Dog sled: An adventure in the icy fields of the Yukon, Canada
I read several adventures, explorers from poles and Antarctica, and I have always been fascinated by the means of transport used that is the dog sled. So I decided to live this experience.
There are several places for dog sledding and I combined with another project, that I have to see the 7 wonders of the modern world and the aurora boreal.
The 7 wonders projects, I had already visited 5 and the 6th was Chichen Itza, in Mexico. See here this project.
One of the best places for this adventure is Whitehorse in Canada.
A little of history
The dog sledding, was a day by day activities for the frozen world regions inhabitans.
There were no roads and the distances are quite considerable. Even today it is widely used, in the most distant and difficult to reach regions, but it was introduced to local tourism, where it is a mixture of sport and fun.
How dog sledding look like?
A sled pulled by dogs known by the generic name of Husky (Sled Dog). The best known are Alaskan huskies, Siberian huskies and Malamutes. The sled can be pulled from 4 to 16 dogs, or more depending on what the purpose is.
The driver is called the musher, which goes in the back.
Yukon huskies are dogs that resemble wolves. They are typical of the polar regions and northern countries like Iceland, Russia and Canada.
Although they are “working” dogs, they really enjoy running and interacting with people. Most are friendly but very strong and if you are not careful they they can hurt you.
You also have be with very sturdy clothes because a jumping on top of you can tear your clothes appart easily.
Control the dogs is not very easy task. Besides they want to run more and more, there are curves on the trail, trees etc. I’ve got several of these obstacles along the way, several falls until I learned.
Whitehorse.
How was the experience of learning to be a Musher.
It was 7 days and 150 km of track, lakes, mountains and forests.
The first day was to learn the basic techniques and meet the dogs of our team. My initial team, in the first two days, was Thunder, Thelma, Vargas and Tuxedo and then was added from Twinkle, to add more strength as the trails are more difficult and longer.
As the concept is not to stroll, but really learn to guide the sled, all activities are done by each one.
Go get the dogs. What can seem like an easy thing but is one of the most difficult because they are totally rested and anxious to run.
Daily activities
- Have to prepare the sled and everything that is going to need for the day.
- Search and feed the dogs.
- Preparar the necessary food for the day.
- On the way back to the camp, feed the dogs.
- Put each one back in their little house.
- Save the sled and used equipment.
My team.
- Thunder: Is a true “monster” has an overwhelming strength, bring him to the Sleigh was a real odyssey.
- Thelma: She is a true lady, she likes a lot of affection and she is cute.
- Tuxedo is a “brat”, likes to run and cause confusion, He never stops.
- Vargas is the good guy, but at the running time of never stops.
- Twinkle is the hardworking lady who does not like the trail. She pulls the sled, but always wants to go somewhere other than the trail.
Some of the used tracks.
- Bonnevile lakes
- Fish lakes
- Wall tent
- Jackson Lake
- Fanklin lake
When it’s time to leave the dogs go crazy. It takes a lot of strength and firmness to control them, if not, they go away and you stay behind. There are staples in the sled that serve as brakes.
Usually you have to stand with both feet on top to stop the dogs. We take some trails in the lake which after the first moments of tension is very pleasurable. Every day we went to more complex and difficult trails, with many climbs and descents.
The penultimate day, we run more than 40 km from an uninterrupted rise and fall, but in one of the most beautiful landscapes of the place. We use the mountain valleys until we reach a lake mud lake, which is about 40 km from the base of the Ranch.
They were days of adventure and white landscapes and wondefull.
The cold is another attraction, within the most “heat” of -5 degrees and the coldest -30 degrees celsius.Although it is not very comfortable, soon the body adapts and you can do everything you need, but of course very well wrapped, because with -30 freezes in minutes.
Unfortunately I could not see the aurora borealis. Every night there was a lot of clouds. Then, I will try for the next in Norway.
Time to go to the heat of Cancun. See more details here.
