Photo Credit: Elevation Sled Dogs Facebook page.

By Shane Clausing

sled dogs

Veteran Iditarod racer and Grande Prairie resident bringing his Sled Dog tours to Swan City

Nov 17, 2020 | 1:39 PM

Grande Prairie resident and veteran Iditarod racer Aaron Peck is bringing Sled Dog tours to the Swan City this December.

Peck and his dogs have been participating in national and international races for over two decades. Along with the two decades of experience, Peck has participated in seven Iditarod races in Alaska, which usually takes between 10-12 days to complete.

Peck says that he felt like now was the right time to showcase his dogs to his hometown, especially right before the holidays.

“It’s been an idea for a while now to talk to Evergreen Park. It seems like the ideal place, it’s such an animal-friendly location and Christmas atmosphere with the Festival of Lights and all of that stuff. It just seemed like maybe the Sled Dogs could be a good fit for this location and give the community something to do during the Christmas season.”

Peck is originally from Ontario and was introduced to Sled Dog racing by watching the Iditarod race as a kid on ABC Sports. When he was 18, he moved to Alaska and worked for a Sled Dog Musher and then proceeded to run in his first Iditarod race in the year 2000.

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“It just combines everything that I love. The dogs, wintertime and adventure just really suits me and it’s something I’ve had a passion for most of my life.”

Peck says that the sled dog tours in Grande Prairie are all family friendly.

“For this year we are just going to keep it simple because it’s a new thing. It’s going to be three time slots per day, 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and there’s two sleds available at each time slot and one sled would carry two adults and perhaps a small child.”

“The last tour of the day at 5:30 p.m., we are advertising as the night runner, it would be a new experience where you would actually run the dogs in the dark. It’s a lot of fun and that’s one of my favourite things to do.

“In the Iditarod we are always running in the dark and the dogs really love it too, so I thought that would be an adrenaline rush and cool experience.”

The tours begin on Thursday, December 3, and will take place every Thursday to Sunday until January 3. If the tours prove to be popular and there is a high enough demand, Peck said that he will consider adding more dates to the schedule for the remainder of the winter.

Each tour lasts between 60-90 minutes, depending on the trail conditions, and guests will learn how to harness the dogs and get the sled set up. Peck adds that the dogs are all friendly and bring a lot of joy to people.

You can sign up for the tours by heading to Peck’s website. The price for a daytime tour is $190, while the nighttime ride goes for $230.