Camping by Dog Sled

Yesterday afternoon we hooked up two 8 dog teams and headed out to John's cabin which is 23km from town. Dawn's team is used to camping out over night so they had no problems but this was the first time Steve ever tried it with his team. He was also using a lot of the puppies from last year so we knew it would be interesting. We also decided to bring along Mika and Nanook and Dawn brought her older dog, Jack, along. The three dogs free ran and hitched rides on the sled when they needed a break. It took us around 2 hours and 45 minutes to get to the cabin. We staked out the two teams on cable lines and took the harnesses off the dogs that enjoy to chew.

Steve and Matt went to chop ice to melt while Dawn and I swept out flies and cleaned dishes for supper. She had made an awesome caribou chili for dinner which we all appreciated. Matt and I introduced Dawn and Steve to the game "Jungle Speed" which Diane had shown us a few weeks ago. Ours finally arrived in the mail on Friday so we were set. We all had a good time and by 11:30pm we were ready to get some sleep. The sun was still lighting up the sky but we were all pretty tired. As soon as we settled down, the dogs started to act up. Fawn began this crazy whining that sounded like an injured seagull and Spike and his brothers went into a frenzy of barking and howling. Jack and Taffy were loose outside to make sure no bears could attack the team and Mika and Nanook slept in my bed. We had lit a fire and by 1:30am it was blazing hot. The girls were panting and I was sweating but just too lazy to get up and open the window. Eventually Matt got up because he was getting attacked by flies waking up from the heat, and he opened the window downstairs.

After it had cooled down a bit we all tried sleeping again. I think I had the most trouble sleeping. I'm a light sleeper to begin with and the flies, dogs and sunlight didn't help. Also, at some point in the middle of the night all of the dogs went into their howling ritual that they usually do in the mornings and after supper time. It didn't last too long but I had to make sure Mika and Nanook didn't start...just in case any of the others were sleeping.

Anyway by 6:00am I was up and hiking around in the bight sun with the 4 loose dogs. I chopped some more wood and started the fire back up but this time only threw on a little bit of wood. By 8:30am everyone was up and enjoying a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bannock, caribou and grapefruit. After that we were stuffed but decided to pack it up and head home so we could all get some sleep.

The trail was a lot faster on the way home because the wind had packed it down during the night and the temperatures dropped a few degrees. I guess the dogs were also anxious to get home to their comfy houses because they continued to pull at a good pace. Steve let Matt and I drive his team home. It might be the last ride of the year.

So, we got back to the dog lot, put all the dogs away, gave them their soup and headed home for some much needed sleep.

Hopefully next winter we can try camping out more often with the dogs.