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Old January 9th, 2010, 09:28 PM
Rick C Rick C is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Southwest of Calgary, Alberta, on an acreage
Posts: 1,140
A minor brag . . . . . and dogsledding

A minor brag . . . . the image below is appearing in the January/February, 2010 edition of Canadian Geographic as runner-up in the Canadian Landscapes category of their 2009 Photo Of The Year competition. I shot this slice of outdoorsy Canadiana in a suit and tie after slamming on the brakes on my way home from work. It's a pond near my house. The neighbour had pulled the net off the deteriorating ice in April but a winter storm was blowing in . . . . . Amusing thing is, in the local county fair last year, this image didn't even get a sniff.



Below, Carol and I went dogsledding on Spray Lakes, near Canmore, as a birthday present to ourselves, in late December. Magnet, the closest dog, has one brown eye and one blue eye. All were very enthusiastic and appeared to love their jobs. Abby and Keeper, our Golden's are about 70 lbs but these dogs were about 40 lbs. On the Iditarod, the dogs are apparently 30 to 35 lbs. Amazing power for such lightweights.




Below, Jodie, our guide, straightens things out with the dogs and runs back to the sled. Rick is standing on the brake with an anchor tossed over the side, the only way to keep the dogs from taking off. They know only one speed and that's "get outta here!!" We'll be off again in a second to catch up with the group ahead . . . . . Jodie is a firefighter in Calgary but moonlights - sometimes literally for night sledding - doing this as well. We were out for two hours with Mad Dogs & Englishmen while the three sleds ahead were on an extended four hour trip. One of the gentlemen assisting this day, apparently for free, is a Supreme Court Justice in California who has a winter home in the area. A lovely young lass was trailing this whole episode, pulling a bucket on a sled with cross country skis, shovelling up ample amounts of poop. Back in the 1990's, My father and I had bicycled from Miracle Lake back to Canmore along the seldom-used backcountry road on the right . . . . . in a not-so-much-fun thunderstorm if I remember right.



Rick C
www.goldentales.ca
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