The Dog Powered Sport Association of the Yukon’s middle-distance winter race may have a new look in 2017.

During a planning meeting for next year’s race at Whitehorse Elementary School last night, a new area of trails was proposed for the event.

Fabian Schmitz, a local dog musher who chaired the meeting, said they were looking at the Fish Lake Trails.

He brought up a map on his computer to show the small group of four that gathered to provide input at the meeting where the trails are located.

“There’s a beautiful mountain area that you can’t really see from here, but it’s absolutely amazing trails up there,” he said after the meeting.

A play spot for local snowmobilers and used by Sky High Wilderness for tour operations, the trails are well-known and well-established, he said.

“I find it’s challenging in many ways,” said Schmitz.

The trails there could have users navigating frozen lakes, wind-blown trails, and going up and down mountains.

“You have everything the mountains throw at you and I think that’s pretty cool,” he said. “A lot of challenges.”

DPSAY first ran a middle-distance race in 2010. The idea was to work up to having a 200 or 300-mile qualifying race for the Yukon Quest or the Iditarod.

In the first year, the race was called the Road Runner 100, because it followed parts of the Old Alaska Highway, but there were trail issues and creek crossings that wouldn’t pan out, so they switched locations in its junior year to run along the Takhini River from Whitehorse to Mendenhall.

The race remained as the River Runner for four years (100 and 120-mile variations) before a lack of snow forced another change.

That change, starting at the Takhini Hot Springs and going to Braeburn and back on part of the Yukon Quest Trail resulted in the Cinnamon Bun Run, which has been the race in its latest form for the past two years.

At its peak, the middle distance race had upwards of 20 teams, including both skijorers and dog-sledders.

DPSAY already hosts a season full of sprint races thanks to the Twister race series.

“We just wanted to contribute to that and fill that little gap that was kind of missing between a 15-mile race and a 1,000-mile race,” said Schmitz.

The DPSAY races are most commonly attended by small kennels and newcomers to the sport.

“We want to have a race for the small people in the dog mushing world and if the big names come, that’s fantastic, that’s great, but it’s not necessarily just a race for them,” said Schmitz.

In its first year, the Road Runner 100 race attracted Yukon Quest names like Crispin Studer, Hugh Neff and Didier Moggia. Hans Gatt has also competed in other years.

“We also want to cater to smaller kennels that want to get their first, kind of, foot in the door in distance mushing,” said Schmitz.

He thinks that next year’s race, which will likely fall on the last weekend of February, will be somewhere between 100 and 150 miles. He and Adam Robinson, who is also familiar with the trails will both sit down and piece together a proposed route.

Schmitz said the distances will be roughly what they used to be. “(They) aren’t going to change much,” he said.

Changing the route also helps provide a more level playing field, as not many of the mushers go out and train in the Fish Lake area.

Planning a race is no small task and Schmitz welcomes anyone who’s interested in lending a hand to contact DPSAY.

“Anyone who wants to help is welcome,” he said. “If folks just want to help out serving liquor on the banquet night, great. If they want to help us paint trail markers on a weekend, that’s fine. If they want to be the race director, they can join us too.

“We need anybody.”