MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) – The UP200 weekend is one of the most anticipated weekends of the year, but there is far more to the weekend’s festivities that extend beyond Friday night. Saturday, February 19 kicked off with the Jack Pine 30.
“It’s a beautiful day to be in Gwinn, Michigan as far as I’m concerned and the trail is gorgeous,” Blair Braverman, a musher who participated in the Jack Pine 30 said. “There were a couple of changes since when I last did it a few years ago and there were volunteers at every road crossing, everyone was so nice. There’s this ice bridge that people have been building for weeks and it was so well built I like didn’t even notice we were going over it. So just an absolute blast!”
“Everybody here seems to know something about sled dogs just growing up around this race and the way the community comes together to put this on or the CopperDog 150, it couldn’t be done without all the people in Marquette coming together the way they do,” Quince Mountain, a musher who participated in the Jack Pine 30 said. “We do this all the time, but we don’t always have people there cheering and then people doing road crossings and people putting on a lunch and it’s so special the way people celebrate these races so we love being a part of it.”
And over in Marquette, some future mushers found a way to get in on all of the action as well by giving the sport a try at the Kiddie Mutt Run.
The weekend’s festivities wrapped up on Sunday, February 20 at Mattson Lower Harbor Park where the UP200 racers crossed the finish line, marking the end of another successful UP200 race weekend. Ryan Anderson of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin took home his ninth UP200 victory, making him the most decorated UP200 musher. Of course in true Upper Peninsula fashion, Anderson tells us the weather gave these mushers a run for their money during the race.
“It was a blizzard, so it was pretty wild,” Ryan Anderson, the UP200 Winner said. “The first run wasn’t bad until probably the last two hours. So, I don’t know what time that was but then the snow started coming and then the winds and it was white out. I could only see the back eight dogs and then the rest at Wetmore was just wind blowing, howling, drifting, and shaking the truck and so it was pretty wild there. It didn’t really subside until maybe halfway through the next run, the winds the snow kind of tapered off but the winds were still howling which was causing a lot of drifted areas but yeah, it was it was tough race.”
For the UP200 Ryan Anderson finished in first place, followed by Wade Marrs in second and Nick Vigilante in third. For extended UP200 results, click here.
For the Midnight Run, Michael Bestgen finished in first place, followed by Joanna Oberg in second place and Larry Fortier in third place out of the 17 teams. For extended Midnight Run results, click here.
For the Jack Pine 30, Erin Schouweiler took home first place, followed by Jerry Trudell in second and Geri Menard in third place. For extended Jack Pine 30 results, click here.
