Last year’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon champion was Ryan Anderson of Ray, Minnesota. Anderson finished the race in 2 days, 11 hours and 55 minutes, beating three-time Beargrease champion Nathan Schroeder by just 28 minutes. Organizers are hoping for enough snow to start the race January 31, 2016.
After taking several years off from sponsoring the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has returned, offering $20,000 in prize money for the 2016 event.
The 32nd running of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon will begin at Ordean Field at East High School on January 31, at 2 p.m.
Mike Keyport, the Grand Portage Director of Emergency Management, is the great-grandson of John Beargrease, for whom the sled dog marathon is named. Keyport was proud to represent the Grand Portage band and his family in presenting a sponsorship check of $20,000 from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the Grand Portage Lodge & Casino on December 10.
Keyport serves as vice president of the Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Of that role, he stated, “I could never fill the shoes of John Beargrease. I can however give this opportunity my all, so that we can carry on this tribute to such a great man.”
At the presentation, Keyport said, “The community wants to support this race and hopefully with this encouragement other businesses and communities will kind of jump on board and help us out with the marathon.”
County commissioner preparing to race
Among the 15 mushers signed up at press time is local musher Frank Moe, from MoeTown Kennels in Hovland. The News- Herald caught up with Frank after a recent county board meeting where Moe represents the East End of the county as commissioner.
Despite the lack of snow Frank and his wife Sherri have been able to run their dog teams as far as 40 miles in one stretch. The dogs pull ATVs whose motors are running so they can provide some resistance. “If the motors were off (and they were in neutral) the dogs would pull the ATVs too fast,” Moe said.
Of course, without snow the dogs can’t be run that many miles every day or their feet would get too sore, said Frank. Care of the 28 dogs they race takes as little as two hours per day in the summer to as many as 12 hours per day during racing season explained Frank.
Beginning October 1, when the training intensifies, the dogs have raw meat added to their Nutrisource Performance diet. “We purchase the meat from Dan’s Feed Barn in Superior and the Nutrisource from Buck’s in Grand Marais,” Moe said.
Frank’s number one dog handler is his wife, Sherri, who also works as a full-time psychotherapist. “She is such a hard worker,” said Frank. “She says she’s my main dog handler and she says she’s my main handler,” he laughed.
Mark Luttinen is also a regular handler/trainer for the Moes, and he will run a team in the John Beargrease Mid-distance Race this year. “We also have friends that come out and help us when they can, and we are very appreciative of their help,” said Frank.
Two years after getting into the sport, the Moes came to Cook County to race the Fun Run Dog Sled race in 2000. “Going back home [Bemidji] we decided to move here,” said Frank.
Currently the Moes train and replace dogs to get the fastest racing team. “We sell dogs that are two to three years old that aren’t fast enough to make our team,” said Frank. “Often I end up racing against teams that have dogs that were from our kennel.”
To have a speedy team the Moes purchased dogs from mushers who have had a lot of success racing. “We have dogs with blood lines from the kennels of Doug Swingley, Martin Buser, Eddy Steeper and Lloyd Gilbertson,” said Frank, naming four big name mushers with multiple wins between them.
Many local ties to the race
The race is named after Keyport’s great-grandfather, the legendary mail carrier John Beargrease, a native of the Grand Portage Band. Just as John Beargrease did, each musher will be sworn in as an official U.S. Mail carrier, and they will carry mail on the route.
Started in 1980, the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon covers nearly 400 miles of rugged terrain. It is the longest sled dog race in the lower 48 states and it is a qualifier for the most famous sled dog race of all, the Iditarod.
Besides the long race there is a mid-distance event (10 dogs) as well as the Junior Beargrease/Rec Race. This new event is for junior mushers between the ages of 13-17 and will be run with 6 dogs.
So far 15 mushers have signed up for the long race, three of those from Cook County. Beside Moe there is Odin Jorgenson of Jorgenson Kennels and Erin Altemus of Nuannaarpoq Kennel. Eleven mushers are entered into the Mid-Distance Race, with Rita Wehseler of Tofte so far being the lone Cook County representative. Adam Treeful of Grand Marais is one of five entered in the Junior/ Rec Race.
Over the years the county has had three local winners, Kevin Turnbough (now living in Alaska) in 1984; John Patten (now living in Alaska) in 1985; and Mark Black (now living in Alaska) in 2005.
Moe was asked if he was headed to Alaska if he should win the race. “No, I have been building a new house and dog kennel and I can say with certainty I will die there. Win or lose, I’m not moving.”
This past year Jessica Shold was added to the Beargrease Board of Directors. Jessica is the daughter of Duane Shold, a 1972 Cook County High School graduate who used to run sled dogs before moving to North Carolina. Jessica is a photojournalist and works at the Duluth Zoo and has helped with the race for years.
John Beargrease
Born in 1858 in Beaver Bay, Minnesota to an Anishinaabe Chief, John Beargrease and his brothers ran trap lines from Two Harbors to Grand Marais, making regular trips along this line. From 1879 to 1899 John and his brothers carried mail between Two Harbors and Grand Marais. In the winter they made the once a week trip by sled dog, and in the summer by canoe, horses and large boats. John did the majority of mail carrying and he once ran a team of four dogs from Two Harbors to Grand Marais in 28 hours, not much slower than a team of 16 well-trained, well fed dogs can do today. His sled would at times have as much as 700 pounds of mail.
As more people settled along the shore of Lake Superior the trail used by John Beargrease and his brothers was turned into a road, one traveled by horse and buggy, and not long after, the first automobiles of the new era.
John Beargrease died in 1910 after rescuing another mail carrier whose boat was caught in high waves off of Tamarack Point, near Grand Portage. He was buried in Beaver Bay, but he lived his life in both Grand Portage and Beaver Bay.
As for the current racecourse, Frank Moe said he would like to someday see the ancestral trail leading to Grand Portage used again. “That would honor John and it’s a beautiful trail to run.” Currently the racecourse follows the North Shore State Snowmobile Trail and Express Way Trail north to Gunflint Lake and back to Duluth.
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