La Ronge will become a focus point of the 2024 Canadian Challenge. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

premiere race

Elk Ridge dropped from Canadian Challenge, La Ronge becomes focus point

Jul 31, 2023 | 3:53 PM

Elk Ridge will no longer be part of the Canadian Challenge Dog Sled Race.

That’s according to race president Dan Kirkup, who explained SaskPower is preparing to upgrade a power line from Elk Ridge to La Ronge. The upgrade will impact the race trail between the town and resort village.

“We had to make a decision on what to do. Do we wait for SaskPower to decide when they are starting, where they are starting and how much impact it is going to have? Or do we adjust the race to avoid it entirely and that’s what we chose to do,” he said.

“The big benefit being to the Town of La Ronge, itself, and having it really as the central focus point of the race and being able to show the community it is a benefit to have us there and show some financial benefit to the town and everybody that’s there.”

The new line will be about 73 kilometers long and run alongside Highway 2 from Air Ronge south to the junction with Tracey Road. The current power line is near the end of its life and rebuilding it will help ensure reliable power for those in the area for years to come.

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The upgrade will see the line’s capacity increase from 72 kilovolts to 138 kV to support future power demand. In May, the project was in the plan, define and consult stage.

“The same start dates this year are what we had in the last two years with the shorter races starting later, with the idea to try and get everybody to finish at the same time, so we can have our big award banquet and have everybody together at the end,” Kirkup said.

The 10-dog race (328 km) will start Feb. 20 at noon in Missinipe, while the eight-dog (164 km) and six-dog (80 km) races will start Feb. 23 at 10 a.m. in La Ronge. All races will finish in Missinipe.

Registration opens Aug. 1 and those who do so will notice some changes on the Canadian Challenge website.

“We had to move the website from one hosting provider to another,” Kirkup said. “Our volunteer who does the website was able to put together the registration side, just so we could have it in time for tomorrow’s registration opening. We will continue to work on it throughout the summer to give people a map and all of the other features we had in the past.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com