Cabin in the Woods

This weekend was so busy and full of work on the trail with the dogs. We worked in two trips out to two different cabins and both adventures are worth talking about so I will start with our trip out to Mary Shields cabin first and save our White Mountains adventure for another blog entry.

We didn't have to drive far to hit the trail to Mary's cabin. It was very nice to have trail access right from Nita's house even though we quickly found ourselves on the 'hill of death'!

It was a tricky trail that dropped in elevation pretty quickly. The scenery was very beautiful and the trail looked great but once I thought I had control the hill grew stepper quickly and I almost lost control a few times. Had a nice smack into the brushy willow trees that lined the path and I thought for the thousandth time that I really should pack a set of rough locks for my sled runners! They sure would have come in handy!

I went from eight dogs to seven, to six, to five, to four before I felt like we were able to travel safely. We also had a bunch of weight on the sled and that certainly kicked our downhill momentum up a notch!

Mary was expecting a skier out to her cabin and asked us to help out by bringing out his backpack and a large container of kerosene. I was very happy to do it since we have been heavily focusing on weight training with the dogs but flying down that hill barely in control of my sled had me wondering if it was wise for me to be packing a drum of flammable material!

As soon as we hit the logging road everything leveled out and we were all able to enjoy the trip in a more relaxed manner. I plugged the big boys back in but let Hermes run ahead for a little while longer.

Nita was following behind with Josh on the same sled. We thought they would be able to run that way since they weren't packing any weight in their sled but her four dogs hadn't been on the 20 miler trips we had were doing and were out of shape. We left Josh to run the second team after we came down the hill while Nita and I shared the sled runners on the lead team.

Heading in the trail got better and better and it was so nice to see the trees heavy with snow. Thanks to Nita's observation of the trail and Mary's directions we only had to turn around once. It was a pretty simple turn but there were some minor complications that caused me to bang up my knee pretty bad. Its silly how one minor fall can cause so much pain.

I think I must have hit my knee on the runner just right, came away with a pretty good bruse and a minor ache still present this morning deep in my knee cap that reminds me it will be a few more days before Im physically back to 100%.

Once we came closer to the cabin things started looking very familiar. It was wild traveling the exact same trail I had seen in Mary's video so many years ago. I remember renting it from the library and watching it over and over to pick up tips and tricks on how she ran her dogs.

When we came into the cabin and saw the little details of the inside it was just as exciting as seeing the familiar trail on the way in. The old trap door was still there in the floor, the old cooking stove, the chairs that had been carved out of a single log... it was all so amazing.

Since our trip was only an in and out we didnt stay long but after getting there I wished we could have at least spent the night. Im sure there will be more time for that later on. Our initial intent was to study the trail and check out the property to see if any repairs were needed to the main cabin or the guest house. With Mary's help we hope to set up a few overnights for our out of town clients to have a special journey by dog sled and enjoy a bit of personal history with Mary Shields herself.

The trip out was much harder than the trip in. The dogs still looked great and were ready to head out but when we hit the same hill that we took on the way in it was a lot for all of us to work through. Even though we left most of the weight at the cabin the dogs were struggling with the weight of three people.

We hit that hill hard and most of the time we were half off the sleds or running beside the team. Josh and I took to the runners on the lead team since we had most of the dogs still up front. His tall stride really helped the sled move and I did what I could with my shorter legs pushing or running beside the sled.

The sun quickly went down as we continued our struggle up the hill and even though none of us thought to bring headlamps we worked well through the dark. It wasn't long before a huge full moon was showing on the horizon and in no time it was shining bright over our heads.

The team mushed on and as we leveled out back on the top of the hill Josh took ontrol of the second team while Nita and I rode the lead team back to her place.

The night was so beautiful, the sky so clear and the only images we could see of the dogs were the outlines of their shapes running in the moonlight. The scene was serine and amazingly beautiful...