There and back again, chasing the lights!

There and back again, chasing the lights!

Try on Musher life, an overnight tour with my fantastic sleddogs

Drive your own team of Alaskan Huskies and spend the night in our Cabin on The Island.

Day 1

We meet at our kennel after lunch at 13.00. We will check our gear and clothes and make sure we have everything we need. We will have a safety instruction on how to drive the sled and what to think about along the tour. And now it’s time to release the dogs, put harnesses on and get going.

At our place the meeting between the dogs and you is a large part of the experience. You get to know your teammates before the tour and get a feeling of how to be able to work together.

This is where you come in. You are the driver of the team! You are handling the sled, we need you to do your part in using the brakes and balance the sled for this to be as good as it can get.

But is that so hard? I would say, No. The trail is well-prepared and all our focus is on giving you a great day outside together with us. The dogs are professionals as am I, but make no mistake. We need you to!

The start is always a bit stressful but we take it slow and easy so that everyone gets going. We make a quick stop after a little while to check the teams, adjust clothing and take a quick photo. After this break, the plan is to continue on our journey.

This is when you realise that you are running an Alaskan Husky team! Born to run is such an understatement that you need to experience it to comprehend. My plan is to let the dogs run as they should and can. For us that means that we can relax. Enjoy the view, make a movie or photograph, or just stand there on the runners and admire the dogs when they are doing exactly what they where born to do!

Alaskan Huskies is the ultimate longdistance sleddog! No one can compare, but an ultramarathon runner is the human resemblance. Our friends trot on in moderate 12-17km/h. Naturally they are rather excited in the start, and there we need to control them a bit with our brakes, (quite alot sometimes…) but after a short while we enter our own speed and now the dogs can keep on for hours without getting tired.

We drive our teams into the forest and after about 1 hour on the sled we end up at our wind shelter by the creek Mösupbäcken and make a fire to get a cup of coffee and some Swedish afternoon fika.

After fika we continue through the forest, over the lakes and frozen wetlands and in the early evening we arrive at our island. Now it is time for us to get to work. You will get headlamps from me. We take care of the dogs, make a fire to get the cabin warmed up, prepare food for the dogs and of course for us. At the camp there is no electricity or running water, and an outdoor toilet. During the evening we get to experience total silence and complete darkness during the night. 

When all the work is done and dinner is eaten there is free time to do anything you want. We have snowshoes so you can take a walk on the lake, drink another cup of coffee or maybe photograph the aurora!?

The night is spent in a warm cozy cabin. There are 8 beds of which 3 are double beds and 2 bunk beds. The heat source is a woodfire stove and normally we let the fire die out in the late evening and sleep comfortably in our warm beds but if it is really cold we make sure that we have enough firewood to keep the fire going through the night. 

Day 2

In the morning I wake you up and make a fire in the stove. Then I go and start preparing food for the dogs so you can wake up and get dressed. We start with feeding the dogs and after that it is time for us to have breakfast. After breakfast we prepare our teams and then go for a morning run through the forest. We will arrive home at the kennel just before lunch.

Included in the tour:

Bedsheets in the cabin

Overall, shoes and big mittens. The overall is an extra layer to put on top of your clothes, so you still need to have your own winter clothes on. The overall keeps your clothes clean and makes sure the dogs are not ripping it. The shoes are arctic winter boots especially made for winter climate, if you use a double pair of wool socks you should stay warm.

Mittens are essential for keeping your hands warm when driving a sled. Use wool liners inside or maybe a thin finger glove.

Please state your normal shoe and clothes size when booking.

Clear glass goggles you can borrow from us if it is snowing on our tour. 

Headlamp on tour 

Fika day 1, dinner and evening snacks day 1, breakfast day 2. 

Dogteam with usually 3-5 dogs. Depending on conditions on the trail and size of the guest. 

On this tour I expect you all to drive your own team but it is also possible that you share a sled with 2 persons. Then you can take turns driving and have company with each other. Guide always present to lead you through this experience. 

Personal gift from Wild Lapland 

Photos I take during the tour on a Dropbox file free for downloading. 

Price

9800 sek/p with your own team.

Optional, shared sled 7750 sek/p

 

What to think about before the tour:

Good clothes!

Underwear in wool is the best. Wool keeps you warm even if it gets wet, cotton doesn’t. It can be good to bring an extra pair of long johns and a long sleeve t-shirt to make sure you have dry clothes when you go to sleep.

Many thin layers are always better than one thick one.

Wool socks, preferably double pairs and an extra to switch in case you get wet.

A nice warm hat, one thinner and one warmer can be good since the weather could be changing quickly. 

Smaller liner gloves to have inside bigger mittens.

Finger gloves to use when we are working with the dogs.

Scarf to protect your face against wind.

Sunglasses.

Sunscreen! The sun is really burning and all the white snow reflects it so it’s really strong.

Extra snacks or candy that you want during the tour.

Toothbrush and other hygiene articles that you need. 

Bring extra batteries to the camera, they run out quickly if it’s cold. It is good to keep them near your body to keep them warm.

Tripod if you want to try night photography. 

Do not use skin cream or make up, they are usually water based and then they can create frostbites on your skin. If you really want to use something make sure it’s fat based and use it in the evening during the night.

The best way to stay warm outside is to move around. If it is really cold it’s important that you move and keep active. To keep your feets warm you need to have a lot of air in the shoes and have room to move your toes. Rather choose a bigger pair of shoes than the one that fits perfectly.

We need to know if you have any sickness or allergies in good time before the tour. Or if you use any medicines. This is a safety rule in case something happens. And also if you need any special food. 

Local cuisine up here in the north normally consists of various meat, mostly game meat like capercaillie, and moose but also reindeer and of course fish like trout or arctic char. 

We are really looking forward to meeting you.

Just send us an email if you have any questions.

See you! 

/Morgan

 

BOOK NOW

We are looking forward to hear from you

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Contact

Tillgänglighet & PrisTillgänglighet & Pris