A day of dog sledding on Lake Laberge
On Friday, I drove my guests down to Lake Laberge for a day of dog sledding with Cathers Adventures. That despite this weather forecast and many comments online about staying inside and keeping pets indoors!
Arctic gear had been rented for each of our guests to make this adventure possible. Here, well-dressed Ned Cathers stands by to assist in the fairly lengthy process of getting prepared.
Practise makes getting heavy gear on much quicker, so I had lots of time to take photos as well as assisting with boots in particular 🙂
While the humans got ready, 24 patient huskies waited for us. I went down and livened things up by doing my best husky howl, which almost every one of the dogs was happy to join in! 🙂
After the choir practice, there was time for a bit more relaxation before the excitement really started.
The final countdown to getting out on the lake.
The rest of the dogs and sleds arrive from Cathers’ base on the opposite side of the lake.
Let’s go!!!! 🙂
The thrill of starting across the lake is incredible. The dogs were so noisy as we got ready, and as soon as they started working, there wasn’t not a sound, it was all business. We had one person driving each team and one person on the sled bundled up in sleeping bags. After our lunch stop, we’d switch places for the return. I drove the outgoing leg. I love working with the dogs, cuddling the ones who want it before and after a run, (a few don’t, and that’s okay), and talking to them as we travelled along at an easy 8-10 mph pace. We had one little guy in our team who kept looking back as if to be sure that he was doing it right, and I was happy to yell to him that he was doing “Good Work!” 🙂
The last mile or so before our lunch stop in a sheltered bay was bitterly cold as we were going directly into a strong northwest wind – the wind chill might have been even lower than the forecast -44. But I didn’t hear any complaints – everyone seemed to love the adventure.
A broad shot of our camp, taken after I helped a couple of dogs who had gotten tangled in their lines so badly they couldn’t lay down.
Jeremy Van Dyke took care of one of the first camp duties, settling up a toilet in a private spot off in the forest. How to actually use it at these temperatures was a common topic of conversation for a while 🙂
One of the Cathers crew started a fire…
…while the dogs curled up to keep warm and rest.
A bit of foot care being taken care of by an expert.
Frosty and happy 🙂 A few people have told me that they had family and friends tell them that they were nuts to come on this trip – nobody yet has said that their family and friends were right!
A gourmet kitchen, Yukon style. Hot dogs and smokies cooked over an open fire, with hot chocolate and hot apple cider to wash it down. I would like to do it again today, but there’s a race starting at 11!
It was the dogs who decided that it was time to get going again. Listen to them in this short video!
The teams were started out with good spacing – to me it really enhances the experience to not have anyone else really close.
Seeing their pack-mates going got many of the others really excited.
By the time we got back to the parking lot, most people were really tired, but a bit of teamwork soon got everyone into our warm vans for the drive back to the city. As we pulled away, the dogs and crew were heading back across the lake to their base.
I told some of my guests that I’d post this last night but I was too tired, and just had a glass of wine with Cathy and went to bed early.
Today is the event of the tour – the start of the Yukon Quest at 11:00 at Shipyards Park in downtown Whitehorse. We’ll be at the start line by about 9:30, and it looks like it’s going to be sunny and about -31°C (-24°F) for the start – pretty much perfect.
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