A race to remember, a tradition to treasure: New musher competes in first dog sled race

Felipe Gomez loves to explore Saskatchewan, and he does it through the lens of a camera.

The accomplished filmmaker, originally from Chile, has toured nearly every corner of the province.

In a special video for the CBC Creator Network, he travelled to northern Saskatchewan to film three dogsled mushers taking part in a big race at Ministikwan Lake Cree Nation.

Trevor Kequahtooway, 20, who was taking part in his first race, and Garrick Schmidt, 30, a musher with some experience, are from the White Bear First Nation.

Before the race, they trained with head musher and University of Saskatchewan Prof. Kevin Lewis.

For Lewis, it's all about keeping traditional culture alive.

"It's the cultural link that's important to me because toboggan — tâpâkan, that's what we call it in Cree — and the wolf or mahihkan were the ones that travelled like that all over the world," Lewis said. "Those type of stories I want to pass on to Garrick and Trevor."

The day of the race didn't disappoint. Despite the weather — sub-zero temperatures, whipping winds, freezing rain and low visibility — the men were pumped to get going, their energy palpable. 

The dogs were feeling it, too.

"As soon as we got to the starting line, I've never seen all of my dogs that hyped up before,"  Schmidt said. "It was awesome."

Awesome and gruelling given the weather conditions. The mushers had to navigate a 48-kilometre course while keeping tabs on the dogs' speed and energy levels.

Still, Schmidt encouraged the group: "Try to not think of it as a race. It's just us, the three of us going out for a fun run."

A couple hours into the race, it was clear things hadn't gone exactly as two of the men had hoped.

"My dogs veered to the right and wanted to follow the skidoo trail," Lewis said. "And then I got onto the actual trail but I was going counterclockwise where I supposed to go clockwise."

That took Lewis out of the race, and soon after, Kequahtooway faced a similar situation that cut his run short.

"I felt pretty defeated." Kequahtooway said, "I really wanted to stay. I had lots of fun and it was a really good experience out there."

"Trevor's first race? He did amazing," Lewis said of his trainee. "He's going to ponder this first race for a long time."

Nearly three hours after the race started, Schmidt and his dogs crossed the finish line. Even though he was the only one from his group to complete the race, they all agree, it was a pretty fantastic day.

As for filmmaker Gomez, he says it was really heartwarming to see all the mushers supporting one another during the tough race. 

"This is what I love about this. It's about community," he said. "Somebody [has] a problem, they all stop, they all help each other. This is beautiful to see."

CBC's Creator Network is looking for emerging content creators to make short videos (5 minutes and under) for an 18 to 30-year-old audience. Content creators can be writers, filmmakers, vloggers, photographers, journalists, artists, animators, foodies or anyone else with a compelling idea and visual plan for bright and bold content. Learn how to pitch your idea here.