Audubon Center

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The Audubon Center

The Audubon Center (er- not re as I so so wanted to spell it!) is a wildlife educational centre 2 hours north of Linda’s, only 20 minutes away from the best doughnut place EVER, Tobies 😊 The day before the four of us loaded the cube van with the sleds, food, water, harness, the lot! And sadly listened to the weather forecast which said that freezing rain was on its way….brilliant. We now wouldn’t be heading up to Grand Marais after the Audubon. Hailey then arrived in the evening all packed up for a 5 day trip to be told about the treacherous weather heading our way. Freezing rain occurs by warm atmospheric temperatures and cold ‘surface’ temps down in human land. The rain falls, then immediately upon impact freezes! And causes the roads to become ice rinks, not good!

The next morning we drove 2 hours north; Neil, Olive and I squished in the Toyota (I was sitting in the tiny space behind the main front seats on a ‘mini seat’ which no joke…is about 4 inches wide! So I had my derriere perched on a 2 inch seat (accounting for the huge cushion behind my back for comfort- yes it was necessary :P) We then stopped at the illustrious Tobies before continuing our journey to the middle of nowhere. The event we were attending happens annually and is called the ‘Winter Family Event’. Obviously families attend and over the course of 4 days do winter activities, such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, even building a ‘snow zoo’! (Snow animals…I thought they were actually building a zoo and got very excited, but when I saw a mound of snow with a few rocks on top that was suppost to be a turtle I was less than impressed……. :P) Us Mushers were only there for one day and the families have to book us ahead of time. We arrived mid-afternoon and immediately unloaded the dogs. After unloading I realised….I forgot the food bucket! Before we had set off I sorted the food out for that night and left it in the laundry room to take with us…but obviously didn’t remember! So rather than 2-3 scoops of kibble from a cut Tropicana bottle which is what I have grown accoustemed to I had to roughly guestimate the amount of food…using a tin can! Lets just say it wasn’t quite right 😊 Before feeding I snow-shoed away from our camp and found tracks! Now my tracking ability is...nada but I convinced myself it was a wolf! Wolves and fox tracks are a straight line as they walk with their footsteps and these tracks where like that. Also fox have TINY feet and these tracks were almost the size of my clenched fist...it must be WOLF! (Wolves do inhabiit the forest here so I wasnt being completly stupid!) However Linda thinks there deer...decide for yourself from the pics 😊

Hailey and I were then greeted with our accommodation for the night, a log cabin with four walls, a roof and a wood stove, oh and it was a mile form the nearest human!…but on the positive side its a LOT better than sleeping under the stars! Sleeping under the sky may be nice in….Africa…but it -10 Minneosta freeze it is less than appealing! Olive, Neil and Linda were staying in a human building with pipes and actual beds closer to the main hall where we ate.

After a restless night, (I went to bed in four top layers, thermal underwear and two sleeping bags….I was preparing my self for a cooold night! But boy that woodstove gives off heat….in 5 minutes two layers where off and a sleeping bag and I spent a good deal of the night with one leg out of my first bag to let in a cool air flow!) Hailey and I were up at 6:30 to feed the dogs, before heading out with Linda at half seven for a quick breakfast. The food was served just like a school…the trays had dents in them for food (one for chips, one for a drink etc) and then there were rows of tables and chairs…but the one difference is that the food actually tasted pretty good!)

At 9 o’clock our first group arrived. Long story short, there were 3 sleds. Hailey and Neil took turns driving one, Linda the other and a random person the third sled. IN the two ‘proffesionally driven’ ones 2 people with a combined weight no heavier than 250 pounds sat and enjoyed the experience, in the single-sled, the person got a 5 minute lesson from no other than moi and we let loose….alone! They were behind the other two so the dogs simply followed the sled in front (aka the random didn’t have to give commands, just hold on real tight!). The number on rule in dog mushing is ‘Never lose your team’ so I drilled that into them! Seconds after I let the first girl loose with her three dog team (consisting of Phoneix in lead then Sweet pea and White feather behind) she fell over….oh god….I ran after her panicing and yelling HOLD ON! And she did!! She held on damn well and I helped upright herself before whoooooosh they where off again!

The trail was a mile loop with no tracks going off, so once the dogs ran they could only return back to camp which was a relief as letting those single-sleds off could be a disaster if the trail was long and had ‘options’ for the dogs!

Over the day we had 11 groups, so had to re-do the whole ½ experience….eleven times. We were all exhausted at the end of the day! But it was great to hang out with the dogs 😊

We finally got ‘home’ around 10pm-ish and had to unload the dogs, and sort out selves out before being able to go to sleep. Overall a good experiance 😊

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Photos

Journey
She paced for AGES!

Olive and topa
Olive borrowed Lindas Wintergreen jacket and looked like an eskimo :)

Phoneix
he was knackered after every run! He just pulls so hard he wears himself out

Ari
he always look at you out of the corner of his eye! He is such a lovley but very submissive dog