The snow gods are looking down on us

Wow! We have beautiful warm weather (between -5 and -15), plus TWO days of snow. It sure was nice to see, even if it sucks to drive in! An excited musher couldn't ask for anything more. Well, sure I could - new sled, snowmachine, 10 cords of freshly chopped wood, a dogteam that does 30 miles no problem at 15mph, dog poop that vaporizes upon expulsion...oh well, one can dream eh??!

Snowy sled

My friend Laura and her 5-dog team are planning on coming out next week and doing the river loop to the "village" with us, so it was my plan to scope out the trails first. This 16-mile loop is really cool. The "village" is an old First Nation fishing village. There are old structures there, and remains of cabins and caches. One cabin even has a sod roof! In this dilapidated cabin are old clothes still hanging on the walls. It's really like you stepped back in time. There's even old shoes and boots sitting on the ground underneath. This is the Ta'an First Nation land just off Lake Laberge (we all remember the Robert Service poem: "on the marge of Lake Laberge, they cremated Sam McGhee..." poor ol' Sam McGhee...).

Village:


Someone lives on the trail in the summer just before the village and has a nice, decently sized cabin there. When I used to guide clients out there, we'd stop there for lunch, and people really found it interesting. It has a great view overlooking the lake. The cool thing is, is that the owners leave the door open all winter and people are welcome to stay there! Heck, there is even a guest book! But the deal is, that you leave it as you found it. If you start up the stove and use wood, it has to be replaced. That's a good deal for a warm night eh?


This is as we head out on the trail-less Shallow Bay. The wind had completely blow off all the trail markers my neighbor puts out there and we had a HECK of a time locating the trail. The new snow added to the fun by covering the trail as well.
(if you look closely, at the dog in lead on the left: Kate is squatting... guess it was a pee break!?!)