Just three days before the UP200 was expected to begin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was hit with 14 hours of rain.
At 200 miles long, it’s the state’s longest dog sled race and one of the few qualifiers in the lower 48 states for the Iditarod — which is going on this week in Alaska.
Warmer temperatures had already caused race organizers to reroute thinning sections along Lake Superior, but the rain complicated things on the trail.
“The thin sections just became puddles and then ice, the deep sections, the rain saturated, and when it froze it, turned it to concrete basically,” said Darlene Walch, president of the Upper Peninsula Sled Dog Association. “So the whole thing just became a real mess.”
The race’s original 1990 route went north to south — from Marquette down to Escanaba — but in 2003 the trail was rerouted to stay north and turnaround at Grand Marais, due to insufficient trail conditions in the south.
The problem with the warmer weather isn’t necessarily that there’s less snow — there was plenty of snow in most places along the route this year.
But the fluctuation in temperature that’s what’s most dangerous, “especially in Wisconsin and Minnesota this year, where you get just to warmer temperatures, and then it turns to ice and all the trails just become too dangerous to train on,” Walch told IPR.
And while Walch says that sled dog racing will continue mostly as-is in the short term, she can’t say the same for long term. Climate data suggest that mushing will see some changes in future years.
One impact in particular is the increasing popularity of racing on routes with no snow. “Dry land racing” swaps the sled for a bike or scooter, the snowy trails for dirt tracks, and long distance races for shorter sprints.
Instead of sleds, racers ride on a number of different rigs, most commonly a three-wheeled scooter. But it’s not just the equipment that’s changing. More and more, the classic sled dogs like the Siberian Husky are being run alongside less traditional breeds.
“Purebred class used to be huge in Michigan in the 90s,” said Erica Tieppo, owner of Mother North Mushing, Erica Tieppo. “But as people are adding in more pointer (breeds) and the world is changing to become warmer and accommodate the shorter coated Alaskan mixed breeds, we're also seeing a disappearance of people running purebred Siberians at the same level.”
As the popularity of dry land racing increases, the popular image of dog sled racing could start to change. Bikes and scooters may begin to outnumber sleds, but Erica says she thinks there will always be the iconic images of Alaskan style dog sledding.
Despite all these coming changes, she remains optimistic about the future of dog sled racing.
And if the classic snow bound races continue to dwindle in the Lower 48, Erica says, “I'll probably be looking at Alaska.”
Want more news from northern Michigan? Subscribe to the IPR newsletters.