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Sisters, Oregon
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Dog sled racers mush around Sisters
By Jim Cornelius

The woods west of Sisters echoed last week to the yipping and yowling of excited sled dogs, straining to get on the trail for the two Sisters-area stages of the Atta Boy 300 Race For Vision.

Some of the top mushers in the world were in Sisters January 8 and 9 for the two approximately 40-mile stages in the week-long race. Conditions were warmer and wetter than hoped for, but the event still proved exciting for the Sisters spectators who turned out to cheer on the 27 teams in the race.

Doug Swingley, a four-time Iditarod champion, demonstrated his dominance of the sport in commanding wins on both stages. The January 8 stage consisted of a loop from the Hap Taylor gravel pit west of Sisters to Hoodoo and back. The next day, mushers raced from the gravel pit to Mt. Bachelor.

Swingley, 48, attributes his success -- including an astounding run of three wins in a row over the past three years of the grueling Iditarod -- to hard work.

"I work awful hard at it," he said. "I dedicate my whole year to it."

The Montana resident isn't looking for sympathy for all that drudgery, however. He truly loves the dogs and the sport.

"I enjoy myself so much," he said.

Swingley specializes in the long-distance endurance races such as the 1,049 mile Iditarod. He is relatively new to stage races, such as the Atta Boy 300, which breaks up its 300 miles into daily stages.

There's an interesting tactical aspect to stage racing. The mushers may have a pool of 16 dogs available to choose from on any given stage, and of those, 12 may be used in the race. The more dogs in a team, the more power a musher has.

But power isn't everything. Sometimes, the best tactic is to use fewer dogs on one stage, leaving more rested for a later stage.

"It's important to know your dogs well enough to know what they can do," Swingley said.

The trick is to "put the right dogs in for the right days," he said.

The trick worked. Swingley is the overall Atta Boy 300 winner.

The Atta Boy 300 is the dream of Jerry Scdoris, who raises sled dogs and operates a team at Mt. Bachelor. Scdoris has long desired to bring a World Cup sled dog race to Central Oregon.

Scdoris' daughter Rachel, a Redmond High School student, is one of the professional mushers who competed in the race, vying for $50,000 in prize money.

Rachel Scdoris has gained wide recognition for her success as a musher despite a vision impairment. Her accomplishments inspired the race's slogan "A Race for Vision."

The race featured another mushing legend: Libby Riddles, the first woman to win the Iditarod. Riddles, who won the race on a bold gambit, racing through a blizzard, in 1985, served as the Atta Boy 300 race marshal.

Riddles has become something of an ambassador for the sport and she enjoys the role -- particularly the opportunity to teach youngsters about the sport.

"It just seems like the right thing to do," she said. "I've gotten so much out of dog mushing, I have to put something back into it. It would be wrong not to."

The race offered many opportunities for community involvement. Sisters area families hosted mushers -- and their dogs -- during the Sisters stages. Hosting cuts down on mushers' expenses and makes attending races financially viable.

Most families found the dogs surprisingly quiet (after all, they ran all day; sleep time is precious).

However, some were slightly taken aback at the spectacle of dozens of dogs doing their business more or less at the same time on their lawns.

The race left Sisters after the January 9 stage, but spectators were left with a new-found understanding for an obscure yet compelling outdoor sport.

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