Weekend in Grand Marais

Last weekend, we drove up the north shore to Grand Marais to visit Eric's parents. The bonus was that it was the same weekend as the John Beargrease dogsled race and Eric's brother and nephew were also visiting.

I love it up there in the winter because it's so beautiful, but man, it's COLD near the lake (and also away from the lake...especially the day we spent outside at the dogsled race check point in Tofte).

So let's chat about the race and look at some pictures from the checkpoint, shall we?

I had never been to a dogsled race and didn't know much about it at all. I think the only things I knew I had seen in the movie White Fang.

So, the race started on Sunday in Duluth and went up past Grand Marais and then back down to Duluth, with finishers expected on Wednesday. There are more details about it here.

We went to the checkpoint in Tofte, where the mushers had a mandatory 4-hour rest. So we got to walk through the woods and see the dogs resting and eating and prepping to get back to the race.

Here is Frank (who is a musher and also an employee of Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply, the new Stone family venture in Grand Marais) feeding his dogs.

And another pic of Frank's dogs resting before they take off. My favorite is the one sleeping sitting up.













Here is a video I took of one team leaving the checkpoint to continue the race (and turns out, this team actually won!). It gives you a good idea of what it sounds like when the teams are getting ready to go - the dogs get soooo excited!



Here are a few other pics of us (along with Jack, TJ and Nate) at the checkpoint:

And lastly, I leave you with a pic of me and the baby at the harbor. Yep, I'm getting bigger (and this was a week ago)!