UP 200

Friday morning we got up and packed up and headed north to Marquette. This weekend was the UP 200 Dog sled race.

Windy, windy drive. The last stretch from just east of Munising to Marquette was crazy windy, the truck was blowing all over the road and I kept thinking how glad I was that the roads were dry.

Once we got settled in to our motel I took the kids over the the motel that was serving as race headquarters so they could get to see some of the dogs before the race and maybe talk to a musher. Alex found a musher that would answer some questions for him and we looked at 3 dog teams. She had done the midnight run (shorter race) 4 times and this was her first year doing the 200 mile run. She said her dogs were having a really hard time with the wind.

After dinner we all (mom, dad, Matt, Amy, Grandma Ruth, Ben, myself and the kids) all went downtown to the race start to see the teams preparing. The wind gusts were so strong that Maya almost got blown over a few times and Ben just ended up carrying her most of the time we were in more open areas.

The dogs were clearly cold - many of the mushers ended up putting them back in their kennels after feeding them. Some of the ones that were out were hiding under trailers or trucks trying to get out of the wind.

I had a hard time getting pictures of some of the dogs that aren't blurry. Not because the dogs weren't still or my camera setting but because of the wind! The teams that were right at the end in the more open area had some beautiful dogs but I was getting blown over trying to take pictures!