It is early in the morning and I only just got a chance to snatch some coffee into a thermos from the lobby before we rush out of our cabin for our next road-trip. We drive to Svappavaara for some quick grocery shopping and our next destination: a Husky tour. When we arrive we are greeted by so many Huskies, al eager to go out for a run. We get inside, eat our lunches and get ready to put on proper sledding gear. This means that over our current clothes we get an extra outer layer for insulation, special boots and extra over-mittens. Now all dressed up we are ready to get started. This trip will take two days, first day we’ll ride the sleds to a mountain cabin where we’ll stay overnight and then head back the next morning. What is really cool is that for these two days we’ll get our own team of Huskies that will pull the sleds, but also that we should care for. So we all got our own team of three or four Huskies. My team was Kodak, Maverick Thunder and Killi. Four great huskies that were roaring to get our there.
The sleds were standing ready, and we learned how to retrieve the dogs from their cages, put on their harness and attach them properly to the sled. All under care from our two great guides Izzy and Carol. Then we put our overnight bags in the sleds, and after an introduction how to ride the sled and how to break we were also fired up to go.
Our ride would take us about 27km through the Swedish countryside to reach the cabin. And this would be all through -18°C weather. Now what is fun to realize is that the only thing that will stay warm is you (hopefully). So anything left in the bags in the front of the sled will slowly freeze. Including the bottle of water and, more importantly, your phone and camera batteries. This is not great, especially batteries don’t like to be cold and will quickly drop their charge. So everything that has to stay warm will need to be kept on your body. The bottle of water will thaw eventually.
Another thing is that there is only so much daylight. Now as we’ve entered Sweden and we’re a bit more southern it was the first time we’ve seen the sun since we’ve landed. But still there are only a few hours of daylight available. Racing through a forrest on a sled without being able to see anything is not good. So we also had to have some headlights ready for the last part of the journey and to actually do anything around the cabin. And of course headlights work on batteries so those to we had to keep under our coats.
Now, with everything properly packed, we were actually ready to go. We stood on our parking brakes as our guides released the anchors. Then, in a convoy, we one by one released the brakes and off we went. The Huskies couldn’t contain their enthusiasm and shot of onto the trail. Just before we left the guide mentioned “You have a very strong team…” and that became apparent. I had to brake all the time, or I would have overtaken all the others (which sadly wasn’t allowed).
The dogs were clearly enjoying their run and racing through the snow, over zig-zagging trails, was so much fun. The dogs just want to go as fast as possible. To limit their speed you have a special plank that you can step on. When you put weight on it drags over the ground and increases the friction so the dogs are held back a bit. Normally you stand on the two irons from the sled in a relaxing pose. Since the dogs are trained to follow the trail and, depending on their position in the convoy, to follow the sled in front, you don’t really have to steer. You only need to course correct the sled on slippery bits of ice where you’d otherwise slam into the sides of the trail. So you have lots of time to enjoy the surroundings and look around for reindeer or moose. During the first part of our trail there were a few reindeer that fled over the trail, so they kept a bit in front of us. They were far away though, but we did see them.
During the last part of the trail the sun had set and we were moving through a very dark forrest. Luckily the dogs easily knew the way and followed the trail well. But we stopped to put on our headlights before continuing. Then, after a long journey, we arrived at the cabin. But first we had to bring the dogs to their little dog-hotel-rooms. There was a row of doghouses and each one got their own little place. We unharnessed the dogs and brought them home. They were happy from running and now looking forward to their own beds. We gave them a nice snack as reward, and then it was time for us to get warm.
So we entered the cabin and undressed all our outside uniforms. The cabin was still completely dark since there was no power nor running water. But our guide quickly lit up some candles and started a fire in the fireplace. Soon the whole cabin was a very cosy and warm home in the wilderness.
The guides made us some hot tea and put out some snacks. And while they ran some errants we could warm up and rest for a bit. Until 18:00 when it was time to feed the dogs. So we put the warm clothes back on and went to the dogs. The guides had prepared a nice soup of meat by-products for them and we distributed it to our own team. Quite a nice way to bond with your own team.
Then it was our time to eat, as the guides prepared very tasty pasta with reindeer-meet. Afterward we could go out onto the frozen lake next to the cabin. We borrowed some reindeer skins and went outside. As we entered the lake the Aurora Borealis was stretching out above us. We put down the skins, grabbed our camera’s and took some pretty pictures. What a great moment; laying on a reindeer skin on a frozen lake with the ice buckling under its own load with the Aurora Borealis dancing above us. As the night passed on it was time to sleep. The fire slowly died out, but we were in warm sleeping bags. Such a great night.