Beargrease Amateur
Radio Coalition

Interested in road crossings? Need more information? You've come to the right place.

To start with, road crossings are not for the faint of heart or those who bore easily. Road crossing operators working the up-bound course usually keep busy most of the time at the crossing. Road crossing operators usually start out by driving to their location, arriving early to scope out the best place to park. After getting positioned in just the right spot to see down the trail, some operators start casually shoveling snow onto the roadway. It is the responsibility of Beargrease to provide volunteers to shovel snow onto the road, but often times BARC members take it upon themselves to help these Non-BARC volunteers. The appreciation you'll receive from the mushers is more than worth your hard work. If you are not up to shoveling or are not healthy enough, don't worry about it, just do what you do best in passing health and welfare traffic to Net Control.

As you see a team approaching, it's up to you if you want to assist the musher at all by stopping any traffic that may be present. Generally, if the musher sees volunteers standing in the road, they will assume it is safe to cross. Here again, it is the responsibility of Beargrease to provide volunteers to help Mushers cross the road, but many BARC members take it upon themselves to help these Non-BARC volunteers. Mushers know that getting their teams across road crossings safely is their responsibility, not ours. If you choose to assist other volunteers or the mushers, do not put yourself in danger. Also, never grab the team or the gang lines of the team without permission from the musher. If the musher asks for help righting the team, be very careful not to step on any paws, as an injured dog can seriously impact a musher's success in the race. Once the team is past, record the musher's bib number and crossing time on your log sheet and call it in to net control. When it's really busy, especially towards the beginning of the race, it is better to save up a few before calling net control.

Road crossings may vary from an in-town crossing with lots of spectators willing to help, to a remote crossing with nothing but you, your vehicle, the woods, and an occasional team. Many road-crossing operators prefer it quiet. It's amazing when those of us who have done it a few times, look back and wonder how we sat for 24 hours at a road crossing without going crazy. Many operators bring some form of entertainment to pass the slow time in their vehicles. Whether that be in the way or CD's, a portable DVD player, laptop, games, etc. If there's a couple of you, why not build a fire and have a nice relaxing evening by the campfire while volunteering. It's the funniest thing for passerby's to see a couple crazies on the side of the road in their camp chairs roasting marsh mallows, but all in the name of having fun. Oh, and don't forget to take a break from the s'mores to call in the teams…

All BARC road crossing volunteers: Please remember that our primary responsibility during the race is to use our equipment and experience to track teams at crossings and to report crossings along with health and welfare traffic. It is not our responsibility at road crossings to stop traffic, shovel snow, or to assist teams across the road. If you choose to perform these activities, it is of your own accord, and at your own risk. Please keep this in mind while working at crossings so that we can remain effective at what we do best, passing health and welfare traffic, and to maintain our own personal safety while working this great event!