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The weather looks to be much better this weekend for the 10th annual running of the CopperDog 150, but the recent blizzard will have an affect on this year’s races.
There are now three races included in the event, all of them running out of the gate Friday night in downtown Calumet.
New this year is the CopperDog 25–a 6-dog sprint to Gay–along with a two-stage 8-dog CopperDog 80 to Eagle River on Friday then starting in Copper Harbor Sunday before returning to Calumet.
The major event remains the three stage 10-dog CopperDog 150 running to Eagle Harbor on Friday, then up to Copper Harbor on Saturday, and the final leg on Sunday as the teams cross the finish line in Calumet.
Board member Doug Harrer said the change gives mushers more options. “This year for the 80—it used to be a six dog race—and this year, Jeff and the crew upped it to an eight dog race which should, we’re suspecting, speed up the race just a little bit more to keep it up with the 150 for an afternoon finish in Calumet,” said Harrer.
Because of the heavy snow and snow drifts, the mushers will not be able to run their dogs on some of the back country trails, so Harrer said they will utilize more of the groomed snowmobile trails, shortening the race somewhat.
Snowmobilers have the right-of-way on those trails but they are asked to be aware of the dog sleds–and the race should provide quite the spectacle.
“A lot of these people that come up, keep coming up from year to year just to watch the sled dog race. It’s kind of cool because we’ll be in the middle of nowhere and our trail crew will tell us, ‘yep, there’s snowmobilers parked on the side of the trail just checking out the race, watching it go by’,” said Harrer.
The first team is scheduled to hit the trail Friday at 7:00pm.
