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Ryan Anderson paced his sled dog team well in the 2022 running of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Anderson took the win, his fourth championship of the prestigious John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Photos courtesy of Paul Sundberg
Ryan Anderson of Cushing, Wisconsin, is the 2022 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon champion. It was the veteran’s fourth John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon win. Anderson took the title in 2011, 2015 and 2017.
After leaving the starting line at Billy’s Bar in Duluth on Sunday morning, Anderson and his team of sled dogs crossed the finish line in Grand Portage on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Ryan was a little more than one hour ahead of second place, Wade Mars, of Knik, Alaska.
The finish wasn’t nearly as exciting as last year’s romp to the line when Erin Letzring’s dog team nosed out two-time winner Ryan Reddington’s team by a scant seven seconds.
However, both Letzring and Reddington dropped out of this year’s race, casualties of the warm weather and mushy snow conditions race. In all, only ten of the 24 teams finished the rugged 300-mile Beargrease Marathon.
Anderson’s winning time was two days, six hours, 26 minutes and 50 seconds. With this win, Ryan joined Jamie Nelson and Nathan Schroeder as the only four-time champions of the Beargrease Marathon.
Two Harbor’s musher Colleen Wallin has a big smile on her face as she nears a checkpoint. Wallin placed third in the race, narrowly beating her son, Ero, who was a couple of minutes behind her in fourth place.
Colleen Wallin of Two Harbors placed third and three minutes later in fourth place was her son, Ero Wallin. Ero took a year off from college and a scholarship to play baseball to pursue sled dog racing.
Grand Marais musher Erin Altemus ran a strong race and placed fifth. Erin’s team crossed the line at the Grand Portage Lodge and Casino one minute behind Ero’s team. Erin was racing her fifth Beargrease Marathon.
The 38th running of the Beargrease had a larger field than in the recent past. More than 60 mushers from Alaska, Canada, and the U.S. were competing in three different races, but the long race would prove to be daunting, with more than half of the field dropping out mainly because of warm weather.
By Tuesday, January 1, fourteen mushers had dropped from the field.
The teams that scratched included last year’s champ, Erin Letzring, of Moquah, Wisconsin, Ryan Reddington, of Knik, Alaska, four-time champion Nathan Schroeder of Goodland, Minnesota; two-time champion Blake Freking, of Finland, Minnesota, and Mary Manning, of Hovland, who had dropped from the race earlier.
Freking pulled his team at the Skyport checkpoint and Reddington, down to six dogs, left the race at the Trail Center checkpoint but not before he tried to make one last a go of it. Ryan left Trail Center at about 4:50 p.m. and he was back just after 5 p.m. a ten-minute run before calling it quits. He said he had one dog that didn’t need to go the whole way, and he was already racing at the minimum limit of six dogs.
Monica Hendrickson, Beargrease spokesperson, said warm temperatures on Monday — 31 degrees — caused the snow conditions to deteriorate. The soft, mushy snow caused dogs to wear out and run slower.
Beargrease 120
Tofte musher Rita Wehseler’s sled dog team was the first team at the checkpoint in Two Harbors, and Wehseler held her lead in the 120-mile race, finishing in first place at the Trestle Inn.
Rita’s winning time for the mid-distance race was 17:18:08.
This was Wehseler’s first win in the mid-distance race. In addition, one of her two lead dogs, Mitre Saw, was awarded the Frank Bishop Lead Dog Award. Beargrease volunteer Patty Prudden created that award in honor of her friend who passed away in 2015.
Wehseler told the Duluth Tribune that she almost didn’t run the race because she didn’t think she had the dogs to be competitive. Two dogs on her eight-dog team are just 16 months old, but they held up and ran fast, said Rita.
Mike Bestgen was second, about 12 minutes back.
Grand Marais musher Joanna Oberg took third place, crossing the line 18 minutes behind Wehseler.
Seventeen dog teams crossed the finish at Trestle Inn, with two teams scratching.
Oberg said the trail was fast and her team was ready to run, but she made a mistake.
“I only took eight dogs to the race.” She said one of her dogs was scratched before the race started because of an infection in its salvia gland. “I was in first place at the first checkpoint, but seven dogs don’t race as fast as eight dogs. So next year, I am bringing an extra dog with me in case one dog can’t go.”
Oberg said she was proud to win an award for taking care of her dogs in the 120-race.
Beargrease 40
Ashley Thaemert placed first in the Beargrease 40 with a time of 2:57:30. Dusty Klaven was second in 14:33. Thirteen mushers finished and three mushers scratched, including Martha Schouwelier.
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