Waving to the crowd at last year’s Gunflint Mail Run was Tofte musher Rita Wehseler. Rita is once again entered this year and will race her team in the eight-dog race. File photo/Laurie Johnson
Fans of sled dogs and the mushers who guide them should head up to Trail Center on Saturday, January 5 to catch the Gunflint Mail Run.
With a full field of 30 teams entered in either the 12-dog, 100-mile race or in the 8-dog, a 65-mile run, there is bound to be plenty of exciting action to watch.
The first 12-dog team will leave the starting line at 8 a.m. The first 8-dog team will go at 9 a.m. By early afternoon teams will arrive back at Trail Center after completing the first portion of the races.
The 8-dog teams will have a three-hour layover while the 12-dog teams will have a five-hour layover.
By evening the 8-dog teams will finish at Trail Center, and by late night (and through the night) the 12-dogs team will finish.
The biggest name in the field of mushers might be 2018 Gunflint Mail Run and John Beagrease winner Ryan Reddington of Skagway, Alaska, who is entered in the 100-mile race.
Local racers in the 12-dog field are Frank Moe of Moetown Kennel, Hovland; Mary Manning of Doodledog Kennel, Hovland; Erin Altemus of Mush Lake Racing, Grand Marais; and former local, Cindy Gallea of Snowcrest Kennel which is located in Wykoff, Minnesota.
Grand Marais mushers racing in the 8-dog field include Andrea DeBoer of Amarok Kennels; Matt Schmidt of Mush Lake Racing and Janna Oberg of Run Silent Racing. Tofte’s Rita Wehseler of Stone Creek Kennels and Julia Cross of Moetown Kennel are also entered in the race.
While the dogs and mushers are featured, no race is successful without volunteers. This year Kathy and Phil Topham came all of the way from Ohio to be volunteer veterinarians for the races.
And while all mushers have a story to tell, a musher from Colorado brings a message of hope with him.
When Steve Peterson gets to the starting line this weekend, he will have a lot on his mind. The chaplain and dog musher from Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies, is coming from Grandby, Colorado to race the 65-mile Gunflint Mail Run.
As a first time contestant, Peterson hopes to bring awareness and raise funds for the Bethany Adams Memorial Fund. He created the fund to honor the memory of his 39-year-old daughter Bethany Adams from Eden Prairie, Minn. who passed away a little over a year ago due to a rare case of triple negative breast cancer.
The goal of the memorial fund is to raise money to send an underprivileged child to YMCA Camp Chief Ouray each year. Donations are being accepted on the Colorado Gives Website: www.coloradogives.org/mushingforbethany, with a goal of reaching $25,000.
In his blog Peterson wrote:
“Training has been challenging this year because we are training for two very different events. While we’re training for the Gunflint Mail Run, we’re also preparing for the tours we do at Snow Mountain Ranch, which are quite different.
“If I hope to be competitive in the race, I need to be running at an average of 13-14 miles per hour and be able to sustain that over 65 miles. Whereas the tours we offer at Snow Mountain Ranch average around 10 miles per hour with frequent stops. Therefore, I train a few days a week running at the much faster speed and increase the mileage along with it, while the other days of the week, I run longer distances at a slower average speed. We’ll see how it works!”
“We’re super excited for this year’s race,” said Race Director Sarah Hamilton. “We’re in our sixth year and we think we finally have things figured out. The trails are well-marked and in great shape, we have enough food, and wood for the fires.
“Our volunteers are second to none. Lloyd Gilbertson is the race judge, Woody Seim and Josh Larson the finish judges, Arleigh Jorgenson is the race marshal, Jane Johnson the secretary, Cathy Quinn the volunteer coordinator, Beth Ambrose the treasurer, Mary Manning is our mushing rep and Rick Johnson is the trail boss.
“We also have the veterinarians who are helping out and a host of other volunteers helping with the race.
“We guarantee a purse of at least $10,000, but even the mushers won’t know what the purse will be until Friday night. Last year I think it was $15,000. I hope people come up to watch. It’s going to be an exciting weekend.”
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