Skijoring puts spotlight on Lakeside

Steve Patyk doesn’t mince words when it comes to his adopted hometown.

“We’ve got the best position on the best lake in the world,” he said. “And nobody knows about it.”

So more than three years ago Patyk, who owns the Lakeside Town Center, and some other small business owners in Lakeside set out to put an end to the “nobody knows about it” part and founded the West Shore Visitors Bureau.

In the years since, the group has hosted summer concerts, partnered with other regional events — including the annual Dragon Boat Festival, which moved to Lakeside in 2015 — and used an almost entirely volunteer staff to get the word out about the cozy little town on Flathead Lake’s western shore.

After this year’s Dragon Boat Festival in September, the bureau’s board came together and its president, Patyk, brought them an idea he’d picked up from his “UPS guy.”

It involved skis, horses and snow.

GINA JEPSON is the only paid employee of the West Shore Visitors Bureau, although Patyk joked Jepson is “paid so little that she’s not feeding her kids on that.” Her official title is promotions director, and she and the rest of the board listened to Patyk sing the virtues of skijoring — the uniquely western sport in which cowboys steer horses down a snowy track, pulling a skier over snow-built jumps and through obstacles in a race against the clock.

“Steve came to us and he’s like ‘what do you guys think?’” Jepson said. “And I think initially the reaction of the board was ‘what?’”

Eventually the group warmed up to the idea, despite the fact that Jepson herself had never so much as seen a single skijoring race. And when Terry Lieser, the owner of the luxurious Lakeside Club, a residential community nestled into the side of the Salish Mountains, offered the development’s airstrip as a possible venue, the Flathead Lake Skijoring Championships were born.

Jepson and the rest of the board sprung into action and quickly recruited help, including from some of those involved with the annual World Invitational Skijoring Championships in Whitefish. When the consultants drove up a winding mountain road, into the sprawling development and saw the runway, the adjacent hangar and the spectacular views of Flathead Lake, they too were sold.

“As we started getting more details it just all fell together,” Jepson said. “There’s tons of parking, that’s not a problem, there’s this nice flat spot where you can have food vendors, we can use this hangar and go inside and do the Calcutta party.

“A lot of the experienced skijoring people, who had been to previous venues, told us it would totally work.”

Jepson estimates there were no more than two weeks between Patyk’s proposal and a firm commitment to put on the event. Even with the quick decision, it still left barely more than three months for the group to pull it off.

“We thought, you know what, ‘either go big or go home,’” Jepson said. “So we decided we’ll just go for it and jump right in and see what happens.”

“I have a lot of sleepless nights thinking about stuff,” Patyk said. “But it’s amazing what we can accomplish when we all pull together.”

Jepson and the volunteers immediately set out to solicit local businesses for sponsorship dollars and continued to work with more experienced skijoring organizers throughout their preparation. Along the way they even raised enough money to make a bit of skijoring history: This weekend’s purse of $25,000 is believed to be the largest ever for a skijoring event.

The money created a trickle-down, bringing in some of the country’s best riders, skiers and horses — from as far away as Colorado and New Mexico — and, organizers hope, a larger crowd to watch an expected 30 to 40 teams vie for the historic prize.

THE BIGGER picture trickle-down organizers are hoping for goes straight to Patyk’s blunt assessment of Lakeside’s attractiveness as a tourist destination.

“There’s a lot going on in Bigfork and a lot in Whitefish,” Patyk said. “And people drive right through Lakeside on U.S. 93.”

Jepson estimated this weekend’s races could draw as many as 1,000 spectators, a mix of both locals and out-of-towners looking for a unique way to bring in the new year. Both she and Patyk believe this year is the first in what will become an annual competition.

“I think all of us at some point have said, ‘next year we should do such and such and such,’” Jepson said. “I think we have enough people excited about it, even before the event has started, that we’re already thinking ahead to next year and how we can do the same and make it even better.”

THE FLATHEAD Lake Skijoring Championships officially get underway Saturday, with the first competitors on the course at 12:30 p.m. There is a Calcutta party and auction at the adjacent hangar after Saturday’s racing and the competition concludes Sunday, again starting at 12:30 p.m.

Races will be held in the costume, novice, sport and open classes. An awards ceremony, open to the public, will take place inside the hangar after Sunday’s action.

Tickets are $5, with kids 12 and under admitted free. Food and beverage will be available for purchase and parking is free.

More information is available at www.flatheadlakeskijoring.com.