JOSEPH — Clayton Perry was in fourth place and well behind the race leaders coming into the final checkpoint of the Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race.

One of his fellow racers in the 200-mile race, Bino Fowler, asked him a question before he took off.

“He came over and asked if I was making a move,” Perry said of Fowler.

The move to have his dogs pick up the pace and really test them paid off, and Perry crossed the finish line at 2:38 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 22, as the winner of the Eagle Cap Extreme in its return from a one-year hiatus.

“(I) took a high risk that they might not finish at all or get it done,” Perry, the 2017 100-mile winner, said.

Perry was down nearly half of his team, as he started the race Jan. 20 with 12 dogs. He finished with seven, losing five along the way to soreness.

But he trusted in the rigorous training he and his partner, Morgan Anderson, had put in. They had done several lengthy runs and, Perry said, put in more than 1,200 miles in recent months. He knew his team was capable.

“(I) had a lot of confidence,” he said. “This year’s training with Morgan Anderson gave us a lot of confidence. We knew they could do it.”

Perry has been close in recent years, taking fourth in each of the last two Eagle Cap Extreme races. He called the win “totally unexpected.”

“Because there’s a lot of competition. It’s not easy to get done. I’m older. Most of the other competitors are half my age,” the 62-year-old Perry said.

He had older dogs than many in the field, as well. Yet that experience — for both him and his team — was also a benefit. Perry is a veteran of the ECX who not only has run the 200-mile race the last few years, but had done the 100-mile race several times prior, including his win five years ago.

“Experience, knowing what to expect,” he said. “Being here before (is) a definite advantage. Older dogs. More experienced dogs.”

He outlasted a field that included his training partner, Anderson, Fowler, Rex Mumford and Bryce Mumford, and Jed Stephensen. Perry turned in a time of 38 hours, 31 minutes. The Mumfords both crossed about an hour later with matching times of 39:46, with Rex in second and Bryce in third, according to the official results. Stephensen placed fourth in 41:55, and Anderson took fifth with a time of 45:31. Fowler scratched during the final stretch.

It’s the start of what Perry hopes will be a good 2022, with the goal in sight of trying to win the Rocky Mountain Triple Crown. The next race, the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge, begins Jan. 30, and following that is Montana’s Race to the Sky in Perry’s home state.

Lombardi wins 100-mile race in ECX debut

Also claiming the first leg of the triple crown was Nicole Lombardi, another Montana-based racer who was the victor of the 100-mile race in her first time at the ECX.

“I was a little nervous, but felt fully supported by the community, the race committee, veterinarians and fellow mushers,” Lombardi said.

She ran away from the four-team field, completing the 100-mile course in 18 hours, 7 minutes. Steve Madsen took second in 22:33, and Jane Devlin crossed in 22:47. The fourth racer, Kevin Daugherty, scratched during the race.

Lombardi admitted she almost dropped from the race, worried the weather conditions would not bode well for her team.

“I almost didn’t go. I was afraid of giving my dogs pneumonia,” she said. “Turned out to be a really nice trail for the dogs.”

It was a race of firsts for Lombardi — not only was it her first win at the ECX in her first try, but it was “really the first time I’ve raced 100 miles, and the first time racing my own dogs,” she said.

It’s also her first year back in racing after close to a decade off building her own team.

“Basically I needed to build my own kennel, and it took me 11 years to get to a place where I could balance work, breed dogs and get to the place where we could do something like this,” she said.

She intended to do it a year ago, but the pandemic altered those plans.

“We actually wanted to do it last year but everything was canceled due to COVID,” she said.

Lombardi will be gearing up for the Idaho Sled Dog Challenge next week. She definitely plans to return to Joseph to race in the ECX, and said that while her career hinders it now, she would consider building up to the 200-mile race in the future.

“I would love to someday,” she said.

First-time ECX musher Reimer takes 31-mile race

Another first-timer took the 31-mile, two-day race — California racer Jesika Reimer.

“The plan was just to get my yearlings some experience. All my adults have raced before,” Reimer said. “They just plowed up those hills and loved the downhills.”

Reimer, who owns 12 dogs, had four of the younger dogs on her team. She said she ran two of the yearlings during her first day, then switched to the others on the second day.

“Because I hadn’t run the course before and it’s the upper limit in mileage in what we trained this year, the Day 1 (plan) was to ride the brake, hold them back, run a conservative day,” she said.

She let up on the reins the second day out.

“Day 2 heading out, I knew they still had a lot of gas in the tank. I have a little leader named Arrow, this little 38-pound black dog. I let her pick the pace on Day 2,” Reimer said. “They really loved it. They hit the last 5 miles and they started sprinting. It was a really fun ride into the finish line for sure.”

Reimer finished in 6 hours, 22 minutes, just over an hour ahead of local racer Craig Anderson, who took second in 7:35. Chantelle Chase was third in 11:15, edging Kathy Miyoshi by 8 minutes. Candace Sarkesian scratched just a couple hours after the start.

Reimer said she was impressed at the performance of her team.

“For me, my dogs surprise me and amaze me all the time,” she said. “I was amazed they were able to run those distances. They still had a ton of energy and were really happy. It was cool for me to see them have a good time and that they weren’t pushed too hard.”

Reimer said she’ll run a couple more races this year, then plans to train her team up for the 100-mile race in 2023.

“It was such a welcoming community and such a beautiful place to run our dogs,” she said. “We’re looking forward to coming back again.”

The lone racer in the 22-mile junior race, Sofie Kaaen of Baker City, completed the first day of the race, but scratched out of the second leg.

Randy Greenshields, the race president, said the field was smaller than in recent years, as several racers withdrew before the start.

“There was some sickness. We had a couple that were not COVID, but they were sick and didn’t want to expose people,” Greenshields said. “Others didn’t get the training miles in this year.”

Still, he said it was “another good year” for the race, and spoke highly of the ideal conditions for the mushers.

“The snow conditions were the best I think I’ve ever seen,” he said. “The mushers really enjoyed the trails.”