A8
OFF PAGE ONE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
ECX: ‘For me, my dogs surprise me and amaze me all the time’
Continued from Page A1
included his training part-
ner, Anderson, Fowler, Rex
and Bryce Mumford and Jed
Stephensen. Perry turned in
a time of 38 hours, 31 min-
utes. The Mumfords both
crossed about an hour later
with matching times of
39:46, with Rex in second
and Bryce in third, accord-
ing to the offi cial results.
Stephensen placed fourth in
41:55, and Anderson took
fi fth with a time of 45:31.
Fowler scratched during the
fi nal stretch.
It’s the start of what Perry
hopes will be a good 2022,
with the goal in sight of try-
ing to win the Rocky Moun-
tain Triple Crown. The next
race, the Idaho Sled Dog
Challenge, begins Jan. 30,
and following that is Mon-
tana’s Race to the Sky in
Perry’s home state.
Lombardi wins 100-mile
race in ECX debut
Also claiming the fi rst
leg of the triple crown was
Nicole Lombardi, another
Montana-based racer who
was the victor of the 100-
mile race in her fi rst time at
the ECX.
“I was a little nervous,
but felt fully supported by
the community, the race
committee,
veterinarians
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Jesika Reimer of Emigrant Gap, California, takes off at the
start of the 31-mile competition Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in
this year’s Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race. Reimer won her
competition.
and fellow mushers,” Lom-
bardi said.
She ran away from the
four-team fi eld, complet-
ing the 100-mile course
in 18 hours, 7 minutes.
Steve Madsen took second
in 22:33 and Jane Devlin
crossed in 22:47. The fourth
racer, Kevin Daugherty,
scratched during the race.
Lombardi admitted she
almost dropped from the
race, worried the weather
conditions would not bode
well for her team.
“I almost didn’t go. I
was afraid of giving my
dogs pneumonia,” she said.
“Turned out to be a really
nice trail for the dogs.”
It was a race of fi rsts for
Lombardi — not only was it
her fi rst win at the ECX in
her fi rst try, but it was “really
the fi rst time I’ve raced 100
miles and the fi rst time rac-
ing my own dogs,” she said.
It’s also her fi rst year
back in racing after close
to a decade off building her
own team.
“Basically I needed to
build my own kennel, and it
took me 11 years to get to a
place where I could balance
work, breed dogs and get to
the place where we could
do something like this,” she
said.
She intended to do it a
year ago, but the pandemic
altered those plans.
“We actually wanted to
do it last year but every-
thing was canceled due to
COVID,” she said.
Lombardi will be gear-
ing up for the Idaho Sled
Dog Race next week. She
defi nitely plans to return to
Joseph to race in the ECX,
and said that while her
career hinders it now, she
would consider building up
to the 200-mile race in the
future.
“I would love to some-
day,” she said.
Reimer takes
31-mile race
Another fi rst-timer took
the 31-mile, two-day race
— California racer Jesika
Reimer.
“The plan was just to get
my yearlings some expe-
rience. All my adults have
raced
before,”
Reimer
said. “They just plowed up
those hills and loved the
downhills.”
Reimer, who owns 12
dogs, had four of the younger
dogs on her team. She said
she ran two of the yearlings
during her fi rst day, then
switched to the others on the
second day.
“The fi rst day, because I
hadn’t run the course before
and it’s the upper limit in
mileage in what we trained
this year, Day 1 (plan) was
to ride the brake, hold them
back, run a conservative
day,” she said.
She let up on the reins the
second day out.
“Day 2 heading out, I
knew they still had a lot of
gas in the tank, so I have a lit-
tle leader named Arrow, this
little 38-pound black dog. I
let her pick the pace on Day
2,” she said. “They really
loved it. They hit the last fi ve
miles and they started sprint-
ing. It was a really fun ride
into the fi nish line for sure.”
Reimer fi nished in 6
hours, 22 minutes, just over
an hour ahead of local racer
Craig Anderson, who took
second in 7:35. Chantelle
Chase was third in 11:15,
edging Kathy Miyoshi by
eight minutes. Candace
Sarkesian scratched just a
couple hours after the start.
Reimer said she was
impressed at the perfor-
mance of her team.
“For me, my dogs sur-
prise me and amaze me all
the time,” she said. “I was
amazed they were able to run
those distances. They still
had a ton of energy and were
really happy. It was cool for
me to see them have a good
time and that they weren’t
pushed too hard.”
Reimer said she’ll run a
couple more races this year,
then plans to train her team
up for the 100-mile race in
2023.
“It was such a welcoming
community and such a beau-
tiful place to run our dogs,”
she said. “We’re looking for-
ward to coming back again.”
The lone racer in the
22-mile junior race, Sofi e
Kaaen of Baker City, com-
pleted the fi rst day of the
race, but scratched out of the
second leg.
Randy Greenshields, the
race president and an Enter-
prise veterinarian, said the
fi eld was smaller than in
recent years, as several rac-
ers withdrew before the start.
“There was some sick-
ness. We had a couple that
were not COVID, but they
were sick and didn’t want
to expose people,” Green-
shields said. “Others didn’t
get the training miles in this
year.”
Still, he said it was
“another good year” for the
race, and spoke highly of
the ideal conditions for the
mushers.
“The snow conditions
were the best I think I’ve
ever seen,” he said. “The
mushers really enjoyed the
trails.”