Take 6 excitable dogs, tether them to a sled, hop into said sled and wrap up warm under down sleeping bags and whoosh, you’re off!
Once the dogs are tethered to the sled you can tell that they are eager to get going. When you have 4 teams of dogs all tethered and waiting for the off the noise notches up, lots of barking at the humans; “why can’t we go?!”
The 8km of trails in the Callaghan valley whiz by with a few rest stops for the dogs to roll about in the snow to cool down. They seem to love it, several of the dogs being left off tether to just roam while they rest. Some of the trails are level logging roads but the best sections are narrow trails winding between the trees with some steeper uphill & downhill sections. Our musher hops off on the steeper sections to assist.
We get to take it in turns for a while on the flatter sections, standing at the back of the sled with our guide who retains control of the brake as our dogs are quite powerful and need holding back to maintain the pace of some of the other sleds.
Once we are back at base we get to give the dogs treats and they get fed & watered. They are obviously capable of doing this over and over all day long. There is a dog sledding race with bigger teams of dogs that is over 1000 miles over 10 days, these dogs are powerful! We also get to have some play time in the kennels with some of the younger dogs. Be warned though, they are quite playful!
In summary the dogsled tour by Canadian Wilderness is an excellent excursion if you are in Whistler. The mushers are knowledgeable, the dog welfare also seems to be quite important to the company. It’s quite different to our usual snowboarding and is a much happier experience to the snowmobiling, the snowmobiles didn’t roll about or anything!