DEERTON, Mich. (WZMQ) – This is the second year in race history that the UP200 has been canceled. The race in 2023 may have faced dangerous icy conditions, but this year’s cancellation was due to the snow amount.
This is part of the UP200 race trail, just off of M-28 in Deerton. UP200 Trail Boss Mike Sjolund said that by this time (February 2nd), two weeks from what would have been the start of the race, there’s easily 3 feet of packed snow for him and the crews to work on.
It might look like good snow from a bird’s eye view (pictured below), but on the back of the sled, there are less than 4 inches stuck to the ground.
“This year it just wasn’t feasible, after observing those conditions last weekend typically this time of year we’d have 3-4 feet of snow as a bass, I’d imagine about 12 inches of snow, and with the continuing temperatures and the forecast as we have it through the end of next week it was just not gonna happen this year,” said Sjolund.
Yearly, they do face challenges with the trails themselves. Some parts of the trail lead across private land or bodies of running water that need to be maintained. “You can still see the remanence of our snow we probably had 6 to 7 inches of coming across through here,” continued Sjolund.
Even in warm spells like this year, the groomers can sometimes take snow off the edge of the track, giving Mushers at least a little bit of a trail. This year, however, more than 200 miles of running dogs is just not feasible in these conditions.
