Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Today was our last day and, aside from logistics of packing up and checking out, the main event for me was the optional dog sledding. Four of our group did this and it was really fun. When we showed up, the dogs were chained and not in their harness. Once they saw us, they went nuts, jumping and yelping, moaning and whining in a desperate way. They definitely knew why we were there. The owner took each dog one at a time and hooked them up to the sled’s harness:

Once a dog was hooked into the harness, it calmed down with only a whimper here and there. These are working dogs in the most pure form: they just want to get hooked in and run with the pack. Here are the two lead dogs ready to go:

Once all the dogs (about 8 of them) were rigged up, off we went, one of us at a time on a trail that was about a 7 minute loop. Here are the dogs a second after “launch”:

Since there were only 4 of us, we each got to go twice. This was great for me since I could take my regular camera the first time and my video camera the second. Here’s a view from the sled as we went around a curve:

This next one shows me in the home stretch sitting in the sled. Look at the expressions on the dog’s faces. This is pure play-time for them.

After we were done, we went straight to the airport for our flight back to Winnipeg. That was it for Churchill and the polar bears. We’ve all discussed how we’ll do our next trip here.

– Dave