A10
From A1
wallowa.com
January 24, 2018
Wallowa County Chieftain
2018 EAGLE CAP EXTREME
LEFT, 200-mile race winner Miriam Osredkar of Fairfield, Montana, shares her Alaskan Huskies with enthusiastic children at the Joseph vet check on Wednesday morning. Osred-
kar and her 12-dog team won the 200-mile race in a time of 32 hours and 44 minutes. RIGHT, Musher Josi Thyr, of Catalda, Idaho, shares information about sled dogs and mush-
ing with students in the Enterprise 1st, 4th, and 5-6th grades, and the K-8 program at Enterprise SDA Christian School. Education and involvement of students in Wallowa Coun-
ty, La Grande, and Elgin is an important component of the event. Thyr and her 12-dog Alaskan Husky team finished fourth in the demanding 200-mile race.
Eagle Cap Extreme photos
By ELLEN MORRIS BISHOP
2018
EAGLE CAP EXTREME
THE RESULTS
200-mile race (time at Ollokot and finish)
• Miriam Osredkar, mushing a Skinny Legs Sleddogs team
owned by the Bruggemans, 18:21, 32.44 hours.
• Brett Bruggeman, who fielded three teams this year,
came into Ollokot a minute earlier than Osredkar at 10.20
and finished his race just three seconds behind her with
32.47.
• Laurie Warren, 17:50, took third with a total time of
33:44.
• Josi Thyr, 18:11 and finished in 35:35.
• James Pilcher, running another Skinny Legs Sleddogs
team, 18:22 and was seconds behind Thyr at the finish
35:35:053.
• Clayton Perry, 18:29, 41:01.
Dr. Jereld Rice, veterinarian at the Enterprise Veterinary Hospital, starts the 200-mile race with his 12-dog team. It
was the first-ever sled dog race. Rice finished with a time of 47 hours, one minute., good for the Red Lantern award
for the last, plucky finisher. He plans to be back next year.
• Jereld Rice 18:52, 47:01.
100-mile race (time at Ollokot and finish)
• Trevor Warren 18:40, 20:06.
• Gave Dunham, who Warren credited with “keeping
him competitive,” beat Warren into Ollokot in 18:36 and
finished with a time of 20:27.
• Bino Fowler, 19:35, 22:36.
• Rex Mumford, 19:21, 23:21.
• Christina Gibson, 19:24, 26:39.
• Connie Star 21:32, 31.24.
• Hugo Antonucci scratched at Ollokot after coming in with
broken sled in 19:34.
2 Day – 31 miles each day – Pot Race
• Jane Devlin ran Thursday to finish in 16:32. She
completed the race Friday for a total time of 7:09.
• Dina Lund ran Thursday in 16:46 and finished in 7:39.
Troy Nave congratulates one of Jane Devlin’s Huskies for
winning the 31-mile, two day race. Nave is the Public Rela-
tions director for the Eagle Cap Extreme, and one of the 165
volunteers who work to make the annual event a success.
DOGS
Continued from Page A1
Rice was last in the 200
and Anderson third in the Pot
Race, alive and experienced
and glad to have run.
Jane Devlin of Bend,
known for singing to her dogs,
apparently knew the right tune
and slushed on to win the Pot
Race in 7 hours and 9 minutes.
“I guess there’s a reason I
keep coming back,” she said.
“Thursday was dirt, rocks,
ice and a little bit of snow.
But the thing about this race
is they keep it safe. Here, it’s
dogs first, its one of those races
where they really get it right.
Friday was a whole different
race, the dogs were happy. I’ll
be back, always.”
The rain didn’t seem to
dampen the spirits of the dogs,
but the mushers didn’t do as
well. Most went through all
of their clothing changes at
some point and often mushed
in freezing weather in soaked
clothing.
Several of the mushers had
just gotten out of bed from
bouts with the flu.
The rain continued to fall
on the mushers and dogs all
the way to Ollokot, the 50-mile
PET OF THE WEEK
Brought to you by Les Schwab
Meet
Hugo Antonucci, of Adin, Calif., draws bib no. 12 in
the 100-mile race at the Community Potluck dinner
Wednesday night.
checkpoint, and mushers
checking in for a possible night
of rest were thinking twice.
“I looked around at all the
slush and asked the dogs, ‘do
you want to try and sleep in
this?’” said two-time 200-mile
winner Brett Bruggeman of
Great Falls, Mont. “And they
were willing to keep going so
we mushed on.”
Hugo Antonucci of Adin,
Calif., didn’t have an option.
“The dogs were fine, but
the sled was broken,” he said.
Broken in three places, and
side to side, as it turned out. He
had to scratch.
“This probably just means
I’ll have to come back next
year,” he said with a grin.
Race veteran Josi Thyr of
Catlado, Idaho, came a crop-
per at Ollokot as well, sliding
on the ice into a tree. “It was
• Morgan Anderson ran Thursday in 16:38 and finished in
7:44.
• Larry Roxby ran Thursday in 16:37 and finished in 8:10.
raining and the dogs took off
and wanted to visit the tree,”
she said.
That tree is now officially
named “The Tree of Doom.”
But Thyr was able to mush on
thanks to the surgical appli-
cation of a packet of zip ties,
which held the sled together
for another 150 miles.
Iditarod veteran and the
winner of this year’s 200-
mile race, Miriam Osredkar of
Fairfield, Mont., was getting
a taste of her first Eagle Cap
and learned why it was called
the toughest pre-Iditarod race.
Her legs, she said, were condi-
tioned now.
“There are no hills like this
at Iditarod at all,” she said.
Trevor Warren of Council,
Idaho, ran and won his first 100
at Eagle Cap in 20:06 and was
on a musher’s high the entire
Charlie
Charlie is a long haired
tuxedo boy, all spruced
up and ready to go to
his new home. He
was born around
September 1, and was
trapped in a chicken
coop in Joseph.
This adorable fellow is
personable, lively,
healthy and
neutered too.
Available for Adoption
Please call Karen in Joseph for a interview
541-432-7310
$40 adoption fee
Planning a get-away?
PASSPORT PHOTOS
in my Joseph studio.
24-hour turn-around for prints.
December-January Special:
$35 for two different images, sized
and printed to meet U.S. Passport
requirements. Call for appointment!
ELLEN MORRIS BISHOP
NATURE’S LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHICS
103 N. Main Street, Ste 5, Joseph * 541 398-1810 (voice or text)
paleobishop@gmail.com www.natureslightphotographics.com
distance. Five of his eight dogs
were puppies (18 months and
younger) and it was their first
race as well.
“My puppies did awe-
some!” he gushed. “They are
some of the best dogs I’ve
every run.”
Dr. Kathleen McGill and
her team awarded the coveted
“Best Cared for Team” awards
to Bino Fowler of Bend, Ore.,
for the 100-mile race and Lau-
rie Warren of Council, Idaho,
for the 200-mile race.
Clayton Perry won the
“Sportsmanship Award” for
sacrificing his bid for a higher
placing to hang back with nov-
ice Rice.
Rice literally got out of
his sick bed after five days of
debilitating flu to complete the
race and that alone gave him
his bona fides as a musher. It
gave his wife Alina some bona
fides as well.
“Alina didn’t have any idea
we’d be doing this when we
got married,” Rice said. “She
was my handler –– and we’re
still married. I was sick, sick,
sick in advance of the race, and
Alina took over the logistics.”
In a move typical of the
community spirit of mush-
ers, Perry decided to support
Rice’s bid, sticking with Rice
to the end of the course.
“This is all about friend-
ship,” Perry said, when accept-
ing his award. “I only do this
for the community and the
people.”
Rice and Connie Star of Cle
Elum, Wash., took home the
Red Lantern Awards for their
divisions, an award reserved
for those who refuse to give
up. The tradition is based on
the practice of “leaving a light
burning” for the mushers still
out on the trail after most oth-
ers have come in. Star was
already thinking positively
about next year’s race and
wanted to make sure the next
last place finisher was prop-
erly honored. She turned her
lantern back in to “make sure
there was an award for the fol-
lowing year.”
The final tally of racers was
18.