MPR: Organizers Try to Get Beargrease Back on Track

Organizers Try to Get Beargrease Back on Track
by Bob Kelleher
February 4, 2000

Just 10 sled dog teams will head up a trail along Lake Superior's North Shore Sunday for the annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. But new "upstart" events, with much larger purses, may be draining top competitors from the state's premier sled dog event.

Race Results
Follow the race online at www.beargrease2000.com. TEXT

THE BEARGREASE is the grandaddy of the region's sled dog events. Launched in the early 1980s, the Beargrease quickly became the acknowledged training race for Alaska's long distance Iditarod.

But last year, the Beargrease lost its major sponsor, The Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, when the tribe started running the "Grand Portage Passage".

This year's Beargrease Marathon will run with fewer than half the usual teams and few well-known Iditarod veterans. It's no secret why. Without a major sponsor, the Beargrease is offering an $18,000 purse. Two newer races sponsored by Minnesota's Ojibwe Indian bands, let mushers split a purse of up to $100,000.

Mark Black keeps three-dozen over-energized dogs and pups at his rural Duluth home. Black finished sixth in last year's race, and, despite a small purse, he's back for another run.

Black: It's just a long, tough race that you can really tell, if you've got a decent dog team or not by how well you do in the Beargrease. If you can do well in the Beargrease, you can do well in the Iditarod.

There's only one big-name musher in the race this year - last year's marathon winner, John Barron of Willow, Alaska. Duluth's Mark Black says it takes money to attract the top names in dog sledding.

Black: It's simple economics. The top mushers are professionals who make dog sledding their livelihood. Black says prize money hasn't kept up with soaring expenses.
Black: You know, when I first got involved with sled-dog racing, for $1,500 I could have bought six dogs, the harnesses, the lines, the sled and a trailer to pull them around. Fifteen-hundred dollars now buys you a halfway-decent dog.
But it's more than money that's hurting the John Beargrease Marathon, according to Tim White of Grand Marais, a former Beargrease official and current president of the International Federation of Sled Dog Sports.
White: I mean, if you make a lot, win a lot of money, but the cost is that you've injured some key dogs that could have helped you in the Iditarod, then you're not gaining anything.
The Beargrease Marathon's long distance and tough terrain along the steep hills hugging Minnesota's north shore takes it's toll on Mushers and dogs. As a warmup for the Iditarod, the Beargrease may be too challenging.
White: And they don't want to go in a race which is more likely to result in a few key dogs being injured. And the Beargrease, being the length it is, and the trail that it runs, does have a reputation now among many mushers, particularly Iditarod competitors, as being not so dog friendly.

Commentary
The running of the John Beargrease sled dog race has Commentator Nanci Oleson thinking north this weekend. Nanci Olesen is the host and producer of "MOMbo, a mom show with an attitude" which airs on the Pacifica Radio Network.

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The Beargrease now competes with a dozen other regional races. This year, two others were scheduled the same weekend. It was a rare turn of good fortune that poor snow conditions forced races in Hinkley and Aitkin to cancel.

Race officials concede that schedule conflicts are hurting the sport. Grand Portage Race Coordinator Matthew Brown says the big three - Beargrease, Hinkley and Grand Portage, will talk in the off-season to set a schedule that compliments - rather than conflicts - each other.
Brown: We're trying to preserve sled-dog racing and the history of sled dogs. And one of the ways we can do that is by having our race here, and also working with the Beargrease and with Hinkley to make Northern Minnesota here one of the hotbeds of sled dog racing and mushing in general.
Brown says the Grand Portage Band is also helping with cash. The band announced Wednesday they're adding $5,000 to the John Beargrease purse.

Beargrease organizers call this a rebuilding year for the long-distance marathon. Yet a small purse doesn't seem to have hurt the Beargrease's shorter event - a 150-mile race that caters to "hobby" mushers.

The mid-distance race has been growing in popularity with 30 teams set to sprint from Duluth to the Sawbill Trail just two hours after the marathoners leave Duluth Sunday afternoon.

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