Nancy Ellen Johnson

Devils Lake, ND

Evergreen Kennels began in 1998 with two trained lead dogs and four puppies. Roger and Nancy are now breeding, training, and racing a kennel of 48 sled dogs. "I love the time spent in the kennel and on the trails, training young dogs, and anticipating new teams. I will always be grateful to my longtime coach and good friend, Jamie Nelson. Without her straight-at-you advice and steady encouragement, I would not be where I am today. Thanks also to all the volunteers who make the Beargrease the great race that it is."

Odin Jorgenson

Grand Marais, MN

Odin was born into a mushing family. He has run dogs his whole life but in the last few years has taken up racing. In the summer he works as a carpenter and in the winter splits his time between race training and running his sled building business, Sawtooth Mountain Sledworks, sawtoothmtnsleds.com.

Jason Barron

Lincoln, MT

Jason is a 37 year old professional dog musher from Lincoln, MT. He and his wife, Harmony, and their two children, Oksana and Julian, own and operate Kanabearenterprises. When not training and racing his team, Jason lays awake at night worrying about Global Warming, Universal Health Care Plans, Economic Fairness, Redistribution of Wealth, All of Obama's "Czars", and many other similar issues. If you are curious about where he stands on any of these issues, please feel free to tune into kanabearenterprises.com where you will find a wealth of materials, video, advice, photos, stories and much more. A few of Jason's favorite things: Two sounds - 1st is a light saber firing up (Fully Awesome!), 2nd is a race team gulping Blackwood 7000 out of their pans. Favorite Movie - Braveheart (Totally bawled like a little kid in the end. Freedom!) Favorite Politician - Newt Gingrich (small man crush here!) Favorite Video Game - Bioshock (Wants to visit Rapture!) Favorite Music - Not going to share here - too embarrassing!

John Barron

Boulder, MT

Matt Groth

Grand Marais, MN

Matt and his wife, Hope, have a kennel of 20 dogs. He is a carpenter in Grand Marais, MN. He has been racing since 2004.

Martin Koenig

Seeley Lake, MT

Martin is 57 years old and a self employed machinist. He operates a 35 dog kennel in Seeley Lake, MT. He's been mushing since 1992 and has done everything from sprint, stage, mid-distance to the Iditarod. The Beargrease is missing from the list and he thought he'd give it a try!

Bino Fowler

Bend, OR

It was a friend from Owatonna, MN that introduced this fantastic sport to Bino some 15 years ago. "The Beargrease has long been a dream, so participation in the 2010 event is truly an honor."

Roger Johnson

Devils Lake, ND

Roger is 60 years old and grandpa for 5 1/2 grandchildren. Semi-retired dentist and part-time dogmusher and "I'm a full time husband and "handler" to my very special life partner of 36 years, Nancy. Thank you to the many staff who make the Beargrease happen each year. A very special thank you to the sled dogs, the handlers and the fans who support the race."

Nathan Schroeder

Chisholm, MN

"It's a great race from start to finish!"

Colleen Wallin

Two Harbors, MN

Ward and Colleen have 2 sons and live in Two Harbors, MN. Colleen's main handler is Jerome Lemke. He handles each year and misses his wife and daughter's birthdays so "Happy Birthday Sharon and Kayla". Colleen's handlers are afraid to wake her up at the checkpoints so Ward has promised Colleen jewelry if she wakes up "nice" at each checkpoint! Mike Hoff and Danimal are Colleen's personal trainers for this season.

Matt Rossi

Herbster, WI

Matt Rossi is the Catering Manager at UMD, a Pro Staff member of Native Performance Dog Food, husband, father, and proud grandfather. Matt and his family own and operate Bark River Racing and Rides barkriverracing.com located on the beautiful South Shore of Lake Superior in Herbster, WI. Matt would like to thank his loyal sponsors who help to make it possible for his team to compete. He is excited to participate in the 2010 running and thanks everyone who works so hard to make the John Beargrease the premier sled dog event in the lower 48!

Curt Perano

Queenstown, New Zealand

Curt and his wife, Fleur, moved to the USA in 2007 from New Zealand with their 5 Alaskan Malamutes. They have been working, training and living with Jamie Nelson since December, 2007. Since being there, they have acquired 26 Alaskan Huskies of their own and also another Malamute. They run a mixed Alaskan Husky and Malamute team when training, but for the Beargrease they will run an all Alaskan Husky team.

Frank Moe

Hovland, MN

Frank and his wife, Sherri, recently moved to the Hovland, MN area from Bemidji, MN to spend more time training their 27 sled dogs. This will be Frank's first Marathon. "We want to thank our dog food sponsor Tuffy's/NutriSource."

Blake Freking

Finland, MN

2008 and 2000 Iditarod veteran, 2005 Yukon Quest veteran, and 2004 Beargrease champion, Blake Freking was born in Heron Lake, MN. He began skijoring recreationally with his Siberians in 1991. From 1998-2000, Blake worked with the Anadyr Siberians at Earl and Natalie Norris’ Howling Dog Farm in Willow, Alaska. In the 2000 Iditarod, the fourth event of his racing career, Blake finished 46th of 81 teams. In 2005, he finished 12th in the 1000 mile Yukon Quest! Learn more about the team at jedeyesleddogs.com.

Phil Morrison

Ireland

Phil is a retired Police K9 trainer and handler and has been coming to Minnesota for the past 5 years. After he was introduced to Blake and Jennifer Freking in the fall of 2004, he has been helping them with their amazing canine athletes each year since. "This year I am fortunate to be working with some of the Frekings' young dogs bringing them to their first distance race."

Michael Bestgen

St. Cloud, MN

Michael says he's still working too much! He's at Miller Chevrolet in Rogers, MN. His sponsors would be all of his customers he's sold to over the 24 years while at Miller Chevrolet - "I Thank You All!" He's still doing the Red Neck Retirement Plan. He thinks one day he'll hit the #'s and then Look Out! "Thanks to all of the volunteers and staff for a great race. I still love getting no sleep, freezing, running up hills, eating poorly and just getting beat up!"

Jamie Nelson

Togo, MN

Jamie has been running dogs forever and still enjoys training young dogs to meet their potential. "I'm not going to Alaska this year so I've decided to test this group of 2 year olds on the Beargrease trail!"

Mark Stamm

Riverside, WA

Mark has been breeding his own dogs since 1981 and has been into the sport since 1976.

Tom Roley

Bryant, WI

Shawn McCarty

Ely, MN

While studying the bag pipes in Glasgow, Scotland, Shawn suffered the misfortune of losing a peculiar bet at the greyhound track, the result of which will make him the first person to circumnavigate the globe totally under the power of dogs. He crossed from Galway Ireland to Maine in 2000 in a catamaran pulled by a team of 16 yellow labs (the team originally included 4 chocolate labs but they were eaten by sharks before the first day was over). When he arrived in Maine he traded his labs for huskies and headed for the Bearing Strait. However, it turned out to be rough going. Running dogs is much different than swimming them so progress was slow. Worse yet, Shawn had not bought a new compass when he arrived in America, so he was navigating with his old metric compass from Europe, and being unaware of this fairly serious problem, he found himself in Minnesota instead of Alaska. He has been working at White Wilderness since 2006 to save money to resupply (the first thing he will buy is a new compass) and continue on. He hopes to complete his circumnavigation by 2050.

Peter McClelland

Ely, MN

Peter runs White Wilderness Sled Dog Adventures located in Isabella, MN. He and his wife have 100 dogs, 2 kids, 2 ponies and a cat. They enjoy the north woods from berry picking, fishing and wild ricing in the summer and in the winter they provide sled dog experiences for all who come. But year round - "the dogs are the anchor of our lifestyle".

Bruce Langmaid

Blackstock, ON

Bruce has lived with dogs his whole life and was introduced to sledding 25 years ago. He has never looked back. He has raced his dogs from as far East as Maine and as far North/West as the Yukon. He owns and operates Oakridge Dog Boarding in the off season. He lives on a 100 acre forest just outside of the Greater Toronto Area with his wife of 29 years. Their two adult sons are successful electricians in the area.

Rita Wehseler

Tofte, MN

Rita started mushing when she helped Paul Ellering at a race and loved it so much she never looked back! Rita and Bill now own 45 dogs and run a dog sled touring business on the North Shore, stoneycreeksleddogs.com.

Mario Racine

Ste-Cecile-de-Milton, QC

Mario has had sled dogs for close to 20 years, they are his passion. He has worked for 15 years as a printing technician and has a wonderful schedule that allows him to train his dogs quite often. "I have a dream to conquer the Yukon Qwest and I hope to make it come true in 2011."

Rick Larson

Sand Coulee, MT

Rick started racing dogs about 15 years ago. He enjoys training young dogs and seeing what they can do.

Mark Black

Grand Marais, MN

"I have run more Beargreases than anyone. This year will probably be my last one."

Matt Carstens

Whitefield, NH

Matt has been mushing since the winter of 1995. He's completed the Top of the Notch Triathalon. "Check that off of my bucket list. I can't wait to run up those Beargrease hills!"

Denis Tremblay

Quebec, Canada

Paul Ellering

Grey Eagle, MN

Caroline Morin

Sainte-Helene-de-Bagot, CANADA