What a way to kick off the new year! On the 2nd, Andrew and I left to go down to the Denali Highway on a training trip with the sled dogs! We covered 220 miles in four days (40 on two days, 60 one day, and 80 the other day). We got a little mix of everything with weather, sun, snow and wind. We saw temperatures from one above to twenty-eight below! We stayed three nights at the Maclaren River Lodge which is about 42 miles from Paxson.
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| These first few pictures were taken on the drive down the Richardson Highway. The wind was whipping over the mountains making them appear blurry with clouds of snow. |
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| Some nice light though! |
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| These pictures are from the second, third and forth days. We started the 40 mile run out to the Maclaren River Lodge as it was getting dark on the first day so no pictures from that. The original plan was to bring two snowmobiles along, one for Sonny and one for Andrew. We had to haul so much food for the dogs and gear out there that we needed two utility sleds along that would be towed by the snowmobiles. It turned out that only one snowmobile made the trip so Sonny drove the it with his 14-dog team in front of it, two utility sleds and a dog sled with Andrew on it behind the snowmobile. We added it up and that totaled to be about a one hundred foot train! And the dog food that I mentioned...500 pounds! 400 pounds of pureed frozen meat and 100 pounds of dry kibble. I think we ended up bringing about 100 pounds back home. |
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| I was always in the middle between Sonny and his daughter, Ava, who also races dogs. I had a 10-dog team and Ava had a 12-dog team. |
This was the shadow of Andrew and Sonny's train with just one utility sled here.
Beautiful Mt. Deborah
Here I come....catching up for a moment! Love those happy dogs! You can see them smiling.
Andrew's self portrait with the frosty wolf ruff around his face.
Andrew said we looked like a steam locomotive when he looked back. All the dogs breath was steaming right up and coming back at me on the sled.
A gorgeous day as we headed back to Paxson. |
Ava waving "hi!"
Ravens followed us for miles hoping to see a few meat scraps being left behind.
That is Andrew riding the dog sled being pulled behind the snowmobile. He did drive the snowmobile with back-up gear separately too when Sonny drove his dogs with the dog sled.
My couple of pictures with the little camera. I love the saying, "the view is always the same unless you're the lead dog!"
What an awesome trip!!! Does life get any better?!?!