CALUMET, Mich. (WZMQ) – Time is counting down to the start of the Copper Dog 150, the sled dog race that is getting ready to start Friday, March 3rd.
Organizers are busy getting the final touches ready for the race, which kicks off in downtown Calumet. With two other dog sled races being cancelled already this year, the Copper Dog is the last chance for spectators to get out and experience what organizer call a high energy evening.
“A big show, a real big show,” said Doug Harrer, Chair of the Copper Dog Board of Directors. “We should roughly have 1,000-2,000 people, loud music, fireworks at the end. Amped up dogs and excited mushers. Mushers high fiving people as they’re going down the snow road.”
For some of the mushers, bringing back one particular stretch of the race is always exciting, and has the potential to give fans a great show.
“We are actually this year going over Brockway Mountain,” said Tom Bauer, a musher and owner of the Otter River Sled Dog Training Center in Tapiola. “If you can get up on top of Brockway Mountain, and see us cresting Brockway Mountain, and see how excited these dogs are, they’re running all the way up that mountain. Last time I did that, I didn’t have to hardly help at all, they took me right up.”
There will be a meet the mushers period before the races start, and that is the time to talk with mushers and maybe even have a chance to pet some of the dogs.
Volunteers are still needed around the race, and this past weekend they held training for volunteers to learn how to handle the dogs. There are many jobs that can still need to be filled, even if you wouldn’t want to be a dog handler.
“We have things that are nothing to do with dogs if you still want to be a part of it. Like setting up fence, taking down fence, putting up banners, putting up the start gate,” said Harrer. “There’s tons of things, bag checks, you don’t deal with the dogs you deal with the mushers.”
Bauer helped out with the training over the weekend, and said that training the volunteers is a major priority to keep teams safe.
“It’s really really important to me to have the copper dog to be the safest race ever,” Bauer said. “So I come to do what I can to help them with the volunteer training, and they take it very seriously when they train volunteers.”
The opening ceremony for the race kicks off this Friday night at 6 pm in downtown Calumet, and if you want to learn how to become a volunteer, click here.
