Champion of the Gunflint Mail Run Sled Dog Race

 

On Saturday January 9th, Joanna won the Gunflint Mail Run Race in the 8 dog class.  What an amazing day it was!!  John and Joanna got up at 3 am the day of the race so that they could gather things together and drive about an hour on the Gunflint Trail from our home to the race site at Trail Center Lodge.  

But when they looked outside, they heard the wind howling and blowing snow every which way, not to mention that there was already 5-6 inches of fresh snow on the ground.  John was questioning whether he could even see the road to drive to the race in the dark with these blizzard like conditions.  It wasn't likely that the road was even plowed.  Joanna emailed the race coordinators to let them know her predicament and that she might have to scratch from the race.  All the other mushers from out of town had rented cabins to stay in at the race site, so it wasn't a problem for them.

John and Joanna discussed it and decided to wait another hour to see if it lightened up a bit.  At 4 am they launched out with their rig to see what driving conditions were like. Immediately they came across a dead tree that had blown down in the wind and drifting snow in our driveway.  So John had to go back to the garage, grab his powersaw and cut up a tree before going any further.  

Once they reached the Gunflint Trail, about 4 miles from our home, they realized no snow plows had been out yet and they would be breaking trail with their four wheel drive pickup pulling an enclosed 18 foot trailer.  Thankfully a few semi trucks hauling wood to the sawmill  had broken trail for them, but that ended at the sawmill just a few miles up the Gunflint.  

They pressed slowly on wondering if they should try to find a place to turn around and head back home.  But something in their wild and adventurous spirits made them keep going.  They went through an area where the snow was up to one foot deep.  But then as they drew closer to the race site, the snow fall seemed to diminish.  At one point they had to stop and wait momentarily while a car was being pulled out of the ditch.  Apparently it was a person heading to the race as a volunteer.  Finally they pulled up to Trail Center Lodge and Joanna still had time to get her team ready before the start.  

There are two legs to the race.  Each leg is 32 miles long.  The dogs are able to rest in the truck after the first leg for about three hours before leaving for the second leg.  Joanna had to drop one dog who got injured on the first leg, so she left on the second leg with seven dogs as did most the other mushers.  

Joanna's team was in first place after the first leg, but by only a few minutes.  Mike Bestyen was hot on her trail.  John and I went into the Trail Center Lodge where the time keepers were posting the times where each musher had crossed a certain road.  We were excited to see that Joanna was still in the lead and had even lengthened her lead to about 14 minutes.  

Soon we heard the timekeepers holler out that Joanna was on the lake and would be in around 10 minutes.  We hurried down to the lake to watch her come in and help her get the team back to the truck.  She was so happy that they had pressed on to get to the race as the trails were good and she really enjoyed the race.