Dog Sledding!

One of the best things we did on the trip was go dog sledding. It was such a fun day - we went on Saturday, so we'd had two days full of skiing, and it was nice to not wake up and race to the mountain. Instead, we woke up and geared up to go racing.

Since we were such a big party, we were all of the sleds. There was a guide sled for each parent-guided sled, so we rode with our families for the most part (except for two of the dads, who drove each other in the sled of romance.) Most of the dogs are Iditarod drop outs, though there was one dog who had been on a winning sled. About a third of them are females, most of the dogs are males. They were very friendly to us and the kids and delighted to be petted - apparently when they're doing working with the teams, they become great house dogs (despite how stinky they are, woof.) They're definitely working dogs though! They warned us that there was going to be a lot of barking while they hook up all the dogs, and there was, but once they start running, they go totally quiet, focused on the job ahead (but when we'd stop and pause, back to rolling in the snow or barking at each other.)

It was AWESOME. The scenery was so gorgeous, and it was just such a cool, once in a life time thing to do. Tim drove on the way up - we were the second sled in line. At the halfway point we had hot chocolate and home made cookies, and then Tim and the guide let me drive back. And... I dumped the sled. I caught an edge on a snow bank and couldn't brake hard enough, so I threw my (thankfully helmeted) family into the snow. Ellie was SCREAMING about it and weeping, but was nothing more than snowy, not hurt at all. Poor California kid has never been thrown off a sled before!