There will be no wagging tails on the trails near Peterborough as the Marmora SnoFest is ending the popular sled dog races.
The event has been part of the community’s annual February winter festival since its inception in 1979 in the community 56 kilometres east of Peterborough.
The festival is held the first weekend of the month, which was originally considered ideal weather for the dogs to race in the heart of winter, organizers say.
The races were promoted as the first long-distance race in Canada. Through its near four decades, the event grew at the Marmora fairgrounds, attracting competitors from across Canada and worldwide, even a Jamaican entry in 2011.
But Mother Nature is now playing a role in the event’s fate.
Organizers say over the last decade, they’ve only been able to hold the event four times, according to a post on the event’s Facebook page.
“The board has decided that the weather has been too unpredictable for such a long time, that too much energy goes into organizing, fundraising, and planning the races for them to be cancelled due to weather so often,” the post reads.
“This has also caused other locations (further north) to take our weekend and run their own races. So we don’t expect turn out to be as predictable either. We do have some fun things planned though! So stay tuned!”
Similar events in nearby Apsley and Bancroft have also ended in recent years. The only current sanctioned sled dog racing events in Ontario are now in Haliburton and Kearney.
SnoFest will now focus on more events and programs that are not weather dependent, such as “Marmora’s Got Talent Show,” the BC Curling Challenge, and artisan marketplace.
This year’s SnoFest is set for Feb. 2-3.
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