We cannot deny it, spring is coming closer also here. Not yet in front of the door, but coming closer anyhow, we can see and feel it. Thanks to nights continueing with nice minus-degrees, the trails are still very good. Getting a bit wet on the lake parts during the day, but in the forests still hard and fast. From now on we can reduce the number of dogs in front of the sled for guests, without bad feelings. 27 dogs for a training-run today out of the new kennels were enough for 6 sled-teams. The days get warmer, often a bit above 0 degrees, breaks on the trails are preferably made in shade, walking the dogs in the afternoon under a perfect sunny sky makes our accus charge up in fast-mode.
Due to our damaged scooters 2 weeks ago (both repaired by now), we purchased a new Polaris by fast decision. What is needed for safety reasons, has to be here and has to be working! In the gallery one picture of the new Polaris on the trails, and one picture how it looks when blocked in a water-ditch... rescued without damages! One of the - by now - 3 scooters will be sold later in spring :-)
Snowshoe-hiking under a perfect sunny sky is getting better and easier. The snowcover is so hard on top, that we hardly sink in when walking over it. That makes hiking fast and easy. Our tours from the Aittokoski-cabin or in the well-known Änäkäinen-area is very popular with our guests and a nice change in the week-programs between the sledrides. Despite... some guests always prefer to spend the day in the kennels with "their" dogs, instead of joining the snow-hike...
During the last days we had a few Northern-Light-alarms. Many are obviously missed, as we are still working in the restaurant or concentrate more on the dogs, when walking them at late night, instead of looking up to the open sky. In the mornings we then hear from our night-active guests, how beautiful they were again during the last night. Maybe we better switch the watch to our guests? However, always an exciting experience, seeing them above the tree-line! During the next nights hopefully visible again, as the nights should be clear.