Beargrease racers having good run

On Tuesday, the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon racers weren't making predictions about who would be first across the finish line today.

"It's a tight race," Frank Moe said at the Devil Track checkpoint. "It's fun being part of that mix. We're having a good run."

Later in the day, Moe would be the third musher into the Sawbill checkpoint, trailing past champions Nathan Schroeder and Keith Aili.

"I'm glad we have a race this year," Schroeder said. "It's going good."

Schroeder said he doesn't care if he finishes first or fourth, as long as he has a good run.

"2011 all I wanted was to win and it slapped me in the face," he said.

Schroeder won the Beargrease in 2010. In 2011 he left the Highway 2 checkpoint nearly 45 minutes ahead of Ryan Anderson. But his team hesitated, and Anderson caught up, passed and finished 20 seconds ahead of Schroeder.

This year, his team is running well.

"They're tough enough to get it done," he said.

Schroeder later left Sawbill with 11 dogs in harness, more than any other musher still in the race. Aili, Schroeder's nearest competitor, left with nine.

Earlier in the day Aili's team seemed to hesitate several times as he left the Devil Track checkpoint. But the short stops looked worse than they actually were, Aili said. The dogs -- who haven't had a lot of long-distance experience -- were stopping to pee, he said.

"They haven't learned to do that before we start," he said at Sawbill. "Once I got them on the trail and they loosened up they ran good. I ran this section faster than Nathan."

"We have a long way to go and a lot can happen," Aili said.

Early in the race teams were hindered by warm temperatures and soft snow.

"That was miserable," Schroeder said.

"They haven't been eating well because it was so warm. Now that it's cooler they are making up for lost time," Odin Jorgenson said.

But with the colder weather came wind and blown snow. Schroeder said breaking trail through drifted snow on Gunflint Lake cost him 20 minutes.

Aili, who ran the Beargrease when it was 500 miles long -- 125 miles longer than now -- called this year's race "one of the toughest Beargreases I've run."

By Tuesday evening four marathon mushers -- David Gordon, Blake Freking, Andrew Letzring and Zoya DeNure -- had scratched.

Camp chores

Doing what they can to make the race easier for the mushers are their handlers.

Some races -- most famously the Iditarod -- require the mushers to do all their dog care and camp chores. Beargrease marathon racers have to do that at the Sawbill checkpoint on the way up the trail. Otherwise, handlers help lighten the mushers' loads by preparing camps at the checkpoints, preparing food, massaging the dogs, putting on and taking off booties, wrapping wrists and numerous other chores.

Handling for Odin and Betsy Jorgenson for the fifth Beargrease is Paul Baumtrog, a Minneapolis firefighter.

"I married Betsy's sister and it came with the ring," he joked.

Actually, like many handlers, Baumtrog enjoys dogs.

"They let us come and play with the dogs for a few days," he said. "We have to take vacation, so it must be fun."

Baumtrog said handling makes him feel like a grandfather to his canine charges.

"You get to play with the dogs, you get to see them at their best," he said. "Then you can send them home with their parents."

Betsy Jorgenson said handlers are vital for taking care of the dogs and mushers.

"If you don't have a good handler team, you have a big deficient," she said.

This year, the Jorgenson's team includes a grandmother helping care for Gunnar Jorgenson, a recent addition to the family.

"We just had a baby in January," Betsy Jorgenson said. "If the race had not been moved (from January to March) this would not have been an option. This is our first baby, so we are getting used to being parents."

In his Beargrease bio, Odin Jorgenson wrote, "I was born into the lifestyle of mushing." So, obviously, was his son.

"The first activity I did with him was scooping poop in the dog yard," Betsy Jorgenson said. "Next winter maybe I'll carry him in the sled, with his dad on the runners."