Nace Hagemann captured this photo of Ryan Anderson on the trail of the 2015 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. Anderson won this year’s event when he crossed the finish line just before 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Amanda Vogel of Ray competes in the 2015 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon.
Ryan Anderson gets a hug from his wife Missy Anderson at the finish line of the Beargrease Wednesday morning.
Ryan Anderson of Ray is pictured with his team in 2014.
He did it again.
Ryan Anderson crossed the finish line of the 2015 John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon just before 3 a.m. Wednesday to take first place in the 31st running of the event. He also won in 2011.
“The dogs did really, really good,” Anderson told The Journal Thursday. “At the end of the whole thing, we could have kept going.”
The more than 300-mile race was a tight contest between Anderson and his friend and defending Beargrease champion, Nathan Schroeder of Chisholm. Schroeder, a three-time Beargrease winner, finished this year's race about 28 minutes behind Anderson. Schroeder won the event in 2010, 2013 and 2014.
“We had super close times,” Anderson said of Schroeder. “At one point, I was eight minutes in front of him and he made up seven minutes after the Sawbill checkpoint. It was close.”
Throughout the race, only a few miles separated the mushers, but Anderson managed to hang on to an early lead.
“When I came into Finland, which is the second to last checkpoint, I had Nathan by about 10 minutes,” Anderson said. “I figured at that point, I had the faster, stronger team, but we were still 70 miles from the finish line, in my head I figured everything could still change.”
The Ray musher pulled into final checkpoint, about 34 miles north of the finish line in Duluth, about half an hour before Schroeder, but because Anderson had more mandatory rest time, the two left at nearly the same time.
“We go off trail time,” Anderson explained of how a lead is calculated. “At some point, everyone will take the same amount of rest, so we go off our cumulative run time...I was consistently the fastest team, but not by much.”
This isn't the first time the two mushers have run neck-and-neck. Back in 2011, Schroeder had about a 45-minute lead on Anderson, but experienced some trouble with his team on the trail. Anderson was able to catch up to and pass his competition to pull off the win. Schroeder was only about 20 seconds behind.
A different approach
This time around, Anderson adjusted his normal strategies based on the warmer-than-usual weather. Instead of resting at the Sawbill checkpoint, the 33-year-old musher “went on a pretty long run to Finland (checkpoint).”
“I wanted to get as far down the trail before it got too warm,” he said. “It's not usually what I do. There was 6 inches of fresh snow on the trail and we broke through that.”
Because the run was longer, Anderson made the decision to drop one of his team members, a 16-month-old dog.
“I just didn't want to put the dog through that,” Anderson said.
On the same note, Anderson said he was pleased he finished with 11 of the 12 dogs that made up his Beargrease team.
“I got a lot of compliments on how the team looked,” he said, noting he received the Beargrease's Best Kept Team award. “That, to me, was the highlight of the whole weekend.”
Teamwork and success
Anderson said his team looked so good, that not one leader stood out.
“I had five or six leaders in the group, but everyone really stepped up,” he said of his four-legged teammates. “Dolce was one dog I only intended on running one or two legs in the lead, but she ran the whole thing in the lead...All the dogs did great.
“I've been training really hard this year and the dogs did everything I wanted them to do in more. Mentally, they handled it and physically, they held up for it. It was actually really neat to see.”
After making the trip home Thursday, Anderson said he will reevaluate his team and decide who will join him in Michigan's UP 200 set for Feb. 13. Some of the dogs in his kennel can run with the Beargrease team, but others will be more suited for the Hudson Bay Quest later in the season, he said.
“I've got a good team, and I'm excited about it,” Anderson said. “It's starting off to be a good season.”
A different ending
Meanwhile, Amanda Vogel, also of Ray, was disqualified from the race.
Vogel, who was using the Beargrease as her last qualifier for the more than 1,000 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, did not return a call to The Journal in time for this story.
Ryan Anderson of Ray is pictured with his team in 2014.
Local lawmakers and liquor store owners have differing views on Sunday liquor sales.
The idea of offering liquor sales on Sunday is gaining momentum, getting mixed reviews and is expected to see votes at the Legislature this session.
State lawmakers who represent Borderland said they see both points of view when it comes to Sunday liquor sales.
Lawmakers’ view
Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk said he’s historically been opposed to the idea of allowing the sale of liquor on Sunday because liquor store owners and cities with municipal liquor have not supported the idea.
Adding an additional day of labor costs, without the generation of additional sales, has traditionally been the reason for opposition, he said.
“I realize its been pretty popular with the public, but I have to be sensitive to the actual business owners who find themselves having to be open on Sunday,” said Bakk from St. Paul this week. “The fact is, if the competition is open, what choice do they have but to be open or lose customers.”
Rep. David Dill said the Sunday liquor proposal has been brought to the Legislature 12 of the 13 years he’s served. He said he truly understands the opposition of city representatives of municipal liquor stores and small liquor stores to Sunday liquor sale because of the increased costs of an extra day of labor and without a guarantee of increased sales.
However, he said, his constituents in the resort areas want Sunday liquor. While Minnesotans know they won’t be able to get a 12-pack on game day Sunday or to go fishing, visitors to the state wonder “what dark age is this” when they look to buy alcohol on a Sunday.
Dill said he signed on the bill for the first time this year.
“I will wait to see the negotiations and see how I vote at the end,” he said.
This year, however, is the first time the idea has been supported by liquor retailers, which Bakk calls a big box liquor stores. They’re designed to stay open seven days a week. He said lumber stores, retailers and grocery stores disappear from main streets and financially struggle when big box stores move in to a community.
“But the liquor store is still strong under the mom and pop infrastructure,” he said. “With Sunday sales, I predict that will disappear.”
Bakk said there will be a vote this year in the Senate, but said he’s not sure how it will play out. A House vote in 2013 on an amendment on the floor to open Sunday sales brought more than 100 no votes, he said.
“Some faces have changed, the corporate community supports it and House Speaker Kurt Daudt is now in favor, but I would be surprised if there is the kind of change what will flip the position of the House,” Bakk said.
The news media has given the issue a lot of attention in recent weeks. But Bakk said those who imbibe may not realize they could be paying more for that 12-pack or bottle when those increased costs associated with being open an extra day are passed onto the customer.
“Liquor will cost more if they decide to stay open Sunday,” said Bakk. “If people think the convenience is worth that, fine. But when the price of liquor goes up, don’t call me. I can do the math. Add labor to a business and the costs go up.”
Dill said border communities, which face competition from Sunday sales in adjacent states, must be considered.
“The question of whether it will pass, I am thinking there will be compromise more to do with micro breweries, but that’s a long way out yet,” Dill said.
But Dill said Minnesota’s tourism industry plays a key role in the economy of the state, and especially is smaller communities along the Canadian border.
“Have the people in my church called me and want Sunday liquor? No,” said Dill. “If they want a 12-pack they know to buy is Saturday. But the tourists don’t.”
Store owners
Meanwhile, one local liquor store owner said he’s not sure he’d see an increase in sales if his business was open on Sundays.
Jim Leinum, owner of The Jug Liquor Store on Third Avenue, said he “doubted” he’d see an overall bump in sales if his store was open seven days a week.
“If customers need something, they buy it in anticipation of the store being closed on Sunday,” Leinum said. “I don’t think overall there’d be a noticeable increase.”
Personally, Leinum said he’s against repealing the blue law, and said it should be left as is.
“We’re open six days with long hours, we don’t need to be open another day,” Leinum said. “People can go to church with their families on Sunday, I don’t see why it’s necessary for us to be open.”
Leinum said his employees like being closed on Sundays, as it gives them a guaranteed day off. If they were open on Sundays, though, he said they’d make it work, but it wouldn’t be ideal.
“Right now, they like the idea that we’re closed that day,” Leinum said. “Being open on Sundays is not something we would like to have to do.”
North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Canada all permit alcohol sales on Sunday. Leinum said he understands the Sunday liquor sales issue affects border communities differently. However, he said he doesn’t think he’s currently losing any sales from customers going to Canada to buy liquor on Sundays.
Miner’s Inc. owns and operates County Market Liquor next door to Menard’s. Patrick Miner, store director, said he thinks the consumer demand for Sunday liquor sales is going to keep increasing.
“Everything I’ve been hearing is more people are interested in having that convenience,” Miner said. “Our job is to meet the demand that’s out there.”
Miner said he believes the company would see an increase in sales if stores were open seven days a week. The company is already paying energy and refrigeration costs on Sunday when there isn’t anyone there.
“Expenses are happening on Sunday whether we’re there or not,” Miner said. “It would also give us an opportunity to market ourselves better than we do today.”
An extra day of availability means more hours for employees to work, Miner said, which creates an opportunity for employees looking to work more hours. With stores in border towns like International Falls and Duluth, Sunday liquor sales would also eliminate their competitors’ advantage.
“We’ve got competitors who have an advantage being open on Sunday,” Miner said. “This would level the playing field.”
U.S. IJC Commissioner Rich Moy
After years of study, input and effort, the International Joint Commission urges Canada and the United States to spend $8.4 million over the next five years to address concerns in the Rainy-Lake of the Woods watershed.
A comprehensive water quality plan of study, just now delivered to the two federal governments, recommends 32 projects to address the complex water quality challenges facing the Lake of the Woods Basin, which includes water bodies from as far west and north as Lake of the Woods and Shoal Lake to Rainy Lake, and the Rainy headwaters to Basswood Lake on the east.
Completing the projects within the five themes of the study is critical to the future of the basin, said International Joint Commissioners Rich Moy and Richard Morgan in a webconference Thursday.
The plan is intended to support a balanced international approach to water quality management, said Morgan.
"A lot of good science came together for this beautiful, complex and wonderful resource in North America that needs to be protected and we hope the governments recognize that and work with us to move forward on the recommendations," he said.
The plan will take just $1 million per government per year or less over the five years, Moy said, adding he hopes to hear within three to six months from the governments on how to move forward.
"We hope the governments get back to us as quickly as possible," said Moy. "They have been very supportive of us doing the water quality plan of study and supported the past four years of activities within the basin."
The plan of study identifies five themes of concern, and strongly recommends funding for 32 projects and activities to support a balanced approach to water quality management, in response to concerns by governments, researchers, local residents and indigenous peoples about the Basin’s ecosystem health.
The five themes
- Monitoring: One project to provide long-term, consistent data to track trends in nutrients, contaminants and aquatic invasive species. The commission identified this project as a particular funding priority.
- Nutrient enrichment and harmful algal blooms: 11 projects to improve their management, reduce their severity and frequency, as well as the risks associated with the algal toxins they can release.
- Aquatic invasive species: Seven projects to strengthen ongoing prevention measures and pursue control efforts to curb the negative effects of the many invasive species now residing in the basin.
- Surface and groundwater contamination: Seven projects to better understand contamination sources, assess the vulnerability of water resources and establish protective measures.
- Capacity building: Six projects to engage all Basin interests on water quality management and promote greater cooperation among agencies working in it.
Immediate action
Within those themes, the plan also recommends four projects for immediate action to address significant, and urgent risks to the basin’s ecosystem health:
-Project 27: International platform for implementation. This project is crucial to the successful implementation of the Plan of Study and future binational management opportunities.
"Key to the successful implementation of the plan of study is to have a foundation to move from the science to the solutions and we need a commitment from the local governments to implement," said Moy.
-Project 14: Rapid evaluation and implementation of options to manage recent zebra mussel infestation in headwaters areas in Minnesota. Zebra mussels pose a significant, immediate risk to the ecosystem health of the Basin.
"We have no choice on this," said Moy. "We have to do this immediately."
-Component of Project 1: Long-term funding of Wheeler’s Point Gage and designation as a gage of binational significance. This is a critical component for determining ecosystem health in the Basin.
-Components of Projects 5 and 7: Implementation of proven best management practices (BMPs) and removal of solids from effluent. Where BMPs have been identified as effective at reducing nutrient loads from agricultural lands, they should be implemented immediately. Effluent from sewage and wastewater treatment facilities is an important source of nutrients that can impact lakes and rivers. An immediate action to reduce nutrients would be to enhance the capacity of treatment facilities to reduce solids.
U.S. IJC Commissioner Rich Moy
