Sledding The Coast - iBooks - Eileen Puge - _

Section 1

First Snowfall

Excerpts From: Eileen Puge. “Sledding the coast” iBooks.

Our first snowfall in 1992 came on October 16. For two days, the dogs and I watched as the yard and the street fills up with soft fluffy snow. I'm not sure who was vibrating more, me or the dogs.
As the snow fell, the dogs charged around, jumping off the doghouses and just loving the cool air and the clean snow. At night, all six would sit on the biggest dog house and howl. What a rush to hear them, way off in the distance the resident wolves answer. As if turning off a light switch they all fell silent as one.
There is tons of snow after three days, with that much snow my plan was to take off from the yard. No sooner had I touched the sled, when the snowplow went by. So much for that idea, there is only one thing left to do, plan “B” came into effect. I packed the truck, loaded the dogs and we are off to find a trail untouched by people or machines. My first choice is nothing but 4x4 tracks and large ruts. The second choice, New Remo is perfect, no ruts, or tracks. All that lovely untouched snow beckons us.
By now, the dogs are revving on the red line. I take the sled down from the truck and set up the lines. One by one the dogs are harnessed and put in place. This causes the truck to move up, down, back and forth, rather violently. One of these days I may have to tie the truck down. With one final prayer to the “god of dog sledding crashes”, and we are off. We make it past the first curve with just a few brushes against the trees. I pat myself on the back for the finesse with which I made it through the trees. Next obstacle, a steep hill with a curve, then a creek and finally another hill. On the way down the brake catches and drags chunks of the forest with it. It works well to slow the team down and we make it to the bottom with no tangles. Sadie suddenly decides she doesn't like the water and throws on the brakes. Now we have a tangle, nothing left to do but tell them to get going and hope for the best. We are like a ball of wool all in a knot and Ootsa the youngest is really a mess. In goes the snow-hook and I untangle everyone without a fuss. Calmly, I grab for the snow hook, but it won't budge again, I pull on it and again it doesn’t move. “Oh, oh, I’ve hooked something.” This means I’ll have to exercise a bit of fancy footwork to unhook the snow hook, then get back on the sled, before they power up. With a mighty pull it pops out of the snow, “I did it,” up over the hill we go and back through more trees. We come out of the bush with my hat over to one side of my head, there are twigs and things sticking out everywhere and I felt like one of those balls in a pinball machine. My thoughts are “Fantastic, what a blast, the rest will be a breeze.”
This is sledding heaven, the snow is soft and deep, the dogs are happy and so am I. We met a [“A snowy day on the trail. The team resting and looking quite pleased with themselves. ”] flock of ravens probably the same ones from last year. They welcome us by flying with us for a couple of miles. Slowly they leave us, one by one they go to their roosts, no kills for this pack.
The temperature is rising and the snow is getting wetter, by the time we reach the top of the hill, the first of the rain drops are falling. Everything is going to be harder work for both the dogs and me. At least we’re still having fun. As I look at my watch I realize that it has taken us longer than I expected, this means my husband will be on his way up to check on us. The dogs’ ears are all pointing forward and I bet I know who it is. Yep, there he is skiing up the trail. We are happy to see him and you can see the look of relief on his face. Total chaos as he pulls treats out of his pocket. I get a chocolate bar and the dogs get bits of meat as well as Eatmore Chocolate bars. Once we are finished our treats, we head out again. This time my hubby is riding the runners with me. It is a bit harder to sled with the ruts getting wider by the minute. We do plenty of running to keep up with the dogs and to save the shoeing on the sled.
The truck never looked so good, even the dogs are tired and happy to see it. Just the last hill to get over then home to our houses and some rest.
The next morning when we awoke not a lick of snow was left on the ground; we waited several weeks for more snow. How I longed for the sounds of the sled and dogs in the snow. ‘Oh please, please, please let it snow!