I volunteered at the John Beargrease sled dog race

I volunteered at the Beargrease sled dog race this year (2019). Great fun! Amazing dogs!

January 27-29, 2019

There were multiple races of different distances. I worked at the 300 mile race; the longest in the 48 states. Wow! It is absolutely amazing. There were 12 teams that started the race. Three teams scratched (dropped out). They scratch for many reasons; dogs problems, mechanical issues, injuries, etc. Most of the teams started with 10 or 12 dogs. They must have a minimum of 6 dogs. The race contains 30-50 mile legs, in-between which they have mandatory rests. They must rest a minimum of 24 hours during the race. After each leg there is a check point where their time is clocked and dogs counted. I was at the last check point at Mineral Center. There was one 35 mile leg from there to the finish.

At the check point the musher can drop a dog that cannot continue. The musher must use the same dogs for the entire race. So if he drops a dog now he runs the rest of the race with one less dog. If this team is down to five dogs, the team is eliminated, as they must have at least 6 dogs. There are vets at each check point and the dogs get looked at.

At least one of our crew had to be at the check point all the time, even through the night. We took turns getting a little sleep. The motel was only five miles away so that helped. Jeff brought his red ice house (you can see it in my pictures). It has heat so we could rest in there. The heater ran for 36+ hours.

The race started Monday morning just north of Duluth and worked its way up to Grand Portage. Grand Portage is in the northeast tip of Minnesota, about four miles from Canada. They ran all day and all night, taking the mandatory rests. It was cold this year, high was maybe 10 degrees and the low was -20 degrees. It was negative degrees most of the time. The dogs run better and faster in the cold because they do not over heat as easily. Of course it would not have to be this cold!

The winners this year were a married couple coming in at first and second place. The first time this has happened.

I took a few pictures but it was too cold and I was too busy to take very many. You can see some here.