Mushers from Midwestern US and Canada raced beautiful trails at Negaunee (MI) Township Park in the UP200 Dryland Dash held October 12 & 13, 2019. In the 6-dog Rig class, Benjamin Thompson took 1st place by covering the 2.2-mile trail in 00:07:20:41 on Saturday and 00:07:15:07 on Sunday for a total time of 00:14:35:48. Benjamin also captured 1st place in the 4-dog Rig event. A shout goes out to Susan Hoppe who finished the 2-Dog Rig registered breed event. Melissa Omernick took 1st in the 2-dog Bikejoring event, followed by Keith Omernick in 2nd place. The 2-dog Scooter top finisher was Niina Baum and she also placed first in the 1-dog Scooter race. Daniel Bocock finished first in 1-Dog Bikejoring, while Erin Densmore took second in that event. In Mens Canicross Nick Weis ran the 1-mile course each day and blazed a two-day total time of 00:07:32:38. Nine women competed in the Womens Canicross with Erin Densmore crossing the finish with the fastest overall time of 00:09:35:43. Full results are found in the Fall 2019 issue of The Gang-Line, UPSDAs newsletter.
And, oh, how ironic: several of us who shovel snow onto the sled dog trails in February had to chuckle when the UP200 Dryland Dash was delayed an hour on Sunday to remove overnight snow from the trail.
