Saturday, January 08, 2011
HIKE! Eassyyy...WHOA!
Eeassyyy....
WHOAAA!!
Those my friend, are the three key words to know when a musher is driving a dogsled.
While we were in Canada over the new year, one of our planned activities was dogsledding outside of Banff. It was incredible. And incredibly cold. I seriously thought I was getting frost bite in my toes at one point. But despite the frigid cold this was an amazing experience.
When we finally got to the sledding site, we got a quick lesson on how to drive the sled and control the dogs. Yessir, we were going to be the ones driving the sled. I would have though that in order to drive your own dogsled you would need more than a 20 minute crash course, but apparently I was wrong.
After the instructions were given we went to our sled and got settled in. Gavin had actually driven a dog sled before, so he was going to drive our sled during the first half of the trip, while Brian and I got to relax in the sled.
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| Two of the dogs on our sled - Megatron and Optimus Prime |
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| And we're off! |
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| Huskies are feisty and full of energy, they would fight with each other while running |
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| Bears!! |
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| Taking a quick break |
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| Passing another sled |
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| Taking a break - the half way point of our trip |
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| Good boy! |
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| Such pretty eyes |
After we took a break at the half way point, it was my and Brians turn to drive the sled. Big mistake. First, we barely fit on the back of the sled at the same time. Whenever we had to lean into a turn, one of us felt like we were going to fall off. During a slight up hill part, I offered to hop off and run next to the sled, as you are supposed to in order to help the dogs. Second big mistake. I'm not sure what I was thinking as I haven't gone running in at least 6 months (ok, ok, more like 9 mos) and those dogs were going a lot faster than I thought. I ran 10 steps and promptly tripped over the sled and fell on my face.
Dogsled fail.
So, I hoped back in the sled, and enjoyed the ride while Brian did the driving.
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| Heading back to the lake where we started |
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| Dogsledding on the frozen lake! |
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| home stretch |
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| Check out the steam coming off of the dogs! |
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| Good boys! |
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| One blue and one brown eye |
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| Heading to the fire for some cookies and hot cider |
Once we got back to Banff, we rewarded ourselves and warmed up with some truffle macaroni and cheese. Yummmm
Here are the links to all of our holiday photos!
Christmas in Italy
Canada trip - edited
Canada trip - full range of photos
Enjoy!
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So awesome Tracy!! And such gorgeous scenery!! AND your photos are amazing!!! =p
ReplyDeleteThanks Dizz!!
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