Handling Sled Dogs at the UP200, Part 1

Hello! Hannah here. Riley and I traveled back up to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula recently to handle dogs during our friend Quince Mountain’s (Q) UP200 race. We tried to fit this all in to one post but it was just way too long, so sorry, there will be two parts to this story, again. It’s more or less a day in the life, or weekend, of a sled dog handler at a long distance race.

Now, armchair mushers, before I get any further, I TOTALLY understand now why there are little-to-no updates from the musher/handlers during a race. I only took a handful of photos from the race, because my hands were pretty much always on a dog or dog food, or I was trying to get a nap in while I had a minute. I didn’t even think about opening social media after the first few hours, and didn’t always have cell service either. Some of the photos in this newsletter were taken by me, but some were taken by an UglyDog named Bailey that we met there. Anyhow, back to the race.

The UP200 is a long distance race in the UP that begins in Marquette, MI, travels to a checkpoint in Wetmore, MI, and eventually to Grand Marais, MI. Grand Marais is the halfway point, where mushers then turn around and go back through Wetmore and finish in Marquette.

If you recall, we experienced handling at our first snow race just two weeks prior at the Hiawatha Heritage Dog Sled Race, which was an 80 mile race broken down into two 40 mile segments. We were able to stay at the start/finish line for both legs and there were no checkpoints. The UP200 was different in that it was a 228 mile race with multiple checkpoints and over multiple days. We had to travel along to each checkpoint to bring supplies and care for dogs along the race trail.

We made a majority of the drive up on Thursday. Boo and Pence tagged along for the race because we didn’t have anyone to watch them. We weren’t sure if they would be excited to be back in the sled dog race atmosphere, or end up being bummed that they didn’t get to run and others did. Side note - Pence is an absolute angel when staying in a hotel room. She pretty much just hangs out on the bed. Boo on the other hand takes a while to settle down and listens to all the new noises.

The race began on Friday, February 13th, in Marquette with vet checks around noon. This is where we helped drop all the dogs so that a team of veterinarians could evaluate each dog to make sure they were fit to race. Once they were given the all-clear, we finished preparing the dog’s food and snacks, two sleds, and all other required equipment and supplies.

We then met up with Q’s friend (and our new friend) Aleut, who was going to be driving the truck and trailer to each checkpoint with us and helping with the dogs. Just before 5pm, we arrived at the race start in downtown Marquette where truckloads of snow were brought in to make a trail for the start. When we parked in our assigned spot, crowds of people surrounded the dog trailer and formed lines to go inside and meet the dogs. During that time, we were able to meet a lot of people and answer questions about sled dogs and the race.

Around 6pm, we started harnessing the dogs while Q put booties on them. By 7pm, we hooked the dogs up to the gangline on the sled and worked our way up to the start chute. And by worked our way up, I mean I was basically dragged by dogs while running full speed in heavy boots and a heavy snow suit through uneven snow lol. I was thinking “oh god, please don’t let me faceplant in front of thousands of people who are videoing this”.

At 7:10pm, the countdown hit zero and Q and the dogs zoomed off down the trail while thousands of spectators cheered them on! Unfortunately, we did not take any photos during this time because we were holding the dogs until they took off, but we may get some photos from friends of the start in the coming days. After Q was out on the trail, we watched a few other teams leave.

Q decided to challenge himself and do the first leg of the race unassisted. That means that he mushed the first 68 miles of the race and completed his mandatory 5 hour rest at the first checkpoint in Wetmore without any help. He was not allowed to use any of the facilities or services on site that other mushers could use. Since we were not needed during this leg, we watched the tracker from a warm bed and got some rest, because we knew the next couple days would not leave much time for that.

Saturday morning while we were packing up our gear to go set up the trailer and meet the team in Grand Marais, we got a call from a race official to let us know Q had dropped a dog at the Wetmore checkpoint. He made the decision to leave Loonie there because she developed a little raw spot on her chest where her harness had rubbed. Even though it didn’t seem to bother Loonie and she was still running and pulling hard, he didn’t want the spot to get worse.

Loonie hung out with the vet team and was driven to Grand Marais to meet us. When we arrived, Riley went to get her from the vet team, but she was sleeping well on the floor, so they didn’t want to disturb her. They did however, feed her some treats that apparently made her gas them all out of the room at one point lol. We eventually took her back to the dog trailer with us, where we would care for her the rest of the race.

While we were waiting on Q, we prepared water and snacks for the dogs. The checkpoint had spigots for hot and cold water on the outside of the community center. I filled a five gallon bucket with hot water first. Then, I went to get another bucket for cold water, and out of nowhere all the snow on the roof of the building slid off like an avalanche! There was probably a foot and a half of snow on the roof. It ended up burying the water spigots we were using. I was able to crawl behind the mound of snow and have someone toss me the bucket so I could fill the cold water.

Soon after, Q and the rest of the team made it to the halfway point and checked in at Grand Marais!

We gave the dogs water and food, and bedded them down in straw and blankets to rest. This checkpoint did not have a mandatory time limit for rest, but between here and the next checkpoint, they were required to rest 9 more hours. In the meantime, Q was able to “try to pretend to rest” as he put it, while we kept an eye on the dogs. We also used this time to swap out to a smaller sled for the second half of the race and prepare more food, water, and snacks for the dogs, as well as charge headlamps and phones etc.

While the dogs were resting, the Mush Bus drew quite a bit of excitement. The Mush Bus was a huge charter bus that brought spectators from Marquette to the Grand Marais checkpoint. Prior to the race, I wasn’t sure if spectators would only be at the start, or if they traveled to checkpoints, so it was cool to see people I recognized from the start checking in on the team at the halfway point.

However, when the Mush Bus went to leave, I saw the bus trying to back up. I was parked right behind it, so I ran over and asked the driver if he needed me to move. He said “no, I’m actually stuck, could you let the checkpoint know I need help?” So I went inside to get help. The sun had melted some of the snow into ice in the parking lot throughout the day, so the bus sank a little and then was surrounded by ice and could not move.

At first, a Jeep tried to pull the bus out, but had zero luck. At this point, a large crowd gathered to watch. I suggested that it may be easier if the people got off the bus to make it lighter for the Jeep, but they didn’t want to do that. Eventually, I had to go back and tend to the dogs. While I was working in the trailer, I heard a big roar and applause from the crowd. The Mush Bus was free! Apparently, the people on the bus got off and ended up all pushing the back of the bus to free it. Grand Marais was the only checkpoint the bus went to, as Wetmore was not open to the public. Mushers and teams were mostly there over night each time and they wanted everyone to be able to rest.

After about six hours of rest in Grand Marais, we hooked the team back up to the sled and they took off on their third leg of the race, heading back to Wetmore. Two more dogs stayed behind with us after the halfway point. They were fine, it was just part of Q’s race strategy.

Meanwhile, Boo and Pence hung out in the dog trailer.

Since this is the halfway point of the race, it seems like a good place to leave off for part 1. We’ll be back soon to talk about the second half of the race!

-Hannah, Riley, Boo, and Pence