GRAND MARAIS — Defending champion Ryan Anderson held his lead going into the final day of the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon as of 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Anderson, a four-time Beargrease marathon champion and two-time winner of the Beargrease’s mid-distance race, from Cushing, Wisconsin, said leading the race this early was unusual for him.
“I’d rather be the hunter, not the hunted,” Anderson said at the Trail Center checkpoint on the Gunflint Trail, the nearly 300-mile race’s approximate halfway point.
Mushers are expected to reach the finish line Tuesday evening at Grand Portage Lodge and Casino. The race started Sunday at Billy’s Bar in Duluth.
Temperatures remained below zero degrees Fahrenheit on Monday, chilly for the mushers but perfect for the dogs.
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“Another cold night tonight and then it sounds like it will be a warm finish,” Anderson said. “Well not warm finish, but warmer finish.”
The temperature in Grand Portage is forecast to be in the high single digits Tuesday evening.
Mushers said the cold temperatures were helping make the trails fast and firm.
“The cold weather has allowed (the snow) to set up real nice,” Tom Gustafson, a trail veterinarian, said Saturday at Trail Center.
Firm snow is generally better for the dogs, and musher Sara Keefer said at Trail Center that she hadn’t noticed any soreness in her dogs yet this year.
That’s meant many teams were still running 11- or 12-dog teams as of Monday evening. Each team must start the race with at least eight dogs and a maximum of 12 dogs. No fewer than six dogs can be used at a time.
“Right now the way things are going, everyone seems to have strong teams so far,” Gustafson said.
While he had hoped there wouldn’t be any scratches in the marathon this year, one of the 17 teams ended up dropping out.
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Martin Massicotte scratched when after he and his team had gotten off course between Sawbill and Trail Center checkpoints. He had been one of the first mushers to leave Sawbill early Monday morning.
Wildfire still smoking
Favorable trail conditions is also aiding the return of Wildfire — the 3-year-old Alaskan husky was injured last year when a snowmobile hit him on a Wisconsin trail, breaking his leg in three places.
He’s racing this year, after several surgeries and rehab, and has become a crowd favorite.
Spectators along the trail know and cheer him on by name. It’s rare for a canine competitor on a team of 12 to have such recognition.
Wildfire is running on Keefer’s team.
“It's almost a miracle,” Keefer said after arriving at Trail Center. “Because we didn't even know if he'd be able to walk again, let alone run again, let alone put on harnesses to pull with a team of other dogs and go down the trail for about 150 miles right now. But he's still in it.”
Keefer, of Burnsville, said she’s keeping a closer eye on Wildfire’s gait, but so far, so good.
In fact, he’s back to his old self.
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“This morning, when I started to wake up the dogs about an hour before leaving (Sawbill), get them standing up with their boots on, most of the dogs just lay back down in their straw and rest because they know it’s still going to take some time,” Keefer said. “But once I put wildfire’s boots on, he could not stop moving around. He was pacing back and forth and he was ready to go.”
“He had the best appetite and he was barking when we were still half an hour from being ready to leave.”
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