Storm Mushing!

[Glacier]

I always enjoy your photos. Can you please explain, where are you, what am I looking at in the first photo? Is it a lake you are on? It is such a wide open space, I wonder what is there in the nice ("warm") weather!

Yes, that's a lake. A fairly small one, but a lake nonetheless.


This is what it looks like in early June from my kayak.

How do you stay on the sled and take a photo?

That camera is a point and shoot Olympus. I put it on the action mode before I leave. I keep it inside my parka so the battery doesn't freeze. I keep one hand on the drivebow at all times. If it's even a little bumpy, I hook my free arm around the drivebow. If it's really rough or a steep dowhill, I don't even try to take pics.

When you turn the team and sled, that is making a wide arc, isn't it? So with all that open space, I guess I don't know what you mean "looking for a place to turn!?"

Turning on the lake would have been relatively easy, but the dogs were still having a good time at that point. We didn't turn around for another four miles or so. That trail is wide enough for two sleds to pass and that's it. Turning a team in that situation is very difficult and requires a very good lead dog. "Come Around" is a difficult command to teach. Paxil can do it and does it well, but I prefer to avoid it if at all possible! The leader has to bring the team in almost a straight line back towards the sled, while keeping the other dogs from getting tangled. The musher has to stay on the sled as it causes a very sharp turn and a snowhook would likely pop out. Watching your team run off without you truly sucks. I waited til we came to a spot where a snowmachine had gone through the trees and followed that track to turn around.