9:59 PM
| Sunrise at | 6:39 AM | in direction | 70° | East-northeast |  |
| Sunset at | 9:08 PM | in direction | 290° | West-northwest |  |
Yesterday I wrote about my first mushing lesson. I left my camera at SP Kennel and was able to pick it up today. We were headed out to Chena Hot Springs for skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, or skijoring and a soak - as the mood struck each one of us. So here are the photos from yesterday.
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| Scout and Quito in lead, Cutter, and Chica and Nacho at the wheel |
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| Close up of Scout and Quito |
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| Cutter |
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| Me, thinking I was the Cat's Meow standing behind Chica and Nacho |
Since we were stopping by, we took Cutter out to Chena Hot Springs Resort where Teresa tried him out for skijoring. Later she put him with my son's dog, Arlo, and they ran in tandem. Starting out was a little hard on him. He'd never done anything like this before .. a trip in the back of a car instead of the dog truck, a whole bunch of dogs he didn't know (we had two, Teresa had three and Lorien had one), and then he had to learn a new skill on the fly.
It was fun watching Cutter adjust to this new form of human-dog interaction. He was not happy until we put harnesses on both he and Arlo. Then he identified Arlo as a potential team member and made efforts to get to know him. And, he immediately became more comfortable - "Ah, I know what this is about. These humans aren't totally weird."
Teresa called out "ready, okay" and he was pretty confused at first. It was really cute. He was trotting with her, but looking all around for the rest of the team, the sled, the right kind of gang line. He was not at all sure where he should be going. You could just see him thinking, "ready, okay", but where is everyone? Who is going to lead? She started skiing and he accepted that must be the way to go. Then he saw Arlo (who was so thrilled to be out running, he was blasting off up ahead) and decided that was the direction and took off, just like he knew what he was doing. Arlo was loping. Cutter took it at a steady trot, but pulling hard despite the long length of line.
All in all, it was a very successful trial run. I didn't get pictures of Cutter today, but I have a photo of Arlo and also, a few photos of our two dogs and Jamie's and Teresa's three as we walked a five mile loop near the resort.
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| The hills as the valley narrows into Chena Hot Springs |
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| Lorien and Arlo |
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| Gary, Teresa, and Jamie |
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| Cosmo, a border collie, on lead so he won't herd Roxie. Then big girl Lindy, Roxie, JayJay in front and to the right of Roxie, and Aria to the left above Lindy |
The soak was warm and purifying, as it always is, but sometimes, you really just need to let your body relax, even if you do feel tired later. We stopped for a snack in the restaurant before heading home, and then dropped off Cutter. Jamie took him back to his kennel while I carried his food over to his food dish and Teresa made sure we had returned the harness, bungee cord, and lead Aliy had given us earlier.
It was a great day - absolutely wonderful, warm spring day in the Alaskan Interior.
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