Mush

Look Ma!  I'm mushing!!

Yup, this is another Colorado Bucket List item that we did last weekend.  Last year one of our neighbors told us that they had gone dogsledding in the mountains and that sounded like so much fun.  So when I called to make reservations they told me that they were completely booked for the season.  As soon as the facility opened this winter I quickly made reservations so that we wouldn't miss out on getting to do it again this year.

The place we went to was Alpine Adventures in Leadville. The facility is pretty remote but it was well worth the drive.  It's located in a valley just outside of town and I'm sure that the scenery is gorgeous but it was snowing and we had low clouds covering the mountains while we were there.  I stole this picture off the internet to show you what we might have seen.

After we signed the consent forms they took us out to where the sleds and the dogs were.  

And then they started giving us instructions on how to stop and slow down the sleds.  Umm… I guess I assumed that we would be riding in the sled the whole time but as it turned out we got to take turns mushing the team ourselves!  Holy cow this was beyond belief!

We were out on the trail for about an hour and they told us that it was about a 5 mile route.  The dogs were perfectly happy to just run and pull the sled.  I don't think any of them even broke a sweat haha.  Of course these teams are so well trained that they knew where to go and when to stop so we really didn't have much to do other than to hang on and enjoy the ride. I actually enjoyed riding in the sled as much as being the musher.  They had thick cushions in the bottom of the and thick wool blankets that they piled on top of you, plus they had a thick waterproof tarp that kept the wind off of you so the passenger stayed nice and toasty warm.

I guess what surprised us both so much was how quiet it was while we were out with the dogs.  In the movies the dogs are yapping and carrying on when they were pulling the sleds.  But our team was completely silent so the only thing we heard was the sled on the snow.  The other thing that was not like "in the movies" was that the dogs by and large didn't run at full pace.  There were a few times that they ran faster but they never ran as fast as they could have.  We had so much fun doing this that we plan on doing it again in the future.  

Breckenridge Snow Sculpting

So how does this:

 Become this?!?!

Well we found out that it is done with nothing more than hand tools and 65 hours of labor. We went to the International Snow Sculpture in Breckenridge over the weekend with our friend Jerry and Angela.  We went last year but we went on the wrong weekend. The weekend we went was the one that they were working on them and we didn't get to see the final project.  But this year we (me) got the dates right :)

We arrived in Breckenridge before lunch so we went to see them in the daylight and planned to return later in the afternoon to see them with lights on them at night.  These sculptures were phenomenal! The lights at night gave them a different look and in some circumstances the lights really helped highlight the contours of the pieces and added depth and dimension to all of them. 

However some didn't fare so well:

We also noticed that there were several trees painted blue in the downtown area.  Come to find out it is an art installation.  Mmmm I think I could do that and I'm not even artsy in the least!

Professional judges picked the winners but they also allowed the public to pick their favorites during the viewing week.  The winners of the contest don't actually win anything other than a medal, a trophy, a travel and lodging stipend and bragging rights.  There were contestants from all over the world; from Mongolia to Mexico and of course there were several representing the USA.  That night they also had a Fire Sculpture contest in Breckenridge in conjunction with the Snow Sculptures.