Snowmobiling

Today I rode a snowmobile. It is not one of my favorite occupations. Especially not as a passenger. However, I wanted to see this one trail with Mike before I tried it with dogs. It turns out to be an incredibly scenic route, and Mike assures me it has even better views on a sunny day instead of the blowing snow we had today. I can't wait to run it with the dogs, but the snowmobile was reading 17 miles, which is a bit farther than the dogs are ready for yet. We did a certain amount of backtracking in a confusing spot, so the real mileage is a little less, but still too far for the dogs. There were a couple creek crossings, but they will probably be completely snowed under and frozen by the time I get back there. No problem in any case as the dogs can easily jump across.

After returning from that trail, Mike took off by himself to explore another trail, and I hooked up a four dog team and headed out behind him. I put Olive and Switch in lead since they had both been skijoring with me. Nevertheless, Switch wanted to follow our old ATV route. Olive is not one to impose her will on another, so I stopped the team to give them a chance to think about it. Olive kept looking in the correct direction, and Switch finally figured out where I wanted her to go. After that, the run was flawless. I had Breaker and Current in wheel for a team of all girls.

They were crazy happy and fast for three or four miles. Then I turned them around, and we went slightly slower back home. Olive and Breaker were just happy to be out running, but I think Switch and Current were ecstatic to be hooked up with a team and not out all by themselves with me on skis.

We had quite a blizzard coming back that last mile across the open fields. This is probably going to be a common scenario all winter. Luckily, the two trail options at the far side of the fields both run largely through the trees, so they are more sheltered. I just hunkered down and endured that last mile in the open, knowing that the dogs would unerringly stick to the trail and get me home. It was a really nice run, overall, and I warmed up as soon as we got to the kennel and I could face away from the wind.