Husky News

It’s a race that he has yet to complete. Ryan Anderson will get another chance at the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon Sunday.

The race begins Sunday afternoon in Duluth and runs up the Gunflint Trail to Poplar Lake. Anderson said he should complete the race in a few days, by the morning of Jan. 30, he estimates.

He’s begun the race twice before, but has not completed it. The first time he attempted the race he stopped when his dogs became ill. He stopped during the second attempt when one of his dogs was not up mentally for the race, and the other dogs picked up on it, he said. He ended up returning to the checkpoint and quitting the race.

This year Anderson is hopeful that he can finish among the top three racers. But it’s a competitive race, drawing several winners of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, he said. The Beargrease is a qualifying race for the Iditarod.

Anything can happen in the 370 miles of the Beargrease, he said.

The musher is the “captain of the ship” with 12 dogs who have 12 different personalities that must be guided on the trail, he said. The dogs could become ill, or injured along the trail by stepping into a “moose hole” — a moose’s footprint in the snow.

Anderson will start the race with 12 dogs, but can drop a dog at the checkpoints as he continues along the trail. Mushers must have at least five dogs during the race. The dogs Anderson will be racing are part of Husky Creek Kennels, which Ryan and his brother JR Anderson own near Ray.

The Beargrease is known for its hills as the trail winds through the Sawtooth mountain range on the North Shore. The hills can cause sore wrists and shoulders on the dogs, he noted.

But veterinarians at such races use liniments, which are ointments for strains, sprains and injured tendons, and can pinpoint where a dog needs to be massaged if injured, he said.

Training
Anderson has completed the Beargrease mid-distance race several times.

The marathon race has a cap of 30 mushers, which filled quickly. Anderson got into the marathon race after being on a waiting list.

Anderson began training his team for the Beargrease Oct. 1. He begins with the dogs pulling all-terrain vehicles until there is enough snow on the ground to begin pulling sleds.

Preparation for the Beargrease includes physical conditioning and mental training for the dogs, he said. The end result is the team running 50 miles as fast as they can pulling as much weight as they can, he said.

The dogs begin by running four miles and build up to 50 to 60 miles in one run. He runs certain mileages and speeds to get the team to perform at its peak for the Beargrease, he said. The longest leg of the race is about 50 miles between rest and food at the checkpoints.

When teams enter a checkpoint, the older dogs lay down immediately when they see the hay, he said. But the younger dogs are off playing and need to be trained to rest at the checkpoints.

Mushers are required to rest for a total of 32 hours, which means Anderson will run for five to six hours and then rest for four to five hours at the checkpoints.

Anderson’s running a young team this year at Beargrease. To give the younger dogs experience entering the checkpoints, he ran the team at the White Oak Sled Dog Classic in Deer River Jan. 12. He took first place in the 130-mile, 10-dog race class, while his brother JR took second place in the same class.

The team rested for a few days after the White Oak race before training runs of 37 miles and then 25 miles two days later. This week he’s completing shorter runs to ensure that the dogs are “100 percent healthy, happy and fat,” he said.

A way of life
Anderson has been running dog teams since he was five years old. His father, Howie Anderson, was a musher who competed in the Beargrease from 1987-’89. When he was younger, Ryan and his brother JR would take a six-dog team for fun runs on the weekends. One brother would run the dogs one way with the other brother sitting on the sled and then they would switch places for the return trip while their father would run along side them with a race team, he said.

It’s a way of life. It’s all I know,” he said.

But dog sledding is also an addictive sport, he said.

Anderson says he enjoys the solitude of the sport. He travels through the woods in silence and no one knows he’s coming, not even the wildlife. While out on the trail, he sees a lot of deer, some wolves and he’s seen a moose on the North Shore.

The love of animals is what makes it addictive, he said. It’s “overwhelming” to see how much the dogs love to run and how much they will do to please a human, he said.

This is Anderson’s 17th year of competition. He ran his first race in Grantsburg, Wis., when he was 10 years old. The first time he competed in the Beargrease was in 1994 at the age of 12, when he completed a 65-mile recreation class.

Anderson moved to Ray from Pine City in 2002 after high school to dog sled full-time. He works for UpNorth Builders during the summer and quits every fall to compete during the winter months.

“If I’m going to run dogs, then I’m going to run dogs,” he said.

He competes in four to six races every year. Between himself, JR and JR’s wife Anna, they compete in eight to nine races every year.

JR and Anna Anderson are currently in Jackson Hole, Wyo., with 24 dogs for the International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race, which begins Friday. A stage race is when the mushers race in one city, then load the dogs into the truck and move to another city, where they’ll show off the sport, have a banquet and run about 40 miles, Ryan Anderson said.

At the Anderson’s kennel near Ray, they run and breed Alaskan huskies, which are cold-weather dogs bred for speed and endurance. The huskies are in their prime for racing when they are between four to six years old, he said. During the spring, the Anderson’s sell some of their experienced dogs to other mushers.
Is the Iditarod in his future?

“Depends on the day you ask,” he responds.

Every spring he says he’s going to compete in it, but it’s a large time and financial commitment, he explained.

And for now he’s content with the races in the Lower 48.

Who was John Beargrease?

John Beargrease was a mail carrier, who would deliver mail by dog sled between Two Harbors and Grand Marais once or twice a week beginning in 1879.

His fastest trip between Two Harbors and Grand Marais was 28 hours.

Later in his mail-carrying career, he replaced his dogs with two horses. He retired in 1899.

He was the son of an Ojibwe chief named Moquabimetem, who also went by the name of John Beargrease. He had two brothers named Peter and Joseph, who were also known as Daybosh and Skowegan respectively, that would deliver mail with him.

He is listed as dying of tuberculosis in Beaver Bay in 1910, but some people said that he died from pneumonia caused by diving into frigid Lake Superior to save another mail carrier named Montferrand.

Source: Minnesota Historical Society