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Dogsledding in Minnesota
At a pit stop for the dogs to lap up some snow, Anderson told us about Wintergreen's history.
Schurke was involved in the fight to keep more than a million acres of these lakes and forests motor-free. He helped deflate one of the major arguments against the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, which Congress created in 1979, by starting canoe trips for the disabled, proof that even untouched wilderness doesn't require extreme athletic skill.
Dogsledding followed the environment-friendly approach, and Schurke has kept at it even while leading high-profile arctic expeditions, including a U.S.-Soviet effort across the Bering Strait.
As if they too wanted the thrill of danger after Anderson's polar stories, the dogs picked up the pace when we started back across the hilly woods. Sledding became more like sailing _ we leaned way overboard while the team cut sharp turns and the sled barely missed getting wrapped around birch after birch.
The snow was turning golden in the late afternoon sun when we met two other sleds, led by Nick Williams, and the two guides took us on another loop through the marshes. Tufts of frost-burned weeds puffed through the snow, covering the slush from freezing rain a few days earlier that stuck to the blades and slowed us to a painful pace.
After stopping twice to scrape the sleds and the guides' skis, we started racing against the fading sunlight, still miles from the lodge. Alessandro and I alternated running after the sled to give Thule and her team a break. Williams gave up his sticky skis.
At that point, we started encountering the beaver dams. In each case, we had to let go of the sled, get it unstuck from the vertical wall and jump on it as soon as it cleared the crest. Jump after jump, this was getting into territory adventurous enough to warrant bragging rights.
Then came the loud crack and the rush of numbingly cold water. With synchronous yelps, the dog on the rear left and I went in together. Alessandro and Williams grabbed me so the water only reached into my boots, quickly seeping through all the various layers of pants.
"Do you need a change of clothing?" Anderson asked. But I didn't want to stop and strip, so he told me to start running to keep my toes from freezing.
Anderson zoomed off to take the two other sleds to safety before total darkness. Alessandro and Williams took turns on our sled. The dogs howled. I ran, trying to stay on the harder snow in the sled tracks despite my numbed feet.
I kept thinking of how quickly hypothermia set in for the Jack London characters whose stories I'd devoured as a child. But the twinges of terror I felt were mixed with shots of pride for being a tried-and-true adventurer of the Great North. White Iron Lake hadn't seemed this large in daylight, or this beautiful.
About an hour later, a bobbing searchlight told me Anderson had come back to the rescue. He led us to the shore where Schurke was waiting in a toasty truck.
"So you got the complete package?" Schurke asked, chuckling. Much as I played it cool, right then I would have preferred some stunned admiration for what I thought was quite a feat for a city girl.
The overnight guests were sitting at a rustic wooden table in the lodge's dining room when I sloshed in. It took two people to break the ice over the bootstraps and get my feet - and all 10 toes - checked. Wintergreen offered a pair of green woolen socks.
The guides said the incident was unusual, but perhaps because they were so unruffled I was left with a big splash of self-satisfaction and only a touch of fear. I had tasted the wilderness - not just passed through it - and I was hooked. I will absolutely go back - I'm a proud alumna of the complete package, after all.
The sky had turned black by the time we left. Sitting in the utter darkness before starting my car, I knew that nowhere can a person feel as small as inside the great, still frozenness of the great North.
Nor can a dry sock feel warmer.
On the Net: http://www.dogsledding.com
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