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Volunteers! Please Join us for CopperDog Volunteer Appreciation Night

March 19, 2023 No Comments

Volunteers! Please Join us!


SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 2023 AT 6 PM

Copper Country #404 Elks Lodge

Join us at the Copper Country #404 Elks Lodge in Calumet for our Volunteer Appreciation Night!!! It’s the least we can do to show how amazed and thankful we are for the army that makes the CopperDog churn before, during, and after our race weekend!

There will be food, drinks, music, prizes, swag, memorabilia, and most importantly a chance to visit with friends, mushers, volunteers, sponsors, and officials

Join us as we celebrate a now renowned and world class event that is put on by you the volunteer!!! 2024? It’s right around the corner!!

Music by Bob Hiltunen 

The CopperDog is a community effort – without you the dedicated volunteers that show up every year, there would be no CopperDog!

 

Music by Bob Hiltunen 

The CopperDog is a community effort – without you the dedicated volunteers that show up every year, there would be no CopperDog!

Ryan Anderson Wins the 2023 CD150

March 5, 2023 No Comments

Ryan Anderson put in a strong performance to win the 2023 CopperDog 150 on Sunday, March 5th. Michael Bestgen who has run every CopperDog150 race placed second, followed by J.R. Anderson who came in third. Another strong showing by Rita Wehseler found her finishing in fourth place ahead of our fifth place finisher Joanna Oberg. Our local musher and great supporter of the CopperDog, Tom Bauer finished in sixth place. All 17 teams finished the race. Maddie Longpre-Harrer, who grew up with the CopperDog along side her father Doug Harrer, completed her first CopperDog150.

TOTAL TIMEΔ FIRSTΔ NEXTBIB#MUSHERMPHPLACE
10:18:3614Ryan Anderson12.81st
10:24:390:06:035Michael Bestgen12.72
10:36:560:18:200:12:179JR Anderson12.43
11:05:350:46:590:28:398Rita Wehseler11.94
11:13:350:54:590:08:0011Joanna Oberg11.85
11:15:540:57:180:02:191Tom Bauer11.76
11:26:021:07:260:10:082Sarah Tarlton11.67
11:26:411:08:050:00:3915Frank Holmberg11.58
11:34:071:15:310:07:264Bucky Tippett11.49
12:06:091:47:330:32:026Mary Manning10.910
12:06:091:47:330:00:007Lauren Stukenborg10.910
12:21:302:02:540:15:2110Jennifer Freking10.712
12:29:252:10:490:07:5516Brian Kandler10.613
12:31:562:13:200:02:3113Laura Neese10.514
13:11:302:52:540:39:343Blake Freking10.015
13:29:123:10:360:17:4212Maddie Longpre-Harrer9.816
14:07:573:49:210:38:4517Kevin Daugherty9.317

Lynn Witte wins the 2023 CopperDog 80

March 4, 2023 No Comments

Lynn Witte put in an impressive performance winning by a margin of 24 minutes over a tightly contested battle for second place where just a few minutes separated our second place finisher Joann Fortier, our third place finisher Heather Brandon, and Alex Laplante who finished in fourth place

Featured Artist

January 19, 2023 No Comments

The CopperDog mission is to develop charitable, educational, and benevolent activities dedicated to the enrichment, development, and vitality of communities, natural resources, and trail systems in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula through world-class events, creating informational and educational opportunities, encouraging national recognition, specifically with respect to advancing national and international sled dog sports including sled dog racing and an understanding of the historic role of sled dogs in a natural environment.

 

Our ‘Featured Artist Program’ (FAP) goes right along with our mission! The 2023 FAP was open to all Houghton and Keweenaw County High School Students including homeschoolers. With this in mind, the CopperDog Board of Directors is pleased to announce winner of the 2023 FAP;

Trista Berryman from The Official Calumet High School!!! And in her own words;

“Hello, My name is Trista Berryman, a 10th grader at Calumet High School. My piece is titled, “Racing On Orange Gold”, which is a reference to the copper found in the Copper Country. Throughout the piece, I tried to incorporate the colors mint and orange, to represent copper during oxidation, and in its original state. The medium I used was digital.”

The Featured Art will be on the 2023 official race poster, which will be visible throughout the Keweenaw and surrounding areas, as advertising for this year’s race. Each official in the race will also be wearing Trista’s artwork on a badge. In addition, CopperDog may sell the poster to the public as part of our 2023 merchandising efforts, which provides support for this premier community event. The artwork could also be featured on CopperDog merchandise.

The Featured Artist will also be present at the start ceremony in downtown Calumet on Friday night. All monies raised from the Featured Artist sales are considered part of the overall fundraising efforts, which support the annual CopperDog events.

Did we tell you how hard it was to pick a winner from all of our submissions??? It was extremely hard…

We are incredibly proud of our area youth and are also happy to display in this post the two runners up to the FAP – which are no less incredible! Thank you Vanessa and Rain!!

We already can’t wait for 2024!!!

 

 

Runners UP

Vanessa Mosher

Rain Isaksson

ANNOUNCING THE SUPERIOR CROWN SLED DOG SERIES!!!

November 5, 2022 No Comments

Kiko de Melo e Silva, Chief Timer, Board Member ; Saturday, November 5, 2022

Ok, Friday November 4th @ 10:30 AM we promised some off-the-charts news, didn’t we?!?

However, the something-something we are about to share first comes with a challenge! Ready? How fast can you say SCSDS? Try it again! Now faster! Do you have any idea what this acronym stands for? Do you know what you have just said, spelled-out? Could it be Sally Can’t Sing Down State?

 

Look, as far as we are concerned, Sally can sing, dance, or do whatever, anywhere she wants to. Actually, she can even help us do this unveil! So without any further ado; go ahead Sally, pull back the curtain!

 

And so… the Tahquamenon Country Sled Dog Race and the The UP200, Midnight Run, and Jack Pine 30 are teaming-UP with CopperDog to bring you, musher and fan, a brand-new triple-event most-adventurous greatest-challenge taking place in all three regions of Superiorland!! It is with the uttermost excitement and joy that these awesome organizations present you the;

You may have guessed it, a multi-race point-based quest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula!!! Is this cool or what?? Always reinvent-or-die are words we live by!! This series will be as hardy and as defiant as our snowy winters, with mushers having to do three races in less than two months time!! And it all comes with pretty simple rules; mushers must compete in, -AND- complete, three events. They are as follows;

Eastern Region – Newberry (event #1);

10-dog TC – January 7th-&-8th, 2023

Central Region – Marquette (event #2);

12-dog UP200 -OR- 8-dog MNR – February 16th-to-20th, 2023

Western Region – Calumet (event #3);

10-dog CD150 -OR- 8-dog CD80 – March 3rd-to-5th, 2023

For the inaugural year of this challenge, the three institutions have already committed to donating $1,000 each for a purse totaling $3,000. We hope this is just the start of “something-grand” something “world-class” that will always showcase the determination, opportunity, beauty, and history of a place many of us call home – and all while supporting and advancing the sport of sled dog racing. We are driven by the enrichment, development, and vitality of our communities, natural resources, and trails systems. It’s our backbone. With that, the 2023 purse-breakdown, as of today mind you ??, is;

First place; $1,500

Second place; $1,000

Third place; $500

The “Superior Crown” will use a weighted point system that exponentially benefits mushers finishing closer to first place and at the same time ensuring great competition for teams that are battling for the same position independent of where they are relative to first.

Please note the difference in points between the 12-dog, 10-dog, and 8-dog events (see pic below). For simplicity only first through 15th are shown – but the point system applies if there are 15, 51, or 1,551 teams.

The musher with the least amount of points will be crowned the 2023 Superior Crown Sled Dog Series Champion!!! It is also our intent that all participants that complete their three events in the series will receive an unique commemorative patch only available to mushers!! Can you say FINISHER?? It will be a dandy; the design is already in its final stages!

Registration for the CD150, CD80, UP200, and MNR are currently open, including for races not part of the SCSDS!!

Registration for all TC events open on the 15th of November – 12 days from now!! Races already full? Get on the waiting list, there is a very good chance you will still be able to participate! Keeping in mind as well that the UP200 is a qualifier for “The Last Great Race” – The Iditarod in Alaska.

As always, because we can’t say this enough; hats off to our communities across the three regions of da Yoop, the fans, the volunteers, the sponsors, the mushers, and the dogs… Without you we are nothing. Again, thank you!

Here is hoping you are as excited as we are about all this!! Make sure to share this spectacular news with friends and family because this coming winter will be one for the books!!

See you down the trail! We absolutely can’t wait!!

2023 CopperDog races announced – Fourth Race Added!

October 6, 2022 No Comments
Kiko de Melo e Silva

It took almost 3-1/2 months of in-person meetings, virtual meetings, ATV rides, vehicles getting stuck, math (lots of math), paper maps, digital maps, GPS tracking, getting lost, and tons of coffee. But because of the passion that drives this organization is so immense (let’s be honest, endless), all the work up to this point becomes a triviality when you can make an announcement of this sort.

We’ll be tackling this “big-deal news” in parts so there is a clear understanding of what’s in store for our 2023 events. Meaning that you’ll need some time to process this before registration opens on Saturday the 15th of October… ??

FOUR RACES AND A BIGGER PURSE!!!

In the 13 previous events we have had 10 years with two races and three years with three races!! In 2023 we are going bust with four races!! Your read that right!! We are always striving to be more encompassing and “more better” at what we do and provide!!!

So yeah, we are going to have four races in 2023; CD150, CD80, CD30, and CD15. Not only that, the overall purse has increased almost 8% from last year, making it the second largest in our 14-year history!!!

CD150 – 10-dog

$390 registration / $18,400 purse

Calumet to Eagle Harbor – Friday night-run

Eagle Harbor to Copper Harbor – Saturday day-run

Copper Harbor to Eagle Harbor – Sunday day-run

CD80 – 8-dog

$290 registration / $8,400 purse

Calumet to Eagle Harbor – Friday night-run

Eagle Harbor to Copper Harbor – Saturday day-run

CD30 – 6-dog

$190 registration / $3,800 purse

Calumet to Eagle Harbor – Friday night-run

CD15 – 6-dog

$90 registration / $1,700 purse

Copper Harbor to Copper Harbor – Saturday day-run

Registration is October 15th at Noon Eastern Time (11am Central Time)

Exact mileages will be posted before registration opens on the 15th. Questions? Please do ask!  You can email us at: registration[at]copperdog150.com

We will be providing more information about these four races as we get closer to event-time.

 
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