As most I've been racing and now handling for John Hull whom we run the kennel together.

As a handler you are always wondering where your musher is, at Eagle harbor there was a streaming list of mushers and what crossings they were through.

My request would be to supply the same info [computer stream]at Copper harbor.

My wife and I ran the Elton Eighty for eight years and until your race had never been to one that was ran as well as ours.

Thank you for the race and your time reading this e-mail.

Regards

Ditto on all the positive feedback - I came up to watch and hang out and help if needed. Ended up at Phoenix Farms Rd. for the road crossing there, Friday night. Went to Eagle Harbor, after all the teams crossed, to spend the night and be there for the start in the a.m. Good idea for a later start in EH next year as long as the temps are cold.

My suggestion: Have some way of holding teams in the chute beyond someone standing on the snowhook. A loose 10 dog team will put a big crimp in the festivities. I was holding the gangline for one team in the chute and it was a close call for that team getting away. Lots of different, more secure ways to hold a team for the countdown...there was too much depending on one person's balance and heft to hold that hook in place while the dogs were banging their harnesses.

Can't wait for next year - hope to at least do the 35 miler with my team.

Thanks for letting crew cover this again. We worked and played hard all weekend and were inspired by the community, the racers, and the dogs. We put together a detailed thank-you and shout-out here:

http://www.brockit.com/blog/archives/1396

Looking forward to the next one!

I want to thank you, your Sponsors, Board, and Volunteers for hosting such a great event. You all did such an amazing job of getting things organized and implemented! It was great to be able to work the race, thanks for including me and taking such good care of the vet team while we were there. It was VERY nice to have some warm meals and a place to rest that didn't involve my sleeping bag :)

I hope you will all recover soon from the hard months you have put in.

To the members of the Calumet Township Fire and Rescue, the Lake Linden Village Fire Department, the Sherman Township Fire Department, the Ahmeek Village Fire Department, the Eagle Harbor Fire Department, the Lac LaBelle Fire Department, the Copper Harbor Fire Department and the Keweenaw County Sheriff's Department a big well done!

In addition to providing crossing safety you handled message traffic like you had been doing it all your life and the race organizers appreciated it very much. Within seconds of a bib number and time being radioed in, the information was on the Copper Dog web site. In sled dog racing circles I understand this is quite an accomplishment.

In addition to this being a well received public service event it could also be considered a very large communications training exercise. The fact that it was a combination of fire departments and amateur radio operators working together made it all the better.

I am sure the race organizers are hoping that you will help again next year and would be good enough to send along any suggestions you may have for improvements. One change I am sure will be made is to reduce the number of crossing reports asked for in the early portion of Stage 1. That was a lot of reports in a very short time and you handled it very well.

Thank you very much for volunteering your time and equipment. The race would not have been such a great success without your help.

I know that I do not have the email addresses of all your department members that helped with the race. Please share this thank you with them.

I hope to work with you again next year.

Dick Powers

Hello Tom

I thought I would take the time to thank you and everyone who sponsored, volunteered to put on such a wonderful event.

The downtown start was thrilling and captured the essence of the people who call Calumet home. Besides the race I met many wonderful people and enjoyed talking about the race as well as the town itself.

I participated in the Rec 35, the dogs and I loved the trail, we had a blast. I'm looking forward to next years race and hope to run the 150.

Thank you for providing such a wonderful and competitive event for us mushers and our dogs!

Sincerely,

Phil Ruhl

Thank you !

In EXCEl format, we have a listing of all of the radio amateurs who took part in the 2011 running of the CopperDog150 sled dog races from Calumet, MI.

With the help of the fireman of the area, who operated on the 800 MHz band, and we, amateurs who operated on the Keweenaw Repeaeter frequency of 147.315 MHz, our since thanks.

Thanks to Dick Powers, KA8L, of Copper Harbor who organized all of the fireman and to Gary, K8YSZ of Bumbletown who organized the radio hams.

From myself: I very much appreciated the extra help this year at the Calumet Data Center (former M & M bank), who were, Howard, KD8ABP, and Bill, KD8JAM, who filled in for me, during the early hours each day.

Bill (KD8JAM) provided a feed to the repeater so the audio could be heard there (but disabled the transmit capabilities)

We look forward to an even better CopperDog150 for 2012. We learn a little more each year and it provided all of us an invaluable training exercise.

Our primary job as SAFETY and we had no incidents to report.

A job well done, ladies and gentlemen. We are all very proud of you, and the work you've done as volunteers for this event.

George R. Thurner, W8FWG

Net control at Calumet Hq

Data Processing Center

First of all, I want to thank you for such a great race! I had SO much fun! The trails were well marked and I felt confident I was on the right trail at all times. I was impressed how well organized the road crossings were as well. Most of them didn’t even feel like road crossings, which was amazing and stress free.

If I had to suggest some things to improve, there are a few. None of them are major suggestions as the race ran quite smoothly and comfortably. At the starting chute most people couldn’t hear the announcing that you and the other man standing there were saying. Jackie – handling my lead dogs, couldn’t hear. It could have been just here, but when we were watching the 10 dog teams leaving a block down the road, we heard nothing. It would be nice to be able to hear more of those announcements and things as they are quite interesting. I was thankful that my boyfriend’s mom had been listening to the radio and recorded it with her phone and sent it to me. Very cool!

I liked how at all the different crossing remaining milages were reported. That is very helpful! However, I was told only the 150 miles, not for the 35, so when people told me I had 45 miles left I was thinking, “I hope not!” J I did the math in my head and it was okay, but it was a little confusing at first.

It was great that we had a wide trail for that head on passing part. That was my first time doing that! I was thankful it went okay. The part where we turned around at though, could I suggest making it a bit of a wider turn if possible. My dogs didn’t want to go that way on their own because I don’t think they realized that was the trail and where they were supposed to go, especially after having had a wide trail until that point. I was glad there were plenty of volunteers to help me there.

Those are the only trail/race suggestions that I had. Jackie – one of my handlers made a suggestion to have someone call out who’s coming in at the end of the race. She said they didn’t know who was coming in because no one would tell them. So when I did come in, they weren’t there and ready for me. Also, perhaps a driving map on how to get to those major crossing for spectators that were listed. You had a great trail map, but people who are from out of town, like us, didn’t know how to get to a lot of those places.

Lastly, I wish I could have been at the 35 mile race award ceremony, as I know Jon Mattson would have as well. I just simply couldn’t afford to stay up another night so I had to miss out. Would it be possible to even hold the 35 mile awards Saturday during the layover of the other race so that us who can’t stay up the whole weekend can at least be a part of that races ceremony?

Those are just some of my suggestions. You don’t have to follow any of them or take them seriously J Mainly, I want you to know that I had a great time and hope to do it again next year!!!! Thanks for such a great race, and a great end of the season for me. The downtown start was amazing and quite the experience!

Lisa

I just wanted to pass along that everyone I talked to said that you guys build the best organized race they come to. In only its second year, that is a hell of an accomplishment. I met you a couple times over the weekend in Eagle Harbor and yesterday in Copper, and you 4 sure make it look good – even though I know you’re paddling like hell under the surface.

I sent Ross Fraboni a note yesterday congratulating him on the win.

I told Brad at breakfast yesterday that even though I’m not there year round, I’d like to offer whatever help I can be from a distance. Emailing and phone calls or whatever. I had a blast volunteering, and would love to get more involved in an event that brings some great publicity to the Keweenaw. My sister and brother-in-law and his parents run the Eagle Harbor Inn, and my folks have a place in EH as well, so I’m there often.

Great Job to all of you guys. And despite your comments yesterday to all of us volunteers in Copper, I didn’t address my email to ‘hey jerk’ – even though you’d get it anyway!!

John Bryant

National Manager|Global Aviation Services, LLC

Todd:

Know you are an extremely busy man these days, but just wanted to say what an incredible job you did with everything involved with this year's race....from the website (which is an undertaking in itself), to having checkpoint times listed and available on Facebook (and my phone), from each and every step of the race....and now to already having the dates chosen and the timer counting down on the CopperDog website to next year's race....what a class act!!! Just can't get any better! But it will be....know that already because I'm sure feedback posted will help tweak out any concerns. I introduced myself and my husband to you last Saturday up in Copper Harbor and we enjoyed working the entire weekend. Won't be able to attend the gathering at the Calumet Theater next week as we are 3 hours away (Rhinelander, WI), but you can definitely count on us for next year! Only wish I was closer....I would be glad to volunteer for any other committees where you needed help!

Again, thanks for such a tremendous effort and well planned event. We think of Calumet as our second home, love the area, and loved being a part of this great event. You have definitely started something great!

Sue Zettler

This was the 4th race I was in this year and from my mushing point of view, I thought it did/had everything all the other races did (White Oak, Beargrease, Wolftrack), but it was one notch better. There were more volunteers than Beargrease, and they were almost invisible until we needed them, then there was an army of them. The trail was marked perfectly and there was something new to a race trail I hadn't had in any other race, a technical challenge, which was exciting, challenging, and fun. During the musher meeting some mushers said the drop section might be too harsh during a bad snow year and I agree, but in good snow, I thought it was a fun challenge and my dogs went through it perfectly. A couple mushers made comment of the mileage in the race legs being too long, and I think if anything, lengthening the 3rd leg so it matched the other two right around the 50 mile mark would be great. We trained our dogs to run 50 miles because of this race, and they ran 50 miles just fine.

I am new to racing dogs, but I have been racing bicycles for a long time now, and I think trying to change a race to fit into someone's personal needs is a terrible/unfair idea. The Copper Dog 150 was a race we registered for, looked at what it was going to take to be competitive, and we trained the dogs the best we could for what was coming at us. Every year mountain bike racing is plagued more and more with people who want it to be easier and safer. I realize the athletes in this sport are our dogs and we should make it safe for them, but at the same time I believe it is our responsibility as drivers/mushers to train our dogs and ourselves to be ready for anything a trail has to offer.

Lastly, I know all this is easy for me to say because we had a fantastic race, but even when I've had a bad day at a bike race, I never looked at ways to change the race so as to make my life easier, I find ways to change ME to make that specific event less challenging. The enthusiasm the officials, volunteers, and vets had before, during, and after this race made it the most enjoyable race I've been in yet. Yes the Beargrease has an overwhelming amount of prestige and nostalgia to it, but overall, I felt that the CD150 set the bar a notch above the rest. Thank you for putting on a great event, and I look forward to handling for Troy at next year's CD150.

My husband was a volunteer in Eagle Harbor ( he was the one who set up the water heater) We went to the Eagle Harbor Inn dinner last Thursday. Todd showed a WONDERFUL dvd of this years race and I think you should sell them. I know for one we would definitely buy one.I was talking about it at dinner last night with other volunteers and they said they would buy one also. There were some beautiful shots ( of the dogs, mushers and scenery) and you know how we all love our Copper Country!!

Thank you

Patty and Marlin Wingard

Eagle Harbor

The Good

High energy event involving dedicated high energy people.

A photographer/videographer's dream. Where else can you shoot dogs and great people against the breathtaking backdrop of the Keweenaw?

Wonderful experience interacting with the people in the small communities that make up the Keweenaw.

It is so much fun seeing these dogs getting excited at the start of each stage looking forward to doing what they love to do.

Improve

2010 had more energy at the start. Louder PA might help.

There was also more fanfare in sending out the lead snowmobiles in 2010.

Possibly longer checkpoint in Eagle Harbor, possible later start?

I really enjoyed this race. I ran in the 35 mile recreational race, but we followed the 150 trail for the first 35 miles or so. Great volunteers, great race staff ... Beautiful trail. I can't wait to do the 150 some day :)

Todd great race. One tip might be to start Eagle Harbor at a later time in the morning. Thus enabling spectators to enjoy the start & finish of this leg. Anna Anderson

Being married to a race director proved to challenging this year. But just like last year, when I was in the heat of the weekend, the energy took my breath away. I loved the culmination of all the planning, work, volunteers and resources. I believe in serendipity, and I know that if any one person were not in the place they were this year, the race would not have been the same success. I heard about this race every single day for the past 4 months (and at least once a week before that) and I want to thank every single person that was in the right place at the right time to make this event amazing!

What a wonderful job, can't say enough. All of the mushers thought our volunteer's were top notch. Great Job and hope to see everyone next year.

The Eagle Harbor Community put a fantastic checkpoint together. Not only did they raise funds to sponsor their own checkpoint, but the did what heck of a great job planning and executing it. My hat is off to all of those folks.

The only thing that felt a little off was the schedule. Race teams got in pretty late and the start was very early. I suggest moving the start out of Calumet up 30 minutes and starting Stage 2 out of Eagle Harbor at 9:00 or 9:30PM. Everyone will be better off with more time to eat and sleep.