Let Freedom Ring

Valley got her first taste of off-leash freedom while we were out skiing on Friday. She's been ok off leash while out hiking, but she is terrified of skis. So she's stayed on leash all winter. After towing me up to the ridge:

I decided that I would let her go, just let her off her leash. She danced the happy jig for about five minutes:




Then the chase began, now I had to catch her again. How do you catch a dog mortified of skis. Well after 3 hours I finally caught her laying down and then just walked up to her using all the calming signals I could. It took 20 minutes after I got out of my skis. When I look at these pictures, it was all worth it.

Out to Lunch

Its not often we get on wide open groomed trails but this
weekend the warm sun seemed like an excellent opportunity to skijor
the dogs out to a lodge for lunch.

Here I am driving the bus, that's Valley towing my beer gut:


The trip from our start in Willow to the Hatcher Pass Lodge is 15
miles one way. So we took breaks.


It takes a while but leave the trees and enter the alpine where we are
greeted by some views:



You can see the wind blows up high and leaves the snow hard or the
tundra bare. This is looking back to where we started.



Hatcher Pass. The lodge, about a mile and a half away, is at the base
of the peak to the right of Valley's head. If you look closely you
can see folks coming up the trail (seen to the right of her head as
well).



And finally our last break before lunch.



what a great spot to go for lunch.