NEWBERRY, Mich. (WLUC) – Sled dogs returned to Luce County for Saturday’s events in the Tahquamenon Country Sled Dog Race.
The two-day event is back after two years of cancellations due to poor snow. Race Marshal Randy DeKuiper says this year’s race is experiencing the opposite.
“Well, we had a bit too much this morning because we had to reroute the trails some because it was blowing in where it was clear-cut,” DeKuiper said.
Racers competed in a 10-dog class going 30 miles or a 6-dog class running 24 miles. DeKuiper says it’s the race’s 25th year, and 44 teams raced in the Headquarters Lake State Forest Campground backwoods.
“There’s a lot of places even in the Upper Peninsula that’s lacking for snow, and people come from a long way,” DeKuiper said. “We got a fella from Maine, from Minnesota and Wisconsin.”
Musher Melissa Omernick says there’s no snow in her area of Wisconsin, and she’s excited to try her first distance race as a long-time sprinter.
“Then we get out here to the race trail, and I felt like there wasn’t anybody else out there, just flowing along with my dogs,” Omernick said. “This country is really, really pretty.”
It was Omernick’s first time participating in this race, and she’s glad she did. She says everyone, including the dogs, was excited to get out into the snow.
“Just snowing like crazy,” Omernick said. “It was really, I don’t know how to describe the feeling. I was so thankful to be here, and I kinda wanted to roll in the snow like my dogs were.”
She says her dogs’ bloodlines were meant to be in the snow, and that’s their happy place.
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