Not long back from 2 nights camping out on the trail. It's quite a mission to move 9 dogs and 6 people 2000m up a mountains. Linda ran the team out, Emma and I doubled up on snowmachine and towed one sled, Al towed 3 sled, the last of which Trent was riding on the runners. It was quite a caravan of people.
Fantastic 2 nights, though I was freezing sleeping out the first night. There is no base to the snow this year so we were post-holing up to our thighs every step as soon as we took the snow shoes off. My boots filled up and through the night froze so hard I couldn't get the back on again in the morning. But, we build a huge bonfire, having clearfelled an area of beetle birch dead fall. And don't think we were roughing it. We had homemade mead produced from Al's own bees, mulled wine, chocolate brownies, curry with nan bread, eggs and bacon for breakfast and endless tea. Trent told us wonderful tales from the Iditarod trail this year. Jim and Mary snowmachined out to join us, bringing more wine and stories of how they arrived in Alaska, by means of a failed folk concert promotion business and the Magic Bus.
Last night we all slept out with the dogs who were tired and happy. Linda and I had run them on a new and exciting route which stays high on a ridge, keeping the spectacular views across the glaciers. The stars came out in the clear, hard frost and the volcano smoked a little off in the distance.
Despite all the winter bear tall tales and moose track, only snowshoe hares came to visit through the night and the straw dogs beds were all we left behind us.
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