John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

[Seveen]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">so the race is 340 miles

do they stand up the entire time? does it run all night?</div></div>

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Seveen</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">so the race is 340 miles

do they stand up the entire time? does it run all night?</div></div>

</div></div>

OOPS! Sorry Seveen! I forgot that part...ya see the headlamps on the musher heads...

While the race is 373 miles... (I know it was 300 something but every year I forget!) ..it is a 24 hour a day race. However, there are mandatory checkpoints where there are veterinarians to check over the dogs, and this is a place where a musher will leave dogs he might be carrying in the sled basket.

Once a dog shows signs of distress, the mushers do not make them go on any further, they put them on the sled for a ride to the next checkpoint, where handlers will be waiting with warm food and blankets and straw beds for all of the dogs. The out of race dogs will leave the team at that point, not be able to continue on.

There is mandatory rest stops along the way, which vary.

Leg Mileage Chart – 2011

Marathon Leg Cumulative

Start to Highway 2 35 35

Highway 2 to Beaver Bay 35 70

Beaver Bay to Sawbill 52 122

Sawbill to Trail Center 51 173

Trail Center to Devil Track 63 236

Devil Track to Sawbill 34 270

Sawbill to Finland 30 300

Finland to Highway 2 38 338

Highway 2 to Finish 35 373

Mandatory 4 hour layover (plus differential) at Sawbill Upbound.

Mandatory 6 hour layover at Highway 2 Downbound.

Teams must accumulate a total of 28 hours rest plus time differential.

Source

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: schultz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hey Nooks, I always love these reports! Looks like you have enjoyed yourself, as usual. </div></div>

Always Schultz! Welcome to my little piece of winter heaven!

While the camera problems hampered my day a little...since it was expected, it wasn't like if I had just gotten out there and had it happen for the first timeTHEN...oh <span style="font-weight: bold">that</span>....would have been bad. It was bad enough though, it made me work very very hard and I really didn't need to bring a chair because I never once sat in it! This year. In between dogs I was fiddling with my camera. My out of focus pics are still better than none at all, but I was really hoping for something contest worthy. Next year!

-------

The camera saga continues! Even my pro shooter camera shop owner cannot figure it out yet. This makes me feel somewhat better about my lack of figuring it out, now that 2 pro's are perplexed!

I must say...above and beyond customer service I am getting. I came home today with a loaner zoom lens for tomorrow. I sure wouldn't get that kind of service from an online store, or a big box like best Buy and the like. The camera store owner is as interested in finding out what the problem is as much as I am, and will be right there to help me out once we figure it out. YAY Don. I can't thank him enough...


Tomorrow is the finish! I will hopefully be on the trail to welcome her in (I am rooting for Jamie Nelson)...or him, whichever the case may be. I usually hit the trail around the same area where I shoot, then catch them again on the way in, before I head to the finish line. THEN, I run to the Two Harbors final checkpoint to see what is going on up there.

They might be broadcasting the finish live from the Beargrease site tomorrow approx 9-10am, and if I can find a link tonight I will post it! I will be the one in the calf length green down coat and dark tan beaver fur hat. :-)

[Stormmey]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

Awesome and breathtaking pics. Nookie.....I cannot get enough of fresh snow.....hanging from trees.....the snow in the background with the dogs is surreal....thanks for sharing

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

So glad you are enjoying the pics Stormmey! I am so looking forward to getting out there tomorrow! It is fun to know someone on here that enjoys the beautiful snow as much as I do!

Here is a nice YouTube I just found...on the trail 2008, many sleds pass and even a cute little woodpecker. I thik it was very warm that year if I remember correctly. Like 30 something. NOT good for the dogs..lots of teams dropped out right away in the beginning.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OWiSYeFE_TA"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OWiSYeFE_TA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

This video is waaaay fun! Seveen, it has the mushers with the headlights and lit up dogs for the last 3 or 4 minutes. By the time it ends, all you see is a very cool headlight and lit dogs!

Into the night they go...

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_Ho1HCm8w1s&amp;feature=related"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_Ho1HCm8w1s&amp;feature=related" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

Good morrning From the finish line! It is -15f below and windy, windchill -35. I am sitting inside Billy's bar with a 7up and waiting on Nathan or Ryan to come to the finish line. I was going to go up the trail for a few shots but it is just too wicked cold for that. I will go io the trail to the last rest stop once the winner comesin though! It looks like a bright sunny day is on the horizon!

If you go to beargrease,com you can see the finish live and you will prolly see me all bundled up my big calf lenght down coat and beaver hat!

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

The finish was as exciting as it gets, nobody knew for sure who it was going to be rounding the corner to the finish line! Both Nate and Ryan were tight together on the trail all morning long. This is not usually the case, sometimes there are hours in between first and second mushers...only in 1991 when I was at the finish one early morning around 5am when Susan Butcher and Rick Swenson came in neck and neck the same way, has it been so close!

crossing the finish line first!



Congrats Ryan Anderson of Ray Minnesota! Congrats to Nate Schroeder of Chisolm Mn. as well, if the trail had been wider it would have been a photo finish!

More pics &amp; story soon come, it is shower time!

Oh, PS..camera problem solved! It was my lens (whew) which is under warranty! But still, I am going to buy this sweet loaner, it is used and a deal I can't pass up....

[Jamaicamiss]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

Very wonderful pics and commentary Nooks. Thanks again for your wonderful trip reports. Glad to see someone from Oregon participating. He lives in Sandy which is close to Mt. Hood.

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

It was a very exciting race to the finish JMiss! I have more pics and story but got diverted yesterday from finishing this report. I went on a road trip to move my dad and unpack his things and set up his new cute apartment! whew, what a week, today I will do sitting things...like finish this and bead.

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

I'll start back at the exciting finish..

There were two teams coming in at the same time so we didn't know WHO was going to round the corner first and come across the finish line! This made the finish very exciting, as usually the lone leader is well ahead (sometimes by an hour or more) of the next one but in this case...about 30 miles from the finish, leader Nate's dogs decided they wanted to follow Ryan's dogs up the trail and not be ahead! Anything can happen on the trail, which is what Nate found out. He was in 1st place every step of the way until that last leg. I saw a similar exciting finish when Susan Butcher and terry Adkins came in neck and neck in 1991.<span style="font-style: italic"> (yes, I have been doing this a long long time! It was Susan Butcher that got me to fall in love with marathon sledding adventures in the first place.)
</span>

Lord, it was cold! -16° F, and windy (-35° F degree windchill) when I flew out of bed at 6am like I was in my own race to the finish, and got my dogs taken care of and ran out the door to the finish line.

Usually, I stop at Billy's and find out where on the trail the leader is, and then go up the road a piece and catch him in a few spots. But the biting wind was pretty wicked so I hunkered down at Billy's for the next couple of hours and had breakfast and stood by the blazing fire outside and waited, along with around 50-100 other people for the winner...



Our friendly announcer...I'm thinking it had to be wicked cold to stand up high on the announcers stand that morning in the wind!



We are bundled up and waiting!



Suddenly, we get the 3-4 minute warning, the guy's are right up the trail!!!

In comes Ryan Anderson the new Beargrease Champion!



Little closer up shot of Ryan's amazing team. The dogs are only 1-2 years old, Ryan did not expect this out of them, but they did the job! They have a lot of years left in them, which is awesome for Ryan.



29 seconds later...in came last years Champion Nate Schroeder, also from Minnesota!

What a deal, two for the price of one free ticket!



Congrats Ryan, on a job well done!





Congrats to Nate, you ran one hell of a race to the finish!



The very first thing every musher does after crossing the finish line...is lavish attention on his team. I cannot describe the feeling watching the awesome tenderness of that...

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

I have to back up a second, and tell about the accident on the trail. In my first post I mentioned the hazards of the trail such as a musher running across Moose and such on the trail, but what can prepare them for a careless snowmobiler who is going too fast to stop and slid across the trail and into New Zeland musher Curt Perrano's lead dogs? Thankfully, the dogs were not seriously hurt, but they did have to be taken out of commission for the race just one hour up the trail from the start.

I was just about an hour up the trail from the start and wondered if the incident happened near where I spent race day last year, when I saw this happen...



I have since sent the photo to Beargrease and hopefully they will have an awareness campaign or have someone monitoring this spot to keep it safe. I don't know for sure where Curt got hit but it was somewhere near here!

freeking slow down people...

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

As per usual, I headed to the last checkpoint at Two Harbors, where there is sure to be some action...to see who was there, who is next to Finish. I knew I would miss Jamie Nelson, who was coming in soon in 3rd place, but I figured I would catch Colleen Wallin and I wanted to talk to her so off I went to Two Harbors.

It warmed up to -3° F below now so wandering around the grounds was great, of course there was a big bonfire there too..

Colleen and her handlers were busy massaging their dogs and getting ready to head out soon. The mushers have to spend a mandatory 6 hours at this checkpoint, and Colleen had a team 13 minutes behind her so she wasn't wasting any time getting outa Dodge!



Here is a cute couple of shots I got of Colleen last year...





Meanwhile...let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. A nice zoom lens comes in handy for shots like this, because you can get pics of the dogs without disturbing them while they sleep. Notice the stainless steel pot and propane in the backround. The handlers had been busy preparing a hot meal for the dogs when they arrived at the checkpoint!





I would say imagine standing on this for 3 days and 2 nights in -35 below on some of the most wicked terrain in dog sledding, but it doesn't go like that. The mushers RUN quite a bit of the way, usually uphill....to help out the dogs...

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

I did get to chat with Colleen for a few minutes before off she went towards the finish! I wish I could play for you the howling coming out of Colleen's dogs! Colleen lives in Two Harbors so you would think the dogs thought they were home, but they know the trail and knew there was more. They were howling up a storm in anticipation of running, even though they had already run 330 some miles..






Congrats on your 4th place finish Colleen!

Yes, of the top four finishers...TWO are women!

Gotta love it.

[Nanook]

Re: John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon

Odin Jorgenson was right behind Colleen, and he and his handlers were busy getting ready to head out. I would say one of Odin's handlers has a soft spot for a particular dog...





See you at Billy's Odin!