FOUR-PAGE SPORTS PULLOUT INSIDE
• B SECTION • FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 2021
THE REGION’S HUB FOR
OUTDOOR ADVENTURES
Each week in this section, you will find the area’s
most complete guide of what’s open and closed;
outdoor activities and events; top picks of places to
explore; conditions of hiking and biking trails,
fishing holes, water flows, camping spots, parks
and more — as well as features from outdoor
writers and field experts.
Sled-dog team is
pup and running
Bend’s Rachael Scdoris leads her dog team along a trail.
Submitted photo
Bend musher Rafael Nelson is set to race in Wyoming with the help of former Iditarod racer Rachael Scdoris
I
BY MARK MORICAL
The Bulletin
n the sport of sled-dog rac-
ing, it really is all about the
dogs.
Most mushers would agree
with that.
“The biggest thing is the
dogs,” said Bend’s Rafael Nel-
son, who is racing in the sev-
en-day Stage Stop Race across
western Wyoming starting Fri-
day. “These dogs are just in-
credible. They’re so friendly,
and they’re always so excited
about running and meet-
ing people. They’re very well
trained and intelligent. They
make the best co-workers for
sure.”
Nelson works for the Ore-
gon Trail of Dreams sled dog
tours at Mt. Bachelor ski area,
founded by renowned dog
musher, Rachael Scdoris, and
her father, Jerry Scdoris, both of
Rafael Nelson, left, and Rachael Scdoris clip the nails and massage the
paws of Richard, one of their sled dogs, in preparation for the Stage Stop
Sled Dog Race, a seven-day race in Wyoming. Dean Guernsey/For The Bulletin
Bend. Rachael Scdoris, 35, was
the first legally blind musher to
attempt the Iditarod, and she
competed in the annual 1,000-
mile race across Alaska four
times, the last time in 2009.
Nelson, 30, is taking the Sc-
doris’ dog team to the Wyoming
race for the second straight
year, and Jerry Scdoris is go-
ing along as support. Starting
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the
Stage Stop race is a sprint stage
race of about 30 miles per day
on the Bridger-Teton, Shoshone
and Caribou-Targhee national
forests. Mushers will compete
for $165,000 in prize money.
Nelson finished 10th at the
race last year in his first ever
sled-dog race, but this time the
dog team is more experienced.
“The dogs are stronger, and
I’m really excited to see what
they can do,” Rachael Scdoris
said. “Now that Rafael knows
what to expect, and knows what
these dogs are capable of — we’ll
see.”
At Oregon Trail of Dreams,
Nelson, Rachael and her hus-
band, Nick Salerno, take cus-
tomers on hourlong sled dog
rides along groomed trails near
Mount Bachelor.
The race in Wyoming will be
much more intense than his day
job, but Nelson said he plans to
just focus on his dog team and
not worry about the other com-
petitors.
“I don’t plan to look at the
standings, maybe until the last
day,” he said. “The forecast is
for it to be pretty stormy and
cold. That’s fine. But coming
from Central Oregon, most of
our dogs have been in warmish
weather, relatively speaking. If
it’s really cold, that might not
work in our favor. But either
way, we’ll make it happen.”
Nelson compared the Stage
Stop Race’s format to that of the
Tour de France, in which racers
travel to a new course each day
and are able to sleep in hotels
each night. The much longer
Iditarod is more of a nonstop
slog across Alaska, with occa-
sional breaks for sleeping.
“It’s a great tour of western
Wyoming,” Nelson said of the
Stage Stop Race. “Each stage is
in a different place, with beauti-
ful mountain scenery on every
single stage.”
See Dogs / B10
Counters show thousands more visits to Bend trails in 2020
The definition of a trail is
“a path or track made across a
Like many people, I’m a
wild region, over rough coun-
creature of habit. I’m a runner
try or the like by the passage of
who mostly chooses routes
people or animals.” That’s pretty
based on training dis-
spot-on for most of
tances or time dura-
our trails in Bend, but I
tion that I can squeeze
would venture that our
into my busy work-
definition also needs
ing mom schedule.
to include our urban
But I’m most relaxed
and neighborhood ar-
when I throw both of
eas that are becoming
TRAILS
those self-imposed
increasingly popular.
requirements out the window
With more than 80 miles of trail
and explore a trail to keep me
open to the public within the
in the here and now. Based on
city, and a couple dozen more
some recent number crunch-
planned over the next decade,
ing I’m involved with in my
Bend’s urban trail opportunities
role at Bend Park & Recreation are rapidly expanding.
District, I’m not alone among
Over the past 10 months,
Central Oregonians who ex-
getting out of the house for
plored new places in 2020.
some respite has been a much-
BY JULIE BROWN
For The Bulletin
needed outing for regular trail
users and newcomers to the
enjoyment of outdoor exer-
cise. The park district uses trail
counters across the commu-
nity to glean data about use of
trails. We have used the count-
ers for the past several years,
and before we pulled the 2020
year-end data, we suspected
we might see an increase in use
due to the pandemic.
As my trail planner col-
league Henry Stroud shared a
few months ago in a column,
Bendites and visitors to the
area flock to national forest
lands located right outside of
the city limits to access hun-
dreds of miles of natural sur-
face trails and gravel roads.
See Trails / B10
Submitted photo
Visitors walk along a trail in Shevlin Park.