Day 5 - Bonville Lakes

The fifth day of my snowy week started with a delicious omelet made by Valerie, the woman guiding the english duo. I did as I always do with malleable materials, smeared it on my toast. By this stage the routine was pretty set. Wake up, feed the dogs, feed the humans, scoop the poop, saddle up and head out. OUr destination today? Bonneville lakes. The start of the journey was easy, a short trek through scrub and a sled across Fish Lake. Laird had some trouble convincing the dogs to break from the trail and head out across the lake towards the mountains, but eventually they succumbed to his leadership and pushed their way through the thick snow. It was slow going at this stage, my somewhat overenthusiastic dogs kept needing to be reined in to keep from going up Laird's behind. Upon reaching the otehr side of the lake we followed the trail around the spur of one particular mountian which I forgot to ask the name of, but would be the most hated place in all of that river valley...aside from the outhouse and it's frozen seat, of course...anyway, we had to climb to the top of it. It was such hard going to Laird in the lead that, multpile times, he had to stop, walk back down hill to the six dog teams (Caspar and Claudia) and take one of their dogs to give himself the power he needed to break the trail. The only positive part is that the slope ended, and we eventualy made it to the top where we were able to rest, eat, and drink. At least, the others could, Laird and I had to replace Ella's harness that she had chewed right through, hooking a neckline to hold it together (a neckline is a short peice of cord with a lock at each end used to hook the two lead dogs' collars together, keeping them from running around trees). But what goes up must come down, and the slope on the other side fed my search for excitement and adrenaline pumping action the way only a life threatening situation can.
The next hour or so was of little merit, being mostly just struggling through deep snow across the icy Bonville lakes. A few hills and spectacular scenery made the jouney interesting, and at one stage Laird had to ride ahead to scare a few horses from the trail. Down one short hill I managed to throw myself from my sled, but landed safely in a ditch and was able to get my dogs moving again before Claudia could catch up. A few photos later, we reached the ridge.