Seeley Lake dog sled racer wins in Montana, looks to Alaska

Feb. 13 brought another first place win for local dog sled racer, Jessie Royer.

The 46-year-old musher and dog trainer crossed the finish line with her seventh win in the Race to the Sky event, a 300-mile trail-race from Lincoln to Seeley Lake, and back. Royer has been running sled dogs for 31 years, since she was 15. Two years after getting her first dog team she won the event in Lincoln and she's competed many more times since.Spending a childhood between cattle ranches in Ennis, White Sulphur Springs, and Philipsburg meant spending a lot of time with animals. She didn't have a pack of dogs to pull a sled - but she had the imagination to improvise.

"I used to hook up my billy goat with my border collie and that was my first dog team," Royer said.

The sport of dog sled racing dates back hundreds of years, but its North American popularity is closely related to the western expansion of Canada and the Alaskan gold rush of the early 1900s. The sport term "mushing" is said to be an Anglicized version of the French-Canadian command of "Marche." It is a test of personal endurance and training, for both the human and animal athletes.

The most famous of these routes is the Iditarod Trail, an Alaskan supply line from Anchorage to Nome which was turned into a competitive event after the 1925 "Race for Mercy" when sled dogs were used to transport a life-saving supply of antitoxin serum needed to save the city's children from a diphtheria outbreak.

The Iditarod Trail race continues as an annual event and attracts racers from all over the world to compete. This year will be Royer's 20th time participating in the race.

Montana has a history with the sport, as does any snow covered territory with settlements pre-dating roads, as dog sleds were the sole mode of winter transportation for many decades of western settlement. Mushers trained teams of dogs and ran long routes through isolated and often dangerous routes. Royer said there used to be a collective of Montana mushers who would pool their food supplies together to save on costs, but the number of racers making the trip to Alaska gets thinner every year.

Many mushers find sponsors to cover their expenses, but Royer runs on personal investment and a few contributions from local businesses. 

She finances most of the trip by running sled dog tours for the Paws Up Resort in Greenough, as well as private tours on the side. 

The one to two-hour jaunts that Royer and her team take guests on at the resort have been rewarding and fun. Though they are nothing compared to the eight to nine days she spends in the desolate Alaskan back-country on her own, gliding across hundreds of miles of frozen turf under the swirling greens of the Northern Lights.

Royer will embark on the iconic Alaskan race on March 5, and will be one of 34 to compete. Royer placed third in two of her last three attempts. Regardless of the final stats, it's the ride that she looks forward to.

"When it's just you and your dogs out there on the snow with the lights above and no man-made towns it's pretty special," Royer said.