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While Olympic sports dominate television screens, another winter tradition is drawing crowds in Regina, and you can hear it before you see it.
The sharp bark of sled dogs and the scrape of runners on packed snow are echoing through Wascana Park as the Campbell family brings dog sledding to the Frost Festival this weekend.
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Aaron Campbell of Campbell Racing Sled Dogs poses in Wascana Park during Frost Festival, where his family is offering free dog sled rides throughout the weekend. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
“In this day and age, everything is fake and fast and phone, but when you’re out on the trail, everything’s real,” Aaron Campbell, owner and operator of Campbell’s Racing Sled Dogs, said.
For Campbell, the connection to sled dogs began decades ago. He said he was 13 when he travelled to Alaska on a bus tour and watched sled dog demonstrations for the first time, an experience that captured his imagination.
That spark turned into a lifetime.
Campbell has been running dogs for about 30 years, working with professional kennels before starting his own operation in 2013. He now races across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, competing with 10-dog and six-dog teams in communities that host winter festivals throughout the season.
A line of residents waits their turn for free dog sled rides during Frost Festival in Wascana Park. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)
But at Frost, the goal isn’t competition, it’s the experience.
Families are climbing onto sleds for free rides around a groomed oval track, getting a taste of what it feels like to move in rhythm behind a trained team.
Campbell said what keeps him committed isn’t just speed it’s personality.
“I think what it was is seeing that they had a personality. Every dog’s different,” he said. “Putting all those personalities into a team, and then travelling down the trail is a lot of fun.”
The operation is also a family one.
When Campbell and his wife started their kennel, their children were just toddlers. More than a decade later, the roles are second nature from harnessing dogs to grooming trails.
“It’s very natural. It feels really good when we’re working with our dogs and hooking them up and running them, because we all know what to do,” he said.
His son Eldon Campbell, now in Grade 9, has grown up in the sport. He has been racing as long as he can remember, and has been coming to Frost since the first year, helping with tours for three seasons.
“It’s a lot of driving, a lot of travelling. It’s a lot of school work,” Eldon said. “But I don’t really care.”
Rides continue from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. through the Family Day long weekend in Wascana Park.
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