Marquette, MI – On a bright and sunny Sunday morning at 10:37 a.m., Ryan Anderson from Roy, Minn., came across the finish line to get the win for the UP 200. Anderson has been handling dogs since he was only five years old and started racing when he turned 12. Anderson, a previous competitor of the UP 200, took home his first win with a total time of 39 hours and 27 minutes.
This annual dog sledding event invaded Marquette this past weekend as 33 mushers competed for this year’s title. This approximately 240-mile race from Marquette to Grand Marais and back always throws its twists and turns into the competition and is a qualifier for the famous Alaska Iditarod. This year, the sun was the main enemy. Clear skies with mid 30s during the day and single digits at night changed how the mushers played out the course. To keep the dogs from overheating, most switched to running at night and resting during the day.
With the sunny days and cold nights, the trail continually changed from a very fast course to a slushy and difficult one. However, with most mushers using the fast track at night, they averaged 10 MPH overall on the course. Of the original 33 mushers who began, 23 completed the journey coming in as late as 8 p.m.
Most mushers made it past the finish line before they were predicted to due to the fast morning track as Sunday morning’s sun and 37 degree weather changed the course once again.
The original track used when the UP 200 began in 1988 was actually a lot shorter then the current 240-mile course. The roughly 89-mile course from Gwinn to Munising, is still completed during the UP 200, known as the Midnight Run. This year’s winner was Joann Fortier from Gaylord, Mich., who just happened to also draw bib #1 for the competition.
The event closed out this year with a breakfast awards banquette Monday morning at the Marquette Holiday Inn, the headquarters for the UP 200 event.
With breakfast off their mind, these mushers can now look forward to the first annual CopperDog 150, which will be held in Calumet, Mich., on March 12. This inaugural event brings a fun challenge, as the teams will start in downtown Calumet, head over to Gay, then up to Copper Harbor and back to Calumet.

For more information visit www.copperdog150.com