2009 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon was Sunday through Wednesday this week so I spent a couple of days out in the cold following the mushers on the trail and at checkpoints.
This mushing stuff ain't for sissies, I can say that much...and this year merely being a race fan and spectator took some fortitude as the temps barely got above zero and some days the high temp was -5F.
Normally, this is not the weather I prefer to go joy riding in, or taking a walk down a trail in the woods only to stand sometimes for hours, but I've waited all year for this event and it's my winter mile marker. Once Beargrease is here, it's a downhill slide to warmer weather and longer days and we've made it this far so the rest of winter is a piece of cake. I stay contentedly cooped up in December & January in hibernating mode and going to Beargrease is a re-birth. A new season within a season arrives and the feeling is like a butterfly coming out of it's cocoon. I'm going to make it through this winter after all, aeck...I'm not gonna let a little bit of cold stop me!
Sunday's high was around -5 below zero. I really did try to talk myself out of going this year.
Before I knew it I was putting on layer upon layer of clothes on my body and moose hide mukluks on my feet and a big warm hat and scarf and thick mittens. I was thankful that I sorta knew I'd end up going so I charged all of my camera batteries. They don't last long in that kind of cold.
My first stop was Billy's bar outside Duluth which is the first checkpoint. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be so busy at Billy's. I didn't stay long even though there was the bar there where you can go inside and warm up. I didn't drive all that way to stand inside and not see the dogs!
So outside I went.
At Billy's the same volunteers are there each year so the checkpoint goes orderly even though the mushers are coming in every couple minutes or less. One minute they are standing and chatting...
And then someone shouts out a team is coming so they spring into action to help steer the dogs to the lanes which make up the first checkpoint in the 371 mile long marathon.
It's kind of fun to watch the mushers at Billy's as it's pretty soon after the race start and you see a lot of adjusting being made there. Better there than to have to stop out on the trail in the dark and do it!
Anyway, I get enough of people and take a little drive up the trail to my favorite musher watching spot where I rarely see another spectator.
It was too cold to stand still so I walked up the trail scoping out a good spot to take pictures. When the mushers arrive, one will come along every few minutes since we're still at the race beginning.
I remembered the couple I met on this trail last year. Lucky us, the husband stood ahead and watched so we'd know when to be camera ready. The spot I found on Sunday was hilly and curvy so you didn't get any warning. For this reason the picture taking gets very tricky. You can't hear the dogs or the sleds coming up the trail, they just appear.
The sun was going down fast and it was time to hit the road. I would enjoy this fun a lot more on Wednesday when the mushers come to the finish. I'm glad I went in spite of the cold but for the most part my Sunday photos all sucked. My poor camera was so cold and my frozen hands maybe not as steady.
The next time I would see the mushers was about 40 hours later, early on Wednesday morning. I spent a lot of time on the Beargrease website calculating my moves according to what was going on with the race.
21 teams started out in the main marathon and only 6 were left by Wednesday. It was brutal out there this year for both the dogs and the mushers.
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Wednesday morning
When I checked the Beargrease site 1st thing Wednesday morning I learned that Jason Barron from Montana had just pulled in to the Two Harbors checkpoint for a mandatory 6 hour rest. This was music to my ears! Two Harbors checkpoint is only about 50 miles from home so I had plenty of time to get there.
Jason won Beargrease last year and was in the lead now with the race all but sewed up. Anything can happen though, it ain't over till it's over.
I was out of the house by 7:30 and on my way to Two Harbors, past the famed Two Harbors chicken.
I've ever been able to get a straight answer about the Two harbors chicken but it disappears every few years as college fraternity pranks and the like and makes the news. Somehow they always get it back though, but I imagine it's pretty hard to hide a 15 to 20 foot tall fake bird for long.
Second place musher John Stetson was at the checkpoint sleeping but I saw his truck broke down on the highway. John is having a run of not so great days as his wife just passed away from cancer two weeks before race day.
Veteran mushers Jenn and Blake Freking and their dogs were all peacefully sleeping in the lap of luxury. They have just about everything in their arsenal to make the trail like home. Both Blake and Jenn had a team in the marathon. Blake finished 3rd and Jenn 5th.
Yep there's smoke coming out of that stack! They had heat in their little house on wheels.
The couple's sleds.
The dogs and the gear had their own trailer...
The dogs bedroom was the snowbank on the straw with blankets on each. Everyone was resting up for the last leg of the race.By now these dogs know exactly where they are as they do this race every year.
Not every musher travels in the lap of luxury. This is 4th place finisher Peter McClelland. He is sleeping out in the open air on a bed of straw, with no blanket. It's around 9:00am so maybe just hitting the -5 to zero mark. One of his handlers tends to his sleeping dogs while he catches a few winks.
I refer to the rest of the day as "Chasin Jason". That's what I ended up doing and so did all the other mushers since Jason Barron from Montana was in the lead at the last checkpoint by about a half an hour. Jason pretty much had the race sewn up but then again, until they cross the finish line anything can happen. Dogs have been known to stop on the trail and just sit there and not move an inch for long periods of time. I bet that would be a sinking feeling if there ever was one.
I arrived around 9am. Jason still had two hours to rest himself and his dogs and you think he would be doing just that after 30 some hours on the trail. Not so, though...but the dogs got a good rest. Jason was a happy guy and I'm sure was operating on pure adrenaline by now.
Jason's trailer. In the trailer are the dropped dogs from the race, and all of the equipment and everything needed for 3 days and nights on the trail in temps as cold 50 below. Jason has run Iditarod a few times and his best finish was 8th. That is very impressive as there is over 50 mushers at the start.
I have a stunning photo of Jason at the finish line winning last years race. When I took the shot he asked me to send it to him. Well, I wanted to send it to him but there was no email address listed on the Beargrease roster. Here was my chance to get his information so I can send him the photo.
It was fun getting to listen to a local high school girl interview Jason. She had two pages of well thought out questions and a friend to take pics. I stood and listened to the interview and got a few laughs at Jason's witty answers. Then I got to talk with him for short while and obtained his contact info so I could send him the pics. Then the media got a hold of him and he gave them an animated interview.
Meanwhile...the dogs slept.
I asked Jason who was the dog tied to the front of the truck. Jason laughed and said that is a pet, and he keeps bears away. "Do you see any bears?" he said. Ha ha ha..nope, not a bear in sight. Never mind that they're all hibernating! 
He does look like a good watch dog though, and I didn't go any closer to him as you can see he looked ready to jump up.
Two buss loads of school children pulled into the parking lot. We don't let a little bit of below zero stop our kids in school from going outside to play! They were all dressed warmly enough and they were so well behaved I was astonished.
What a wonderful thing the school did to bring the children to the marathon so they could see the whole operation! The children were not permitted to wander around. They all stayed together and hunkered down on the sidelines and watched quietly. I never heard a peep.
Jason and his wife Harmony became very busy folding blankets and feeding and and watering their dogs and dressing them in the booties and harnesses. Little baby daughter Oksana stayed warm inside the truck while mom and dad were busy. Jason had 10 dogs left of the 14 he started with which is pretty good. The dropped dogs get to ride in the big trailer. I believe you have to have 8 or more to finish. When a dog can no longer continue on the trail, the mushers can carry up to two dogs in their sled baskets.
They work like a well oiled machine. They have done this so much that it is not long before the dogs are brought out and hitched to the sled. Harmony is riding in the sled and a handler leads the way to the start of the last leg of the race,which is 4 hours long. Jason is waving to the school kids who are still quiet as a church mouse but you can see their excitement as they all wave goodbye to Jason.
Jason and his team await the go ahead to start, while a few of us try to find a spot to hopefully get a good photograph.
To the exact minute that he is free from his mandatory 6 hour lay over at the last checkpoint, he is off and running this last leg.
See you at Billy's Jason!!! Most of us that were at Two Harbors checkpoint were also at the finish line. This is the last some would see of him until then.
I saw him once more on the trail though, and gave directions to the Illinois people to the spot where there is easy trail access about an hour and a half from the finish. I saw them there so they found it!
There is no place I'd rather go at this point although it wasn't in my original plans. I haven't had an affinity for any musher in particular since Susan Butcher passed away but I do now. I can see this is a truly remarkable family man who treats everyone around him with respect. He has mine.
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Time for me to leave this checkpoint, even though there were 4 other mushers there at the time and one more coming in. I was gonna go chasin Jason and didn't want to miss him along the way.
On the way back to the car I noticed a couple of the oldtimers were putting on an animated story time for the school children. You could have heard a pin drop as the guys spun yarns of mushing trails past. The children were enthralled. What a wonderful field trip for them!
On the way up the trail I had a little bit of time to kill so I stopped down by the shore at Stoney Point to see if there was any blue ice. There was some blue ice but it wasn't as blue as it is some years. Down about 3 or so miles towards the lake the sky was thick from the the difference in air and water temps. The darker skies made for a nice contrast against the beautiful ice.
Now after my stop at the icy shore I started to panic that I'd miss Jason on the trail so it was time to get my butt up there! I made it with at least a half hour to spare.
You never know who you will meet on the trail. I saw the Illinois people had found their way and then I started walking. I had found this wonderfully hilly spot on Sunday and really wanted to get a shot of Jason coming down the hill there.
I was way the heck up the trail probably about a half a mile or so and there was this guy who had one fancy camera out there all set up on a tripod. He had never been to the Beargrease before or photographed dog mushing but he is taking an online photography course and his assignment was to photograph motion. I don't even know how he found that spot on the trail but there he was.
I did say earlier that there is no warning when a musher is coming. You cannot hear them and with terrain like this you can't even see them coming! This makes shooting a picture very tricky and you have to be fast! The camera guy didn't hear or see them coming but I got a glimpse of ears bouncing up and down and we had time to turn on our cameras. You only get one chance at a shot and they're gone about 9 miles an hour.
I joked with my shooting partner, "they won't stop for pictures, especially when they are in first place"! Then I did proceed to tell him about the one musher that did in fact, stop on the trail one year so I could take a picture after stepping in a waist deep hole and crashing down with my camera in one hand and tripod in the other! I was quite the sight and he was laughing. I took his photo as he was waving and smiling and I thanked him profusely and then he was on his way. My new shooting partner confessed to stepping in that very same hole that morning after I told him my story.
And that's when I spotted the Husky ears coming up the trail
I should have waited another fraction of a second. There are no do overs, but this one turned out OK.
I yelled "See you at Billy's!" and Jason asked how far it was and I yelled "an hour and a half!". Which as it turned out as just about to the minute.
My new shooting partner later asked me if I heard or saw the dogs first because he didn't see them till I yelled "here they come"!
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Billy's had a lot of excitement that afternoon. In recent years the way they had the trail set up, the winner would come in early on Wednesday morning around 7:30-8:00. This year they added miles and changed rest requirements and that changed everything. It was because of this change that I was able to enjoy the Two Harbors checkpoint that morning. All that went on there used to happen in the middle of the night.
Because it was the middle of the day there were lots more spectators than usual at Billy's bar too! Usually it is just a handful of us diehard fans huddled around waiting for word, not wanting to go inside where it's warm and take a chance on missing anything.
The usual bonfire was burning...
Among the crowd of press and photographers Harmony Barron and Oksana waited near the finish line for daddy. Someone walked up with a Finish flag and pronounced "there has to be a Finish flag at the finish" I'm not sure what that was about but it looked good there.
We got the 5 minute or so warning that Jason was coming to the finish. I had a spot right there next to the news camera's. Suddenly everyone in the crowd wanted to stand at the finish so I was glad I took my spot early.
Jason appears from around a corner and the crowd is cheering.
We have a winner folks! Not just a winner but a 2 year in a row winner!
Oh wait! Umm...Jason, let's move the dogs forward a few feet so your sled can cross the finish line. You can't be declared the winner until your sled crosses the line! 
Harmony and Oksana and Jason get in a big family bear hug during the cheering then Jason tends to the business of giving his dogs some praises.
First praises go to the lead dogs,for without an excellent lead dog a musher is, well...just mush.
Jason's lead dogs are like rock stars in the canine world. Aren't they beautiful! You can even tell the black and white one is smiling a little. They have been here before and know they have done well.
While Jason gives each and every dog some thanks and praises, race veterinarians inspect each and every dog and delcares them all in wonderful condition.
And baby Oksana is snug as a bug in a rug sitting in her daddy's sled. I can't help but wonder what she thinks of all of this excitement but I'm sure she knows her daddy did something wonderful.
What a little doll.
I just love a happy ending...
THE END
Monday, May 18, 2009 at 07:11PM 
