Now that the racing season is over here in Northern Minnesota, good old Mother Nature is doing it again by bringing us the second snowstorm of the season.  Although the old saying that March “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” seems to be coming true this year.  As I said before there is nothing we can do about the weather so I guess we will just go with the flow (or should I say snow) and deal with whatever Mother gives us.

As mentioned yesterday, the race on Sunday was called (for lack of a better title in such a short time) The Classic Fun Run…and fun we had.  Good friend/fellow musher and one of the race organizers Michelle Ethun challenged the other racers to a costume contest.  Chel wore scrubs with ”house calls cheap” on the front.  A couple of other racers wore funky hats and all the racers were given leis to pass out during and after the race to whomever they felt was the most deserving.  The first person I “leid” was trail marker and member of the Cook County snowmobile club, Dick Parker.  Dick, good friend Clay Rumph, Dennis LaBoda and former Beargrease Trail Boss Mac Welles marked the trail last Friday.  Just before the race start Dick headed out on the trail to make sure the markers were still up so none of us got lost.  Thank you Dick!

The second person that I “leid” was Alex Angelos.  Alex has been the Beargrease race coordinator for too many years to count and he along with the others mentioned yesterday (and numerous others I probably forgot) did an awesome job of putting this fun race together in a weeks time.  Way to go Alex.  At the end of Sunday night, I think other people felt that Alex deserved the thanks as he had more leis around his neck than anyone else.

I forgot to mention yesterday that another reason this race came into existance was the day that the Beargrease board cancelled the race there was a BG volunteer meeting and the volunteers wanted to know what was going to happen to the Trail Mail that was supposed to be carried by the mushers during the race.  Trail Mail is the brainchild of volunteer, Jean Vincent.  The public can purchase special envelopes and stamps and the Beargrease mushers are sworn in at the opening ceremonies as official mail carriers and then “deliver” the mail by dog sled.  Even though the race on Sunday was not tied to the Beargrease organization, the mail “had to go through” and the racers who wanted to carried Trail Mail in their sled.  I think the new motto for the postal service should be “not rain, nor sleet, nor snow, nor cancellation of the Beargrease…..”

Not only did people get into the fun, but so did Rugby Prom, dog of Voyageur owners, Mike and Sue.  After our dogs were busy chewing on their after race treat of a beaver tail, Mike hitched Rugby up to my sled.  Mike seems to be having a good time, but poor Rugby said “forget it pal, I’m a lap dog”.  I swear I saw Rugby rolling his eyes when Sue snapped this photo.

I best get into the shower.  It is now taking me a little longer to get into town in the morning as we are now leaving my truck down the hill from the cabin so it doesn’t get snowed in and Mark fired up the snowmobile this morning to give me the 3 1/2 mile ride to my truck.  It’s ironic that I have been able to drive home all winter and now that March 1st is just a day away I won’t be able to…oh well, as I said we have to go with the flow when we live Off The Beaten Path!

Daylight watch:  Tomorrow will be 3 minutes and 25 seconds longer than today!!!

We had a blast last Sunday!  After the Beargrease decided to cancel the race due to lack of snow, a grass roots group decided that it just wouldn’t be winter if there wasn’t a dog sled race in northern Minnesota.  So in a week and a half a race was born…The Classic Fun run.

In that short time, a course was determined, marked, permits approved, insurance gotten and a bunch of mushers looking for a race and some fun came together. The race started on Devil Track Lake just north of Grand Marais. It was a “sourdough start” meaning at the shot of a gun, the mushers had to jump out of their sleeping bag, put on their boots, harness their dogs, hitch them up and take off in a mass start.  We had decided that I would run an 8-dog team in the race, so I didn’t get to watch everyone running around like mad, but I bet it was a sight to see for the spectators.  In the photo, Voyageur owner, Mike Prom, stood on my snowhook for me and was telling me it was a good thing I wasn’t a firefighter…as it took me a while to get my boots on!  Sue Prom took a ton of pictures at the start and finish…go to the Snapfish website?and check them out.

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Check out the mass start. That too had to be exciting for the spectators to see 30+ teams running across the lake at one time.  It sure was exciting for me trying to get off the lake and onto the trail, but I will save that for another post as I am running out of time before heading to the shower.

There are a few people that need to be thanked for getting this race off the ground…Clay Rumph, Alex Angelos, Dick Parker, Jean Vincent, Michelle Ethun, The Landing at Devils Track (for hosting the start) and especially Sarah Hamilton of Trail Center Lodge for hosting the finish, bonfire, and party (including the band Rod and Reel).  Got to run and shower…hope you all had a great weekend and have yourselves all shoveled out before the next round of snow!

Daylight watch…Tomorrow will be 3 minutes and 24 seconds longer than today!!!

We are heading home today after having a tough run in the UP200 race last weekend.  Unfortunately, Mark had to make the tough decision to not continue with the race at the halfway point in Grand Marais (there is one in Michigan too).  There were a total of 11 teams that scratched and one team that didn’t even start the race.  Included in those 11 scratches were all four of the mushers from Cook County (Matt Groth, Neil Rasmussen, Charlie LaBoda and Mark).  We were a little concerned at how the dogs would handle the deep snow in the eastern UP even before we left for the race.
Mark had a decent run to the first checkpoint at Wetmore and after a five-hour rest headed for the halfway point of Grand Marais.  When he got in, veterinarians Kathy Topham and Kim Rozinka did our mandatory vet check.  They did find a slightly sore wrist on Foreman and a swollen back leg muscle on Olive and a slightly sore leg on Zena.  We decided to drop Olive and we would assess Zena and Foreman after they had rested.  When we got Foreman up to walk him around and warm up, his wrist was fine but he seemed a little stiff.  I then took Zena for a walk and Mark immediately said he was going to have to drop her.  Each set of two dogs had a dog that needed to be dropped for one reason or another.  That would leave him with six dogs to run 120 miles in a white-out.  Not a very smart idea.  So unfortunately, our race ended.  We thought we were the only team, but when we went to find a judge to get the paperwork signed, it turned out there had already been seven others who had very similar situations.
Congratulations to Tim Calhoun of Tomohawk, Wisconsin on a fantastic win.  I think Tim surprised a lot of people with his win, but if the way he ran this race is any indication, I won’t be surprised to see him in the winners circle again.

I best be on my way to the shower so we can get on the road and get the dogs home.  There is a grass-roots group organzing a fun race this weekend (the weekend the Beargrease was supposed to be run) and since we were part of the initial planning, we will be helping out.  Check out http://www.trailcenterlodge.com/theraceison.htm for more information.

Just a quick note…we are on the road.  Yesterday we ran the dogs the 3 1/2 miles to the truck and drove as far as Duluth.  This morning we will be leaving shortly for the 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive to Marquette.  I spoke with our host family from last year and they received 6″ of the white stuff yesterday and are expecting some more today.  I don’t know if we will know what to do with ourselves when we see snow banks!

Anyway, thanks to Karl Tarnowski for letting us crash at his place for the night.  He left at 4:45 this morning to catch a plane to spend the weekend at the Daytona 500.  I think it will be a little warmer where he is going.  Although according to the local news last night, a warm up is on the way.  They said by Tuesday the highs will be in the 30′s.  We will have to dig out the lawn chairs and buy some little umbrellas for drinks and sit in the yard! 

Also, a quick note of thanks to Louise Russell of dogbooties.com for sewing the Pink Paddles/Black Magic Kennels patches on Mark’s parka.  I sewed the ones on my suit and the one’s on Mark’s parka look a whole lot better!  By the way, we had all the dogs try on their pink dog jackets yesterday…wait til you see the pictures.  You won’t be able to miss our crew at a checkpoint!

Time to pack up and head on down the “beaten path” to Marquette.  Hope everyone has a safe (and warmer) weekend.  Wish us luck!

Daylight watch:  Tomorrow will be 3 minutes and 16 seconds longer than today!!!

Received from the Beargrease Board of Directors this afternoon:  “The decision to postpone the Beargrease until 2008 was made today by the Board of Directors. This was a very difficult choice but our concern is to insure the financial stabiltiy of the race and to see the Beargrease tradition carried long into the future.   The news media has taken up this story so you will most likely hear about it today via the news media. An official press conference is scheduled for 2pm tomorrow – Feb. 14th.”

Interesting as this is what has been on their website for over a week…
“Organizers of the 25th Running of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon want all participants, volunteer’s and spectators to know that the race WILL run on February 25, 2007  – regardless. Snow conditions on the southern half of the Beargrease trail remain poor, however the northern part of the trail is in pretty good condition with adequate snowfall. At this time, we are exploring several viable trail options on the northern half, and are plotting a safe, but challenging course. We also remain optimistic that the southern part of the trail will get the “major dumping” it so deserves! Stay tuned for more information.”

I thought it might have been a little optomistic to say there will be a race “regardless”, but I will keep my opinions to myself.

Guess we will be concentrating on the UP200.  Wish us luck.