I think it's funny that in all my years of blogging here, I've never talked about the beargrease! Some will think I am talking about a favorite lubricant of hirstute heavyset gay gentlemen, but no, John Beargrease was a person.
John beargrease and his brothers delivered the mail from Beaver bay (no snickers) to Grand Marais MN up till 1899. There were no roads so they traveled by whatever means were available according to the weather. For a long stretch of winter that meant dog sleds.
Two remarkable things about Mr. Beargrease. He made the mail run once in 26 hours! The crazy thing about that is that he did this in the 1880's! No fancy sleds, just him and 4 dogs. Modern mushers running up to 16 dogs could MAYBE beat that time.
The other story, Mr. Beargrease Loved delivering the mail. After 1899 when the road was opened (still just a horse trail) the mail still went by boat when possible. In a wild storm John rescued a mail carrier whose boat was being smashed against the rocks, he caught pneumonia and died.
I have been able to volunteer at the race start a few times. Can you imagine hundreds of dogs barking and howling. They are so excited because they know they are going to get to do what they love best...RUN. The teams take off one at a time. It is hard work because when you are helping you have to hold the dog still and make sure they dont jump against each other until the gun goes off. If a dogs lines get tangled there is no stopping them. A dog who is tangled will get killed in the first hundred feet. It happens very rarely, but thats why that job is so important.
well, another slice form my neck of the woods. If you are curious
http://www.beargrease.com/index.phpAdding an edit here: the race is about 325 miles