St. John Valley Times - March 3, 2005
by Andrew Birden
FORT KENT- For thousands of people this weekend. the sight of the barking happy dogs. The cheers of the crowds, the sudden and surprising acceleration of the sleds, and the range of intense emotions on the faces of the men and women riding behind at the Majn Street start of the Can-Am Crown Sled Dog races on Saturday, will make them ask the question, how can I get into this sport?
A spectator might assume from seeing the trailers and dog carriers, the space-age sleds, and the teams with as many as 12 dogs, that the sport is an expensive way to go broke. By approaching it carefully, and by tapping into the support of the sledding community, Mi~e and Kim Paradis found it to be relatively inexpensive to get started.
According to this Fort Kent couple, an investment of less than $1,000 and a vigilant eye for bargains brought them into tlie sport with ease.
Mike and Kim have lived in a remote area of the hills around Fort Kent for the last six years. During the winter, their home is only accessible by sled, ski, or snowshoe.
"We needed something so we could haul stuff in the winter," said Kim.
The couple contacted their friend Sean Graham, an avid musher recently retired, who helped them get started.
He helped them acquire two dogs locally from other mushers and two more from people who found they were' unable to care for their new pet. Kim says their first team was made up totally of donated dogs.
They spent a few hundred dollars on harnesses, swivel chains, and homebuilt doghouses, and pretty quick a thriving kennel was growing in the shadow of the windmill that powers their home.
Graham gave them pointers on the training of the animals and soon the dogs were ready to be hooked to a sled. But there was no sled. So, they built one.
Mike, an engineer, uses his first sled as a marker to identify the entrance to his property along a long dirt road. Currently the wooden handmade sled is covered in snow and represents what Mike's wife described as "the beater." It looks to be constructed from 2x4~ and lx2s.
They needed a real sled. Again, they tapped into the musher community and kept an eye out in the Uncle Henry's bargain magazine. Soon they located a suitable sled for $200. And afterwards, they started hauling groceries, hay, and dog food to their remote home.
In 2002 they began racing in. the Can-Am 30-miler.
Over the years they have added to their kennel and now support 12 adult dogs.
Mike takes the dogs out on a run every other day, come summer or winter.
At their first race, their inexperience and ramshackle team made' them stand out. "We were the misfit team," recalls Mike.
But they ran with gusto and the couple has come back to the Can- Am every year since, better equipped and more experienced.
They say the musher community is made up of a lot of misfits, but that almost everyone of them is willing to help out a newcomer who shows enthusiasm and is willing to work.
This year Mike plans to run in the 60-miler for the first time. He will be sporting a state-of-the-art sled with a self-designed braking system to keep his 10-dog team from running away with the race.
They spend about $600 on the sled, and purchased it used.
The couple speaks proudly of their new sled with its independent suspension, light wooden frame, and runners coated with a slick sci-fi polymer to make it ride through the snow like a knife through the suds in their kitchen sink.
"It sat in the living room all year because it was too pretty," said Kim.
This married couple demonstrates that dog sledding is not an unreachable goal; that it is in fact, within the reach of anyone who is willing to think creatively, is able to seek help from the many mentors that have slid down the trail before them, and is ready to greet the challenge of sledding with a happy cheer as he or she races off into the woods with an enthusiastic team.
Kim says they have only purchased three of the dogs. She says of mushers with too many. dogs, "They'd rather give them to us to