Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

Tonight it is absolutely cloudless, the moon is almost as bright as the sun, it seems, and is casting shadows over nearly ten inches of newly fallen snow. There isn't a hint of wind and the night, although cold -- it's 33 degrees below zero -- is completely still. I am so sorely tempted to break this stillness with the sound of excited dogs as I load them into the truck to go for a night run. I've got the clothing (look for my dorky picture in the previous post), and now, I've got the sled.

When we moved back to Ontario from the Yukon, almost all of our winter gear and equipment was left in our cabin just north of Carcross because we had expected to return. When we didn't, we faced a winter without a sled and proper clothing. We begged or borrowed the clothing that we needed from family but it was pretty difficult to find a sled, so I phoned our one contact here in Ontario who runs dogs like we do: over marginal trails for long distances. Surely he'd know of someone with a sled to borrow or buy. As it turned out, he didn't; but, he offered us one of his training sleds. That was three years ago.

The following spring, I went back to our cabin and collected all of our remaining belongings, including a sprint sled. Now, we had two sleds; one, we used on long runs where we could either pack people or gear; and the other, the sprint sled, we used to whip around our property or to give visitors the thrill of driving a small dog team

I was supposed to build a sled for us the following summer, but for one reason or another, it never happened. So, winter number two was spent on the back of our friends loaner sled. I have to admit, I was getting pretty comfortable on it, too. This past summer, I ran into a mutual friend and since I was having a difficult time contacting the lender of the sled, I mentioned to our mutual friend that I'd like to buy the sled and could he pass along the message.

A few weeks later, the phone rang and it was the sled lender. "I'm really sorry," he began, "I can't part with that sled. I wish I could sell it to you, but it's more valuable to me than the money I'd get for it." He felt bad for not being able to sell it to us and I felt bad for having borrowed it for so long, so we set about arranging how we'd return the sled to him. In the meantime, I spoke to another friend who used to build sleds for a living and owned a successful sled and harness shop in Southern Ontario. He promised to build me a sled as long as I was there to provide input.

Today was that day.

Sitting out by the dogyard now is our new sled. I know it was dark when I pulled in the driveway, and it didn't get any lighter as I fed the dogs, however, when I was done feeding, I just had to take pictures of the sled. Here it is, and believe me, more photos will follow.