Welcome to the 2004/2005 sledding season. This year was the worst year for dogsledding I have ever experiences. The season did not start until late January,then we were plagued by ice storms.

      We did have a few weeks of really cold weather with the finest snow, the dogs and I took full advantage of this weather and did a few runs at new remo then onion lake. We managed to take off from the house and return before the snowplow came by. At one time we met the snowplow as they were plowing the other side of the road. Thank goodness we were on the way home, otherwise it would have been a rough ride on gravel.

      New remo was an exciting run, the river had overflowed the ice and was tearing the bank apart. The water was level with the trail in several places. Large trees had fallen across the trail in one section and the sled did not quite fit under them. This caused the handlebars to get jamed under the tree as the dogs pulled and screamed on the other side. So like all mushers who do not want to see their sleds torn apart I put pressure on the handlebar and managed to get the sled under the tree. I did discover that this is not the wisest move, I ended up not having enough time to duck under the tree and gave myself a large whack on the forehead. But that was not the end of it, this run had turned into a real challenge. Just as I cleared my eyes of the stars I was seeing from the large whack on the head , I was looking up at the team. They had climbed over the other fallen trees and the sled followed like a faithful companion, with me right behind them all. So with a prayer and plenty of luck we went over the tangle of trees and onto the trail. I was busy patting myself on the back thinking I was a super hero to stay on the sled and survive a concussion, thats when it dawned on me that I had to do it all over again but in reverse. This had to be the biggest trial of my sleds structure. I figured that if the sled came out of this in one piece then I would be extremely lucky.

      Well believe it or not the rest of the ride to the turn around point was one of the best. The snow conditions were perfect, the dogs seemed to never tire and the scenery was the best. We saw plenty of grouse feathers on the trail and sign of where an owl or hawk had landed to eat the grouse. Soon it was time to turn around and head home , the dreaded downed trees and washed out trail were looming ahead. It was tricky but we did manage to go back over the fallen trees and "yes" I did knock myself on the head again going under the same tree. I tell you my ears were ringing and the stars were dancing infront of my eyes but I had the biggest grin on my face. The sled , the team and I had survived one of the most exciting runs we have had in ages.

      Did I mention that the snow was so powdery and the trail so wild that I did not get any good pictures that day. But the two night photos were taken a few days later at onion lake. The snowflakes were huge and the only reason the pictures turned out is because I had my headlamp on with the flash. I am so pleased with my little olympus digital camera, even with the roughness in the trail the camera took great photos.

      The other three pictures are on our road. Zoeda was in training as a lead so I didn't want to have to many dogs in the gangline. She did really well and managed to stay on the right side of the road and only confused a couple of the commands. With very little snow and it being so powdery again I could not stop and set the camera up for better photos but these are not too bad and you can see we were having fun. Thats the whole idea , to have fun sledding and making sure everyone has a good time.

I apologize for these photos, I used my digital camera to take the pictures ,but I messed them up with a new program I was trying. So I had to scan the messed up photos and put them into the webpage as is. That will teach me to not save the original photos.Many Trails.