And Again With the Skis!

And Again with More Snow!

There was actually a winter storm advisory after we arrived here in Haines Junction and a road travel advisory. Meaning avoid everything except essential travel. But what a spectacular day it’s been in the junction!

 Making fresh tracks on the street outside our little cabin this morning at the predawn hour of 9:30 AM.

Haines Junction Again

 Spontaneously on this rendezvous weekend we decided to head out to Haines Junction again with our friends who did all the planning. This time we’re staying at a pair of cute little cabins called carnivore cabins. Right in the heart of downtown Haines Junction. We arrived in time to head out for another glorious ski. Conditions were perfect. We made a donation to the St Elias Ski Club to help support all their hard work. 

Photo bomb!

Here comes Pinta!






Husky lift!






Chris was having fun. There’s a lot of pics of him smiling. Rod as king of the Mountain- Pinta was playing hard to get!

Even More Snow

Christopher told me that this is the most snow we’ve had in 50 years. He says he heard that on the CBC. I believe it!

And another fun ski. I you wouldn’t think it from looking at Christopher.

 

The temperatures have warmed to lovely spring -5. This thermometer is on one of the trails that we ski around Chadbourn lake.

Yoga With Dogs

Holding down the arm. Hip openers. 

Twist assist. 

Darn Training

While doing some zoom online training yesterday I began damning the heels on a pair of socks. 

Snow! Snow! Snow!

It has been snowing a lot this week. We had a great sunny day on Tuesday. 

That’s the dog over her head in snow. 


This is the view out our bedroom this morning. 

Chadburn Ski

Scapa’s Big Ski

Yesterday I took a couple hours off work at the end of the day so we could take Scapa for a longer ski at the local cross country ski trails. We are always conscious of trying to balance her boundless energy against the advice not to run a young puppy too hard because their bones muscles and ligaments are still growing. Our plan was for a 5 km ski at a sedate pace.

Right out of the parking lot as Christopher hooked up the puppy to her harness and took the brakes off, they were off like greased lightning - uphill through a small crowd of children and other dogs and off into the sunset while I puffed and panted along behind. I eventually caught up with them a couple of kilometres down the trail when the dog had to pull over for a bathroom break. There aren’t a lot of photos because we were both very conscious of this being her first longer ski when there would be people on the trails that we would need to pass with kids and dogs and sleds and I’ll kinds of fun things. It was the people passing us that were the most difficult. Especially the skate skiers who are quite fast. Like our last dog, Scapa thinks she needs faster owners. So she took off after a couple skate skiers when we didn’t have her fully under control. All in all I think it went very well. She was still full of energy by the time we get back to the car so we don’t feel like it was too long of a ski. Conditions were really really fast. After skis at -30, a ski at -3 feels amazing. We were able to ski comfortably with just one pair of longjohns and a sweater on.

This is us stopping at a halfway point. As part of the teaching process trying to get young Scaper to understand that not all dogs need to be greeted.

A Very Cold Walk

First getting dressed

Yep. It is hot once you’ve got all your outdoor clothes on. 

Chris regretted his choice because he was plenty warm but struggled going up the hills with his onesie.

I work Christophers New Zealand made swan dry. I chose wisely.

 The hearts I made earlier this month and hung along the trail are still there.



It was stunningly beautiful, and frighteningly cold. As environment Canada says “frostbite in minutes”.

There’s a puppy in that picture.

Merganser and Ice croc

There was a merganser on the river and Scapa spotted it. 

On the same wal we saw an ice crocodile

Sock Retriever

This morning Scapa was hanging out with us and collected up a sock off the floor. And brought it to Christopher who managed to throw it into the laundry basket, where upon the dog picked it out and brought it back to Christopher! Funny as hell!  She managed to pick out that sock from Amongst all the other socks and dirty laundry in the basket and bring it back. Pretty impressive sock retriever. 

Puppy Pics

During this extended cold spell Scapa gets only two walks a day. Contrast this with her two walks plus at least an hour long adventure and you can understand that she is getting a little bit frustrated.

This is her chewing on her own leg. Which I must tell you is far superior to chewing on my leg. Or chewing on my arm. Or my face. Or my hair. She really does seem to have a preference for animate objects that squee when she chews on them.

The only defence seems to be a good offense. Petting and scrubbing  at her fur.  And redirect her chewing to her own limbs.

And play Patty cakes.