Susan Collins at Can-Am Games in Fort Kent

Thousands gather for 16th Can-Am race

Bangor Daily News - Mar. 3--FORT KENT -- Light snow Saturday morning did not deter fans for the start of the 16th running of the Can-Am Crown International Sled Dog Races at Fort Kent where crowds were estimated to be the largest ever. Hundreds lined the Main Street chute when the first mushers headed out of the starting gate at 8 a.m. for the Willard Jalbert Jr. Can-Am 60-mile race. Temperatures were barely above zero but the crowd warmed quickly as the 29 mushers took off through the downtown. By the time mushers lined up for the Pepsi Bottling Can-Am 30-mile race, temperatures had risen to 10 degrees and the crowd had grown to thousands. People lined the gated-off chute for a quarter-mile up Main Street. People of all ages attended the carnival-like start of the now classic races. They included everyone from very young children hauled around by their parents on sleds, to people in their 80s. "Isn't this just marvelous," Maine Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told the crowd before the start of the Irving Woodlands 250-mile race, which started shortly after 10 a.m. "Only in Fort Kent." Read more >>