Breaking Trail

It was not as much work to shovel the gates today since the temperature had dropped, and the new snow was light and fluffy. I tramped out a path for the dogs to run on, but that darned wind just drifted it right over again. I took out a four dog team, putting Luna and Charge in lead and Voltage and Phase in wheel. An all white team today; maybe not the best for visibility with weekend snowmobile traffic.

Just getting off the property was a hard slog for the dogs. I actually had to help by stepping off the runners a couple times. Of course, I sank real deep and had a tough time regaining the runners. We crossed the ditch and got up onto the road which was windswept and hard packed. Down the road a short distance and then through an open gate into the fields. At that point I had snowshoed a path through a fence line and up onto a dike that is well traveled, windswept and packed. Unfortunately, a snowmobile had recently cut through my snowshoe trail, and the dogs followed the newer trail and missed the turn up onto the dike. That was bad because the snowmobile had gone right up the line of the deepest, softest snow, and my four dogs were really floundering.

I am continually amazed at the incredible ability of these dogs. In spite of the small team, the deep snow, and the difficulty of pulling a sled that was sinking and plowing up snow, we made steady forward progress. Once we got to the far end of the field, the trail was smooth and hard through the trees, and the rest of the run was wonderful. Charge did really great. I think Luna is getting tired of having to make decisions in lead, so I will probably give her a break from leading.