Day Three on the Trail

Mrs. Reiter’s fall count: 1

Mrs. Reiter and Mrs. Rizzuto’s broken sled count: 1

Another day full of adventure for R Squared on the trail!  The high today was sixteen with a low of 7 degrees. It pretty much snowed all day long again.

Minnesota’s nickname is “The Land of TenThousand Lakes.”  Our guides tell us there are closer to 15,000 lakes and today we got a good feel for that. 

We dog sledded across frozen lake after frozen lake.  At a couple of places we had to cross a portage.  Essentially, a portage is piece of land that separates two lakes or rivers.  So, if you were canoeing from lake to lake or water to water, when you arrived at portage you would need to carry your canoe across the land.

Back on the Lake

When you are dog sledding, it means that the dogs go through a patch of woods, bog, or other land before they get back to the frozen lake again.

When you are dog sledding, it means a patch of bumping over logs, crashing over rocks, ducking trees, pushing the sled up over obstacles, and avoiding trees.

When you are dog sledding with R Squared, it means ripping the side off of your sled.  And in case you were wondering, YES, it happened on the side I was standing on.  And yes, it was the opposite side then I was standing on yesterday.  I told you my side was the bad side.

The Broken Sled

Okay, so here’s the story.

We started the morning by sledding over several huge lakes.  Dog sledding on a lake is a pretty mellow trip.  The dogs can handle the lake really easily.  It’s flat, the snow on top of the ice is easy to run on, and the sled glides easily.  For a musher it’s pretty mellow too.  Mrs. Rizzuto and I were able to have long talks with our guides who travel on skis with us.  Sometimes they hold on to the side of the sled and let the dogs pull them too while they chat with us.  It’s a wonderful time to take in the scenery and enjoy the moment.  It can also be really cold.  The wind really whips up across the lakes sometimes.

We finally came to our first portage and it was a doozy.  We started bumping up the incline and bumping over a series of rocks which bumped me out of the sled.    I hopped back on and we kept going and pretty soon ran smack into a tree with my side of the sled.  This time though, not only did we get stuck, we actually ripped the side of the sled almost completely off.  We had our heads on much better, and we planned what action to take before we both hopped off the sled!  I hopped off and Mrs. Rizzuto took the sled down the rest of the portage alone. 

Dave and Ellen kind of rigged up the sled with some rope and duct tape and got us back on the trail.

The Repair

Mrs. Rizzuto and I finally realized that it really, really, works much better if only one person takes the sled through a portage.  It’s so much easier to control your balance if there is only one person.  You can spread your feet further apart, duck more freely, and shift your weight more easily when you don’t have to worry about bumping the other person off the sled.  (For the record, Mrs. Rizzuto freely admits to being part of the reason I keep falling/getting bumped off the sled!)

When we reached our second portage, we let Mrs. Rizzuto take the sled across by herself and it worked really well.

We then found a great spot to stop for our trail lunch.  We tied off the dogs and let them settle down into a little nap and we gathered wood for a fire.  Ellen cooked “pizzadillas” for us over the open fire.  Apparently, this is the traditional Wintergreen trail meal.  It’s a combination pizza and quesadilla.  You take a frying pan, rub it down with a stick of butter.  Lay the tortilla into the frying pan and then top it with shredded cheese (it’s so cold you can just carry the butter and cheese in the sled without it going bad!), pepperoni, and spaghetti sauce powder.  It’s pretty tasty! 

Trail Lunch

At lunch, we switched sled with another pair who was ready to go back for the day which meant we had to switch all of the dogs on the two sleds.   Remember how hard I told you that was yesterday!?!?!

Lunchtime Nap

After lunch we took off again where we portaged one more time with Mrs. Rizzuto taking the sled through and me walking. 

We reached the last lake in the chain and the furthest distance we could travel by dog sled.  We tied the dogs off again and walked over the last portage to see why we couldn’t go any further. On the other side of the portage was a river that was still not frozen solid.

To get back to day we reversed our whole trip. 

The first portage we go to this time, the sled got wedged into the sides of the trail and we had to wiggle it free.  And this time, I took the sled through all of the portages.  It is totally crazy riding a sled through the woods. You have absolutely no control over where you are going.  The dogs are going to pick the route.  You can’t steer the sled.  You can’t let go of the sled.  You can’t use the break.  You really just have to hold on, duck the branches, and hope for the best.  It’s a pretty wild ride!

Wildlife sightings today:

Lots and lots and lots of wolf tracks, two beaver dams, wild rice, martin tracks and a pitcher plant which is a carnivorous plant similar to a Venus Flytrap.

The return across the lakes was a very peaceful way to end the day and to watch the sun set.