Expanded Gunflint Lodge Programs

Erik's team during a Gunflint Lake Experience

Erik with the client on the runners

In an effort to give our guests at Gunflint Lodge more of what they enjoy most, we changed our full day adventure on Fridays to two half day adventures. The Gunflint Lake Experiences are two hours long over a distance of roughly eleven miles, out to Campers Island on the east end of the lake and back.

Today, temps were in the upper 30s. Quite warm for traditional sled dogs with full winter coats. Thankfully it was a less strenuous day for them. We spent the afternoon with a family of seven on our Snowshoe/Dog Sledding Combo Adventure. The dogs only have to run roughly a half mile to the Tipi then back again.

Deciding to let many of the "A" team dogs rest today, I took Tukisi and Lily in wheel. *reminder to myself not to bring a retired mid-distance racing dog(Lily) on such a short run where she then must wait a half an hour on the gangline before we can run again, without a lot more training. This dog wants to run and run and run and doesn't appreciate stopping for a break so soon nor has she been trained to do so.

Klaus, Sweet Pea and Tuloon stood in harness patiently during our waiting period. Tukisi tried to do the same but found the constant bouncing and whining coming from Lily to be quite annoying so he began some training of his own. Every time she would bounce up in the air and whine, he would growl at her. This went on for about 15 minutes with Tukisi's growl getting slightly louder each time the little dog flung herself up into the air. By the end of the waiting period, Tukisi was no longer growling and Lily was no longer jumping and bouncing. I could, however, hear the slightest little muffled whine as she turned her head away from Tukisi in an effort to conceal her impatience. Now there's a lesson learned!