Snow sports 2013 (Mt. Shasta, Part 2)

 

We enjoyed being active in the Shasta snow all weekend!

We took Pep back to hike around the city park that includes the headwaters of the Sacramento River. There was a lot more snow on the ground than there was when we visited in February of last year!

 

Pepper LOVES romping around the snow!

 

I love this shot!

Crossing the headwaters...

close to testing the waters...

Some hikers came to fill up their jugs with some fresh mountain spring water!

We took advantage of the discounted "night skiing" rates to ski in the late afternoon at Mt. Shasta Ski park.  Kelvin got to try out his new gear, a snowboard and shoes acquired on supersale from a Redding shop a few months ago, and did great! The snow wasn't wonderful-- it has been a bit warm and dry for the past couple of weeks--- but we enjoyed a couple of hours of "night" skiing (3-5 pm) while it was still light out and when the bulk of the day skiers/snowboarders headed home, leaving the slopes uncrowded.

Lookin' good!

On Sunday, we went snowshoeing at Bunny Flat.

Can you spot our adventurous pup in these photos?

It was warm out and Pep (like the dogsled huskies) figured out that snow could satisfy her thirst. It was hilarious as she bounded through the deep snow taking gulps of snow...
 

Goodbye and thanks for the fun, Mt. Shasta! See you again next year?

Dog Sledding Adventure (Mt. Shasta, Part 1)

 

This past weekend, we took our second trip to Mt. Shasta in two years and on the first day tried DOG-SLEDDING for the first time! Our first adventure to Mt. Shasta was during Presidents' Day weekend last year.

Our "musher"/guide, Pat, has been racing with dogs for over 20 years, and taking a dogsled tour was a great way for us to explore/tour the snow at the base of Mt. Shasta.  Pat has over seventy dogs (Alaskan huskies) and runs three tours a day (weather/condition permitting) over the 8-mile course (which takes about 1 hour, including breaks); we learned a lot about the dogs and dog-racing in general. My first experience with/learning about sled dogs was going to the museum at the Iditarod Headquarters in Wasilla, Alaska, during a medical rotation there in 2010.

Gettin' ready...

Pat, harnessing the members of our 12-dog team

 

The doggies left behind were not happy and made quite a ruckus!

Pep, too, had to be left behind (in our car)... so I bundled her up in her sweater and my snuggie!

 

 

Starting out...

Getting going...

On our way...

At first, I (like PETA) felt a little bad that these dogs were pulling our weight around the forest (although obviously that is the point of dog-sledding). However, this is what these dogs are bred to and LOVE to do. They love to run and to pull people! And at least we aren't 200 lbs each!

Kelvin took some video clips, but I'm not sure I can figure out how to upload them to this blog, so you'll have to do with viewing the "stills."

During breaks, the dogs got some mouthfuls of snow for hydration but weren't too keen on being stopped... they wanted to take off again!

 

We enjoyed fabulous views, such as this one of Mt. Shasta, throughout our ride.

 

 

Kelvin enjoyed being the "runner" for a bit at the end (alongside Pat)

 

Fun times! If you've never ridden on a dogsled (and have the chance), we recommend it!

Finnish Country Sauna Date!

On Saturday night, we visited Arcata's Finnish Country Saunas and Tubs, which is in the back of Cafe Mokka, Humboldt County's oldest coffeehouse.  Who knew that a town of 17,000 would have such a gem? Thanks to Alyssa (who took me out to coffee there) for telling me about this (literal) hotspot.

Cafe Mokka's famous fireplace...

 ... and resident cat

The courtyard behind the Cafe, around which the saunas and tubs are located (with their private dressing rooms as entryways), included a pond and some (random) wandering ducks.

 

It was a perfect night (after watching the shocking Ravens' and Niners' wins--- good thing I'm not a betting woman!)-- clear and cold--to visit the tubs/sauna. In fact, the weather here is so cool year-round that I can see why this place is so popular! The private tubs are outdoors, so we could look up at the stars while enjoying the jets and deliciously hot water.

After a half-hour of tub-time, we transitioned to the (also private) traditional Finnish sauna, made with red cedar and covered with grass roofs.  It was so hot and steamy that I didn't last for more than 15 min (you can rent it by the hour; we opted for 30 min), but did enjoy feeling the warmest I've felt since living in Arcata :).

If you visit us in Arcata, we'll have to take you here (open daily)!

a weather miracle

Here is the weather for the next five days in Arcata. Despite it being frosty-cold this morning (it looked like snow on our lawn!) and it taking me 20 min to figure out how to, on a mac, take a screen shot from weather.com to be saved to a .jpg or .png file, I wanted to share this:

I can't recall the last time we had an expected forecast of this many sunny days in a row, including on a weekend. The sunny streak actually extends to 10 days but I couldn't drag the marker farther down on the screen (that would take another 20 min to figure out). It normally rains 8 inches in January (40-50 inches per year). For dog-walking and being-outside purposes, this is fabulous!