and gloves.
Thanks for the great report and photos 
