Yet another windy, snowy run to the village

I'm posting some thumbnail pics now (those are small pictures mom!). They'll save room, but you can click on these smaller images to see a larger version if ya really want to!

This is from the run that Laura and I did the other day. She had a 5-dog team, I took out 8. Yet again, it was a snowy, very windy day, so I opted to leave George (her and her sensitive eyes!), Gracie (who was mighty ticked off we left without her and therefore proceeded to catapult herself at the fence), and Kuna (who also was annoyed). They got their own skijor/run later though. Suck it up I say!! Also, these guys have a tougher time on the harder runs, and I knew this would be one of those.

The first pic is just after we got off that windy river. The other is Laura and her team. In lead is Bella, and the 4 black boys behind are 2 sets of brothers. Nice, big tough guys with giganto feet!! She's borrowing them from a Quest musher, so these guys are steady and can go forever.


The trail markers have been CHAINSAWED into the ice, so those things aren't going anywhere for awhile. Thanks to my obsessive trail making neighbor, the trail was fairly easy to follow, even if most of it was blown over. We ran into a neighbor on snowmachine who had 2 teams with a couple tourists each. Good chance to practice passing. I had Ripper and Kate in lead - Kate is always great at passing and keeping the other dog in check if they're screwing around. I'd never passed teams with Ripper in lead, so I was *hoping* it would go ok. Ripper was even on the side right beside the other dog teams, which is a prime spot for visiting. But they both zoomed by flawlessly. Not even a second glance over. A couple wheel dogs on the other team were straining like crazy to reach over to us, but my guys kept things moving. Ripper is proving he's worth every penny! (ok, I got him for free... but if I DID pay, he'd have been well worth it!!).

Here's the cabin at our halfway point in the 16(but felt like 25)-mile run. Pretty freakin' beautiful eh!?! It has a view overlooking Lake Laberge, and our trail goes right by it.


Laura and I tied the dogs off and gave them some snacks and I walked around the cabin to show her the amazing view from the back. We wanted to give the dogs a bit of a break here. As we were chatting and snapping photos, my dogs were around the corner, acting like the true professionals they are:


Instead of "keeping the line out" and staying straight ahead ON THE TRAIL, my dogs had followed us over and there was Kate & Ripper standing at the door. When in doubt, head for the door... I'm sure they were thinking "ok, we going in now?!?" (Ripper has a new-found love for cabin life)

This is after I *scold* them (while taking pics and laughing my arse off!) as they all sheepishly (and probably dejected since they can't go INSIDE!!) head back to the trail.


Once again it was a crazily windy day and a tough run across the lake, so I wanted the dogs to have a good mental break. I can definitely see an improvement in them since our last run over there though! They weren't too fazed, even though the headwind at times was so wickedly cold and strong I had to turn my back to it!! Jack was in lead with Ripper by then and they both pulled through it. I'm sure we were all happy to be going WITH the wind on the way back.

(This is for my dorky arky/anthro friends who love this stuff!!)
Here's the "village" - it's an old First Nations fishing camp, complete with old cabins (I can't get enough of old broken down dilapidated cabins), a cache:


The last cabin actually has a SOD roof (can't really see it under the snow), and inside hanging on the walls are historic-era clothes and shoes underneath. It's very cool and is just like you've stepped back a century or so. You can see on the left is a fence/chicken-wire thing - looks like an attached chicken coop!! Well... at least they didn't have to walk far for eggs!!