Dog Sledding

Sunday, 3^rd January 2016

Staging area

Helping to harness John

Hitching to the sled

First team away

Our team

Frozen lake

Not sure about the cookie

Camping ground 

Mushers

Doggy treats for everyone

No blog yesterday as I wasn’t feeling very well – someone gave me a cold!  While I rested on the coach, said person made the trek to the Home Hardware shop to buy another coffee maker to replace the broken one, and then proceeded to try his best to smash the jug of the new one.  We also celebrated Himself’s birthday last night with a cake – a couple of days early but the last opportunity we would have with the children.

Today, after I filled up on a large number of pills, we set out before sunrise for our dog sled tour.  Immediately after our pick up, we saw a deer mounting the steps to one of the local hotels.  Then, on the outskirts of town, we also saw a herd of elk.  We were taken to Canmore and then up into the mountains – about an hour’s drive – before arriving at the staging post for the tour.  Ten sleds were set out, waiting for the guests to arrive before the dog teams were introduced and hitched up.  Guests were invited to help if they wanted to.  We were expecting to see huskies, but instead were greeted by a motley assortment of huskie crossbreeds, which evidently have a much better temperament.  Our personal musher was Luke, who studied geology at UTas and had worked in Perth, WA, before giving himself a “sabbatical” for a few months.  As Luke was one of two leaders, we were the tail end Charlies of the group, which meant we got to see all the poo that 70+ dogs left on the trail!

The scenery was the usual mixture of stunning mountains and snow covered trees, only this time there was also a lot of hoarfrost on the trees and snows.  It looked very pretty, glistening in the sunlight, but we were assured it could also lead to avalanches.  Our route took us along the side of a Spray Lake, with fisherman sitting on the ice beside their circular holes waiting to catch a lake trout, to a camping ground for our rest break and hot chocolate, together with a cookie.  There were signs aplenty warning of bears, but  we didn’t have to worry at this time of the year.  On the return journey, Les decided to help Luke and stood on the runner behind the sled.  At least by standing up, he didn’t bounce over the icy corrugations which had built up on the track.  The two hours simply few past.