So much to catch up on, I’m just not sure where to start. I suppose I could start with the obvious: I lost one of my best friends in the whole world back in May. My buddy, Sienna.

She was the first dog I ever had as an adult. Really, my first dog. And she really was the most perfect first dog to have. Words cannot even express how much I loved that girl. In fact, I gathered a whole bunch of photos for her final RIP blog entry — yet never was able to gather my wits to write it. There is too much to say and too few words.

She was my buddy. She changed our lives in ways I never imagined. And she will be greatly, greatly missed.

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After losing the girl, we needed a distraction. The distraction took the form of the vacation of a lifetime: a giant road trip to Wyoming all with the excuse of adopting a puppy out West. The quick back story: I’m obsessed with the Keeshond breed of dog (obvoiusly!) and when I knew Sienna was sick, I started looking around for breeders or rescues. There were no dogs — at least young ones — to be had in our region and I ended up finding a little pup in the little town of Lander. The trip planning then begun.

Honestly, I need an entire blog entry documenting that trip. We drove out to Yellowstone (via the Big Horn Mountains which included camping in the snow). We spent 3 amazing days in Yellowstone. We spent another 3 amazing days in the Grand Tetons. We completed amazing hikes. We saw amazing wildlife (including two black bears PLAYING in OUR CAMPSITE!). We then drove to Lander, picked up a puppy on a farm where there were sheep and rabbits and a turkey (and two ADORABLE Keeshond brothers who we had to leave behind). We stopped at Devils Tower. We detoured to Rushmore. And then we came home WITH A PUPPY!

It was an amazing 9 days of driving and sight-seeing and camping. And then we got to finish it with this cute-as-a-button puppy. Please meet her:

Her name is Penny. She’s now 18 weeks old. And we love her.

Our other girl, Dora, is doing okay. She was stand-offish at the beginning. But she’s opening up now and I think she and Penny will be great friends soon. They already play like crazy.

We are also in the midst of puppy training (housetraining is SO FUN!). We have puppy kindergarten for a few more weeks. And aside from the fact that Penny is a little anti-social in class (she growls at the other dogs), she’s adjusting well. She’s great with people. And she’s a complete doll.

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News on the other fronts:

James started a job last month! (not sure if I shared that here, but it’s a HUGE relief)

I re-started Weight Watchers in June and started re-attending meetings. Sparkpeople just wasn’t cutting it for me. So, when a second income started coming back into the house, I forked out the cash for WW. And, surprise, surprise: going back to meetings has helped. I’m down 4 lbs. now. It’s slow. But it’s working. And it still kills me how much harder it is to take off than it is to put on.

I’m not really training for any big races or triathlons this year. It started with lack of funding, but it’s been nice to actually take a season off officially. I did do a triathlon two weeks ago that I didn’t even train for. I didn’t set any records, but I finished, I didn’t walk on the run and I was pleased with a 18-minute 1/2-mile swim considering I haven’t swam in months. Better yet: I earned hardware! I placed 2nd in the Athena division. Granted, there were only three of us, but it was groovy to get an award.

I am doing one big ride: Dairyland Dare. It’s in August and it’s a 150k (100 mile) cycling ride that includes over 10,000 feet of climbing in Southern Wisconsin. It’s kind of crazy, but it will be super fun. I did a 100k earlier in May that had us climb over 7,000 feet. It was one of the hardest rides I’ve ever done, but it felt like quite an accomplishment to complete.

I’m also finishing out my year with Bolder Options. My mentee and I have been having a great time. We’ve completed 3 5k races and it’s been amazing to watch her progress.

Not sure how much else there is to catch up on: my little sister graduated High School. My cat is still a bitch. I still love my job but struggle with finding balance between it and my personal life. One of these days, my husband and I really need to replace the concrete steps in front of our house. Exciting, exciting stuff.

I think I can officially claim catch up here. I do have oodles of vacation and puppy photos and videos to share, but they still need to be uploaded and organized. I’ll share links when they are ready. Until then, chow!

I’m not ashamed to steal this meme from EJShea. After such a long hiatus from blogging, I’ve been honestly struggling with how to come back and write again. What do I talk about? How do I start after all this time away?

But since blogging is something I want to get back in the habit of doing, I figured filling in the blanks would be an easy way to start back. Baby steps.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before? Visited a national park (can you believe that? WTF?); Completed my first XC ski race; Mentored an at-risk youth; Took a Hot Yoga class.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t really set resolutions as a rule of thumb. That said, I did sign back up with WW in January in hopes that I would finally get my weight that’s been steadily creeping up to go back down. But the year of eTools didn’t do much for me. I didn’t stuck to the program consistently. The formula without meetings just hasn’t been effective. I’ve also had a hard time concentrating on weight loss while juggling an insane work schedule. I love my job. I let it take over too much. And it made weight loss less of a priority for me in 2009.

That said, I did set two goals at the beginning of the year: stick to a 2009 training program and become a mentor for Bolder Options. The 2009 program was successful: I completed two ski races, a handful of runs and triathlons and met my 4:15 marathon goal @ Twin Cities Marathon. Then Bolder Options allowed me to share my passion for fitness with an at-risk youth — something more rewarding than all my races combined.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Oh, yes. So many friends & family members having babies. We were especially excited for the birth of one close couple’s first. She came early and is absolutely lovely.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No. We’ve been very blessed this year.

5. What places did you visit? A number of cabin visits up north in MN; my first trip to the Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale (my first National Park); Nashville for a wedding; San Francisco for a conference

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009? More work-life balance. I made some good strides in the back half of this year, but I need more. Working and sleeping immediately upon arriving home is not a healthy pattern every night of the week.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Oct. 4. The date of Twin Cities Marathon. After loads of training and lots of doubt around being able to accomplish my goal, I had a dream race and hit the 4:15 mark. And it was SO FUN. After two less-than-stellar marathon experiences, Twin Cities was a dream and I loved every second of it. Even the pain afterward.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Probably Twin Cities marathon. That and my killer Web site that I manage for work. We’ve taken her from #14 in the category when I started to #6 in Oct. & Nov. and that has been THRILLING! I should also add here that my mentee’s two 5ks were pretty big accomplishments as well.

9. What was your biggest failure? Working too much and not concentrating on the other important aspects of my life.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing major and, for that, I’m blessed. I did have a really nagging Achilles tendon injury that I nursed for the first 3-4 months of the year until the PT finally made me stop running so it would heal. And it did. Imagine that.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Hmm… do I daresay my minivan? But the jury is still out on that. I love the storage and ability to travel with the thing but I do miss driving my Buick.

The jury is also still out on the kitty we brought home two weeks ago. She’s sweet, but still adjusting to life in our home. With dogs.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? James. My spouse. Good lord, I have no idea how I could have made it through the year without his constant support on the home front. He makes our meals. He does the dishes. He lets the dogs out when I work late. Best. Husband. Ever.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? I don’t really know how to answer this in a way that is appropriate online in my personal life. Politically, I have been pretty disgusted by the Hyde amendment proponents in the health care debate. The past decade saddens me in terms of how much we’ve retreated around reproductive rights.

14. Where did most of your money go? On food. At least that’s what it feels like when we grocery shop each week. We’ve also been good about saving this year and our only major purchase with the minivan which was needed because the Buick was dying.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Seeing the iPhone app my team developed for Betty on a Apple iPhone commercial in December. Super fun to see your project recognized that way.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009? Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? Happier. As much as I might have failed on the work-life balance thing this year, I’m in a much better place than I was in 2008. We’ve done some amazing things at work in terms of structure to support that this year. The changes have been very exciting and rewarding. I’ve also made a stronger effort the maintain balance that will only continue and improve. Even just making sure I leave the office by 5pm 2xs a week is a great place to be.

b) thinner or fatter? Fatter. I’ve steadily been gaining and didn’t focus on food & diet much this year at all. Oh well. It was a year of different priorities.

c) richer or poorer? Richer. Our savings has grown. Our debts have declined. And mentoring has added a level of richness not calculated in $$.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? More trips with the pups to the dog park. More trips to the farmer’s market with the spouse on weekends, too.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Working after hours on the couch.

20. How did you spend Christmas in 2009? With my family in Wisconsin. There was lots of loafing and a movie. Also, lovely laughs with my brother & sister. I heart them.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009? I think so. Work-wise, we accomplished a lot. And while I might regret working so much, I’m very proud of what myself and my team has accomplished. Add to that crossing the finish line @ Twin Cities marathon, it was a pretty sweet year.

22. What was your favorite TV program? So You Think You Can Dance. While America’s Funniest Home Videos and The Amazing Race are my absolute faves, I discovered SYTYCD this year and it’s made me really appreciate dance as an art. We might even attend some modern dance performances in 2010.

23. What did you do for your birthday in 2009? We were in the UP getting ready for our kayak trip on Isle Royale. Started the day with an authentic Pasty, crashed a ton attempting to mountain bike on difficult trails with a bike that didn’t fit me, got eaten alive by bugs during our water skills training and completed my first wet exit from a kayak in 55 degree water.

24. What was the best book you read? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I held out in finishing the series because I didn’t want to be done. But I finally completed it this year and I thought it was everything it should have been.

25. What did you want and get? Accomplishment of loads of goals a work and a 4:15 marathon

26. What did you want and not get? To lose weight. But I didn’t make it a strong enough focus.

27. What was your favorite film of this year? Fresh. It was an incredible film that focused on the hope around sustainable farming as opposed to the bleak picture portrayed by films such as Food, Inc. I was also very surprised by District 9 and how intense an experience it created.

28. Did you make some new friends this year? Yes. Including a sweet couple in Nashville that we want to go back and visit.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Less time working, more time focused on home.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009? 2009 was the year of the dress for me. And I found some cute ones.

31. What kept you sane? James. My dogs.

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Barrack Obama. It’s been a lovely year not to cringe every time the President would speak.

33. What political issue stirred you the most? Health care reform and the lack of willingness that so many of my fellow constituents have to invest in a system that provides equitable care.

34. Who did you miss? My grandpa. He died when I was 16 and I still miss him every single day.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009. If you’re going to complain, come with a solution. It’s empowering to actually take control and effect change.

When I closed last time, I had two final pieces of our Day 2 to share. The first was our Poo lesson, the second was slepping outside and how to stay warm.

As we were relaxing in the wall tent after our first crazy day and finishing up our meal, Anna Lisa started the topic of going #2 in the woods while winter camping. Up until our trip, I was wondering how this would be managed. I’d heard stories about Outward Bound rafting trips and a “poop box” — so I was fearing the worst. The good news, however, was we wouldn’t have to be toting our Poo around. The bad news, though, was that it still included some procedures:

(1) Poop at least 200 yards from camp. Since we were camping on the river, we wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be washed into the water so a “poop trail” was created that would take us 200 yards out.

(2) Veer off the path and mark your territory. After walking down poop trail, we needed to veer off for our own little “place.” Here, you drop trou and get to business. When finished, you are to cover your poo with snow and then lay twigs in the form of an X so that no one would walk in your poop

(3) Bring out our used toliet paper and burn it. We did get TP. It was kept in the sled. But after doing business, we had to bring it out (using two twigs as chopstick-like utensils) and put it in the fire to burn it up. The only problem I had with this is that when we were in the Wall Tent, the only fire was in the wood stove. This meant you had to enter the wall tent with your used-TP and twigs and ask an instructor to open the fire door to burn up your waste. Nothing like announcing to the group, “Hey! I just pooped in the woods!”

That first night, I certainly didn’t have to poop. I doubt anyone else did, too. Although, after that, I did get pretty comfortable with the process (minus the re-entry into the Wall Tent with dirty TB, never got comfortable with that).

After the poop discussion, we had one final set of vital instructions left. Sleeping.

Normally, sleep isn’t something that requires much discussion. But since we were sleeping outdoors (not even in tents), we had certain rules to follow to ensure that we’d stay warm. We did sleep under canvases to keep any ice or snow from falling on us, but other than that, we were most certainly out of doors.

The first instruction was how our bed was made. We had a plastic sheet covering the snow. Then we were to lay down our first shorter sleeping pad that was about as long as our torso (and placed approximately there). The second sleeping pad went on top of that. This one was longer — probably as long as me (but not as long as some of the boys). After this, our bags went on top. We had an outer bag and an inner bag.

When going to bed, we were instructed to take our gear and make things accessible. We were to sleep in our long underwear and clean socks. Our outer clothes could go in our bag. Our gaiters and choppers (ginormous leather mittens) could go between our pads to keep them warm and our boots could be tucked top ends into the sides of our pads to both keep them somewhat warm and serve as a little bumper to keep us from rolling off our pads.

If there was room in our bag at the bottom, we were instructed to keep extra clothing in there so that there wasn’t extra room for cold air to be trapped. Finally, we were given our Nalgene’s full of hot water and covered in our insulating sock to throw in the bag to add a little extra warmth.

Once things were set up, we were told to do 15-30 jumping jacks or something active to get the body warmed back up before hopping into our bags.

Finally, we were to zip up our bags, both outer and inner and, if still cold, could use our down coats as an additional blanket over our chests. We were also instructed to not breath in our bags. In an average night, up to 16 oz. of water can be breathed out into the bag and you didn’t want that. So, either breathing into a balaclava or having your nose and mouth positioned to the opening the bag was recommended. The last note was that, if we had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (and we most certainly would), we had to go. We were told to just get up and get it done. Go right outside of the sleeping area and then go right back to bed. Not going to the bathroom would keep you up all night.

These instructions were given to us as a demonstration. Anna Lisa showed us what to do and I felt pretty comfortable heading off to sleep.

However, actually doing all this was much more difficult than it looked. It was colder than I’d expected outside. It was hard to get my clothing off in my bag and my face and hands were cold as I tried to get everything in order (I did wear my glove liners and hat the whole time). My head kept hitting the top of the tarp, my headlamp kept getting bumped and I was beginning to get cold. I also kept losing things like my balaclava, my gloves, my socks, my liners. When I was finally unrobed, I began zipping up and even this was difficult. I had a hard time pulling the zippers up. I felt like I was wiggling all over and slipping off my pads. The snow was a little bumpy around me and I began to get out of breath from the effort of just trying to go to sleep.

When I was finally zipped up, I turned out my headlamp and kept it close to my chest in case I needed it in the middle of the night. I also pulled my balaclava over my mouth and nose because the sudden lack of activity was making it very apparent how cold it was outside. I rolled the warm water bottle between my feet and concentrated on trying to fall asleep while listening to my co-horts get themselves zipped up and off to bed.

It was hard breathing in and out of the balaclava, but every time I took it off, my face would become too cold. I tried not to breath in my bag but the small opening around my face felt, at times, like too much exposure.

I did manage to doze on and off throughout the night, but I’d wake up to the moisture of the balaclava on my face. I’d remove it for a few minutes, my face would get cold and I’d put it back on. I didn’t feel like I could sleep on my side because of the bag and snow that was molding to my body. I also had to pee but didn’t want to have to deal with getting out of my bag and finding a place to go. I know they told us to go if we had to, but I didn’t want to.

Somehow, I made it through the night. When I awoke, there was ice around the edges of my bag, on my eyelashes and on my balaclava. Everything was frozen and frigid. We learned later that it was at least 10 degrees below zero when we awoke.

It was probaby the craziest night of my life.

But I made it. Only two more nights to go.No Reservations dvdrip

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Jeepers. Where did my weekend go? So, no updates — again — to my vacation tales. But I did just upload some more pictures from our dog sledding trip including a few of me chopping wood — how fancy is that?

Otherwise, my weekend was a blur of workouts and home stuff. I ran 12 miles yesterday because I HAVE to get on my marathon training schedule. I’m trying a new program from Runner’s World that includes both Steady and Progressive runs. It’s a 12 week schedule that begins (eek!) tomorrow. But that was assuming a certain amount of, ahem, base mileage. It was nice to have a solid 12 mile run (albiet slow) and feel good during and after the effort. I think I’m confident to begin the program.

I also spent mega amounts of time grocery shopping and doing errands with the boy. After being out of town so long, we had NO food in the house. In the past two days, we’ve hit SuperTarget (twice), Trader Joes AND our coop (Mississippi Market). I’ve spent almost $300 on food. I think we should be set.

We also did some mega cleaning. James was a dear and did a fair amount today in preperation for our triathlon team season kick-off meeting which we hosted (he even cooked the chili and made the salad, too!). And we also squeezed in a nice 27 mile ride this afternoon. It was sunnier than expected and it was a great day to be in the saddle — I just wish it could have been longer.

Our team meeting was pretty good as well. It was nice to catch up with everone and see what their goals and upcoming races are. I also got scared for a bit because it sounded like my two season openers were closed — luckily, I went online right afterwards and found I could still register for both Buffalo and Maniou. Whew!

Now, I need to hit the sack. I have a swim scheduled in the AM as well as coffee with a buddy and then swim practice after work. AND we’re supposed to get another snow storm. Fun.

So, look at my new dog sledding pictures Aliens move download Whos Your Caddy? dvd

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Headed out into the wild, we had to cover the 3/4 mile or so of the Outward Bound driveway. This was shallow snow and packed. We’d have a fresh snowfall overnight, so this was a good space to get used to the weight of the polk while skiing. I fell a few times — sometimes because of the polk, other times just because I lost my balance. Bengt had a similar challenge. Instead of a polk, we was skiing with his backpack on his back. I can’t imagine what that does for your center of gravity. At least we had falling in common.

We were finally at our turn, a trail (or portage) that started off the road. It’s called Sunset and I felt like this was the official entrance into the experience. We were on soft, unbroken snow. We were on a portage that was only about 4 or 5 feet wide. There were twigs and branches brushing the edges of the trail. The snow covered trees and ground amidst the wilderness felt like a scene out of a movie. Even though we were only a mile or so from base camp, I already felt in a remote and far away land.

As we skiiied, I continued to get used to the push and pull of the polk weight around my middle. I also started to warm up and quickly called for our team to stop so that I could take off a layer. During our “keeping warm” lecture, we were warned the dangers of getting too warm and sweating. We didn’t want to get wet out in these conditions so it was important to remove layers whenever we began to get hot to prevent excess sweat. I was also starting to get a little hungry (it was after noon by this time) so we also used a bit of this time to grab some bites from our squirrel bag.

Okay. It’s time for some logistics here. Things I’ve forgotten to post in chronilogical order but necessary information:

- Squirrel Bags: The Hottie and the Nottie video Large plastic bags full of food that we used for snacking and lunch. Since we don’t want to stop anywhere while traveling to eat lunch (and risk cooling down too much and losing daylight), we were given bags full of nuts, crackers, a hearty date/fruit bread, cheese, sausage, trail mix, etc. We were to have these bags on hand and eat whenever we were hungry (the FUEL component of keeping warm).

- Water: Upon heading out of camp, we were given a water bottle full of hot water and would insulate it with a sock to keep it from freezing. We would fill our bottles 2-3x per day and we needed to make sure we drank whenever we could.

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Nicholas Nickleby movie download : This was a girl-only thing. Anna Lisa instructed me to cut one of my bandanas into quarters. The 1st quarter, I used as a hankerchief that I kept in my pocket for my nose. The 2nd quarter was placed in my long underwear as my pee rag. I would use this to wipe myself whenever urinating in the woods for hygiene purposes. I would also keep it in my long underwear (in the front near my groin) to keep it warm and prevent it from freezing.

 - Moisturizer/Sunscreen, Lip Balm, Contact Solution: Essentially, anything that you want to prevent from freezing needs close contact with your body to keep it warm. Therefore, I kept all of the above in the pocket of my wind pants. Kind of bulky — but good to know I had each of these with me for the duration of the trip.

Okay — where was I? Oh, yeah. The 1st portage trail and taking a little break.

Anna Lisa wouldn’t let us lag too long. We didn’t want to risk cooling down too much and we also had the dogs on our heals. The logistics of travel with the dogs is that the skiers would go out first, break a trail for the dogs to follow while the mushers would finish packing up, hook up the dog team and then head out (hopefully) an hour or so later. The first hour of so of skiing (and sledding) is nice because each group is pretty much going at their own pace. The mushers can keep sledding and the skiers don’t feel like anyone is on their heels. When the mushers catch up, however, it becomes more of a “hurry up and wait” game. Mushers stop while skiers ski ahead and then stop again when they catch up.

We had some little rolling hills on our portage and a few downhills. Pulling the polk was weird. I’d feel weight behind me, compensate and then, on a downhill, the weight would go away and I’d lose my balance. Or, I’d be going downhills and the polk would catch up and kind of push me. Both things caused me to fall multiple times (and getting up with a polk behind you can be quite an experience as well). I did feel like I was starting to get the hang of it, though.

When we came out of the portage trail, we were on a lake and about to enter the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). We’d be traveling across a lot of frozen bodies of water (and sleeping on them, too). For someone who has always been nervous about crossing frozen lakes, this was an excellent growth opportunity. :)

At one point, we came across a snow mobile trail before officially entering the BWCA. Our instructor told us we had to assure the safety of the team because of the speed at which the snowmobiles travel. Therefore, we waited here for the dogs to catch up so that we could stand guard on the trail and watch for any oncoming vehicles.

This was probably the first time at which I noticed the differences between our two instructors. They both had different experiences and ways of doing things and, at times, those ways would be in direct conflict. This was one of those times and while Anna Lisa wanted us to get the skiers in place before given the mushers the go-ahead to get on the trail, Simon just wanted to get the dogs off the trail and some confusion ensued. I went ahead to go where I was supposed to stop and suddently there was this team of dogs passing me on the trail. It was crazy and weird, but also very, very cool.

This particular portage that we turned on was parallel to a creek and full of ice. We had to take off our skis for safety and we walked this portion. We also came upon a very steep downhill. This is where Anna Lisa instructed Bengt and I to stop so that we could help the dogs and sled down the hill.

I can’t remember the word for this (snoping?). But, when the mushers arrived, Bengt and I got behind the sled and held onto the rope that came out from behind. We were to pull as hard as we could in the opposite direction to lessen the velocity at which the sled would go down the hill, essentially preventing the sled from catching speed and running into the dogs (this could kill them).

When the first sled came (with Simon and Phil mushing), Bengt and I got behind and dug our heels in. When the dogs were given the command to go, the force was crazy. I could only hold on for a few seconds and I was dragged over and let go so I wouldn’t get in Bengt’s way. Bengt did better than me, but as the sled started down the decline, it tipped over on it’s side. “Perfect!” yelled Simon with a gleam in his eye, “Just what we wanted to do.”

Phil and Simon got the sled back upright and got it out of the way. Soon, James and Matt were with us on their sled and we had to repeat the process. Again, the force while trying to hold on was crazy. I held on a little longer. But their sled tipped just the same. “Perfect!” Simon said again.

We took a few moments as we got everything back up-right. We also found out that Matt had smashed his finger good between the sled and a tree earlier in the ride. I guess I hadn’t realized that both Matt and James were just sent off with a sled and a team with just a quick overview of training. The dogs are fast, the portages are narrow and I’m sure that was scary and crazy. I was thankful I had picked skiing the first day. When you think of dog sledding, you think of just a sled and dogs pulling along in the snow. You don’t think of pushing and pulling and steering and keeping the sled in control. It’s way more work than I’d ever imagined.

During this stop, I also realized how crazy the dogs were. Whenever they had to stop, they would bark and howl and talk. All they wanted to do was to go again, so they would essentially yell and whine at you to get going. Loki and Ingrid (sister lead dogs, one of which was on each sled) were the noisiest and they would crack me up with their cries. I wish I had them on video.

So, it was time for us to take off skiing again. The rest of the ski was mostly on the river. The wind started to pick up and it was brisk on my cheeks. We skied for about 1-3/4 hours when we came upon a bay that we were considering making camp at — but it was directly in the path of the wind so we continued on in hopes of finding something with more shelter.

We did find another bay that was more protected from the wind. It had also been used by other campers, you could tell from the tracks in the snow. Both Simon and Anna Lisa noted that it isn’t as fun when you feel like others had been there before, but I didn’t care.

When we arrived, we immediately had to set up the tie-outs for the dogs. This including finding sturdy anchors for the tie-outs and then moving the dogs from the line to the tie-outs. It is important the dogs are placed in the order they run in order to avoid fighting. And when you’d take the dogs from the line to the tie-out, you had to hold them up by the collar so their front paws were off the ground. The reason for this was that they have so much power, all four paws could overcome you and drag you off. And they weren’t kidding, the dogs were powerful. I would get slightly stressed whenever I had to do this. But the dogs were super-sweet, too.

Finally, after the dogs were safe, we got to take a few minutes for ourselves to eat and drink. You don’t get a lot of time for food and water while skiing since the dogs are always behind you. I ate as much as I could, downed my water and soon Simon was warning us that we needed to get back moving and active so we wouldn’t cool down. We also had a lot of work ahead of us — we had to set up camp. According to the instructors, we’d were only 50% done with our work for the day.

Since it was our first day/night, we were taken through each part of making camp together. In the coming days, we would be able to break up and be more effiecient — but there was a lot for us to learn in that first day.

The first piece of business was getting firewood. We needed fire ASAP in order to boil water for the dogs (for their soup) and for ourselves. Simon gave us a little lesson on tree species (although, honestly, all I can remember is that Jack Pines are good firewood and that Birch is bad. For firewood, that is.) They took us into the woods looking for trees that were already dead but upright. I was amazed at how deep the snow was back here (sometimes past my knees) and we found a perfect tree to start with and Simon showed us how to chop it down.

I could go into all the details (aren’t I with everything else?), but I don’t really want to type it all except that we were literally chopping down trees with a saw and axe and I thought that was crazy. Seeing a tree fall in the wild that you helped chop down is nuts. I’ve never done anything like that before — EVER. After the lesson, we broke off into two groups to find more wood. Anna Lisa, Phil, James and I went off together. We also came across an already cut stash in the woods (BONUS!). We found a tree that we wanted to go after. We put the lesson to practice. But our stubborn tree kept getting caught on other trees by the top branches. We couldn’t get it to fall down and we eventually took a second cut at it — it was still lodged. This is where we began this dance of pushing and pulling and kicking and worrying about safety. Anna Lisa said the big thing with cutting down trees is that you alway had to know what your exit plan in case the tree started to come your way. I was getting nervous because I felt stuck between all these other trees. But I had a large downed tree in front of me and everone assured me it would protect me from the falling tree (eeh!).

After our comedy of errors, we finally got the thing to come down and we sawed it into managable 5-6 ft. long pieces to carry back to camp. If I came out of this learning anything, it was how to saw. I never realized it wasn’t about pressure. I was trying to dig in, but I just needed more of a perpendicular edge and smooth movements (who knew???).

After the tree lesson, we learned how to set up camp. This included cutting the ice hole, starting the outdoor fire for water, putting together our wood stove and setting up the wall tent. The wall tent is where we would eat dinner and relax in the evening. Setting it up was a challenge for me because I was having to learn my trucker’s hitch knot (something that wasn’t coming easy) and use it multiple times. We also had to put ice screws in the ice to attach our ropes, too. Raising the chimney for the wood stove (through the tent) was crazy, too. It involved multiple people and ropes to raise and make sure it was straight). Finally, we had to create a L-shaped snow bench in the wall tent so we had somewhere to sit. This included dumping multiple polk-fulls of snow into the tent and shaping them (we’d also learn that using water to form them would help give them stability — our first night’s bench was a little weak).

There was a bunch more in that first day: sawing and chopping the wood into smaller pieces, feeding the dogs their soup and food (frozen chicken hunks make them howl), putting up our sleeping tarps (a covering over our heads — otherwise, we were sleeping outside on just a plastic cover, our sleeping pads and then our bags). [Man, I think this entry is so long because there were so many firsts. It's hard to document it all (and we repeat much of this in the next three days).] It was such an enormous amount of information and effort within a 24-hour period that I felt like my head (and shoulders) would explode.

At dusk, we were finally given a second to slow down. We got to have hot drinks from the boiling water and multiple powers that were assembled (hot tea, chai, hot chocolate, a funky mixture called Russian Tea). My chai tasted fantastic and it felt good to stop for a bit. The sun was starting to set. I was starting to get chilly and we were told our last task was to make sure our bags were out under the tarps. We could then settle into the Wall Tent for dinner. We were also warned that the Wall Tent could get as hot as 80 degrees so no down coats were allowed.

Walking into that wall tent after a day out in the cold felt fantastic. I finally was able to remove my heavy mouse boots and replace them with my down booties. It also felt good to remove the anorak and fleece I’d been sporting all day. I could remove my hat, my contacts. This all felt so very, very good.

We brought in our smaller sleeping pad to put on our the snow bench (avoiding contact with the snow). Simon also instructed us to use wood as a place to rest our feet (again, avoiding contact with the snow).

At this point, we got to talk about our day. All the firsts. How we felt. As we talked, Simon cooked dinner as he sat by the wood stove alternating feeding the fire and mixing up our dinner: cheesy potato chowder. We selected a reading prior to the meal and had a moment of silence before digging into our food. It was warm and lovely. I don’t know when a meal has gone down so well.

By this time, it was after 9pm. We were all beat but we weren’t quite done. We still had two lessons to learn: how to sleep outside in the cold and how to go poo.

But I’m tired of typing so I’m going to leave those for my next entry. Stay tuned… 

So there I am. Lying there in bed wondering what the hell I’d gotten myself into, listening to my bunkmates snore and breath and I was totally stressing out about the fact that I should be sleeping. Afterall, this was my last night indoors. I needed my rest. I needed my sleep.

It wasn’t very sound. I awoke numerous times throughout the night. I began having weird half-dreams. I’d wrestle with my gear bag used as a pillow (it was too full to be comfortable). Light began to stream into the cabin. We’d be awakened in a few short hours. Someone got up to go to the bathroom. Blink a few times. “Wakey, wakey.”

It was time to get up.

It was 6:50. At 7:10, we had to assemble to feed the dogs and start our adventures. 20 minutes seems like a fair amount of time for this business, but I have to fess up to the fact that I had a hard time fitting in everything I needed in that amount of time: run to the washroom, wash face, put in contacts, braid hair, apply moisturizer, walk back to cabin (miss cabin and have to turn around to find correct trail), pack up gear, put on gear, put on ginormous mouse boots (including plastic liners — err, Vapor Barrier Layer (VBL). I didn’t even have my hat on yet when I realized that everyone else was out of our cabin and ready to go. I joined the group quickly with bag on shoulders. We hiked down to the sleds where we stashed our gear and were assigned the task of feeding the dogs.

All the dogs.

Honestly (even now) I don’t know how we were selected for this responsibility. I know there were 2 other expedition groups AND the entire base camp group. And SOMEHOW Is Anybody There? divx

our small group of 5 were the ones given the honor of feeding all 60 dogs in the yard. (This was actually a good thing, but — at the time — felt like a huge amount of work.)

Feeding dogs can mean a lot of things. In my house, it means opening the plastic bins in our kitchen and dropping one cup into each bowl. In Ely, MN at Outward Bound, feeding is a whole other responsibility that includes scooping poop, pouring soup (a mixture of meal, fat and water) and dropping kibble based on each dog’s individual needs. There are rows and rows of dogs and our group quickly split the duties. Bengt and Phil were on poop. James was on kibble and Matt & I had the sloppiest job: the soup. We had brought down big plastic containers full of the mixture and our job was to dump a pickle bucket in — fill it — and then distribute among the dogs. All the dogs had bowls to pour the mixture in — but we had to find every dog’s bowl, empty it of snow and ice and then pour in the mixture.

The job wasn’t hard, but the bucket of soup was heavy. I also would come across dogs with missing bowls and I’d have to dig through snow and look in houses until I finally found their bowl (most likely in a neighbor’s circle). Most dogs were happy to receive the food, but others ignored it or (worse) knocked it over within minutes of my pouring.

Halfway through the task, I realized I’d probably picked the worst job to start off the trip with because I had soup (aka fat and meal) all over the sides of my pants from carrying the pickle buckets around the yard. Fun, I’d have that with me for the next four days! (And, trust me, I even tried to clean it off with snow but the fat sticks too well).

During all the feeding and the ruckus (it’s amazing how much those dogs bark when they know food is coming), I learned that a few of the pups were up for adoption. Most were older dogs who were retiring, but a few were just dogs that were not turning into good sled dogs. This obviously planted a HUGE idea in my head. (Could I come home with a dog???)

After the feeding, we headed back to the main building where we finally got some breakfast. I also broke my years-long abstinance from pork and ate bacon with my eggs and potatoes. I try to be an ethical meat eater (and obstain from beef and pork) — but on this trip, I figured I needed all the calories I could get. I went for it. It tasted okay. (I’m not hopping back on the bacon-wagon now in real life, though. Except, that is, for my organic turkey bacon).

After breakfast (and our last cups of coffee for the next few days), we headed back to the equipment building where we were fitted with skis and had a little lesson on x-country skiing. The lesson was a lot of skiing around on the property and getting used to going downhill . Like other lessons I’ve had, we started without poles and then added them later. I felt comfortable with what we were doing, but I was having to ignore all the “skate ski” technique I’d developed this winter. Also, the concept of skiing through fresh snow and not tracks laid by a groomer was different (and slow!).

After the lesson, we headed back to the equipment building again to pack our sleds and head out for our trip. We also got a lesson in keeping warm (1. Fuel 2. Activity 3. Insulation). I volunteered to be a skier on Day 1. So, Anna Lisa, Bengt and I waxed up and filled our polks (tobaggons that are attached to you with a belt and cables) with our gear. I had to learn a few knots (a trucker’s hitch) and things were ready to go.

It was just after noon and we were off on our adventure.

The Last Starfighter video

Risky Business release Cherry 2000 full movie The Toxic Avenger film

Thursday morning was the start. We were headed to Ely, MN for our Dog Sledding trip with Outward Bound. I don’t know how familiar most of you are with Outward Bound. I’d heard of them, but I never knew that much other than that my church youth group (when I was 15) headed out with them to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). But considering how much of my childhood was spent canoing with my father, I opted out of the summer trip.

When I signed up for the Dog Sledding trip through work, I didn’t even understand at the time what I was getting myself into. It was only until my coworker Matt started explaining Outward Bound that I began to get both nervous and excited about the experience. I thought I was signing up for dog sledding. I didn’t think I was signing up for a winter survival course. This, however, became abundantly clear after I received the clothing and equipment list and Outward Bound came to talk to us at work to explain what we were in for: chopping wood, boiling water from the river, lots of hard, hard work.

So, on Thursday, we were off. I actually got up at 5:00 am for a 6am spin class. I stopped into work for a quick meeting. And, on my way home to pack, I got some bad news. James tripped on the computer cord at home and it caused our 17 inch MacBook Pro to fall on the floor severely damaging the screen. A quick call to the computer techs estimated a $1000 fix. We still don’t know what we’re going to do — but it was not an ideal way to start a vacation.

By the time both James and I were packed, it was past noon. We knew the ride to Ely, MN was approximately 4 to 4.5 hours. We had a few last minute stops to make to REI and Target, but we were on our way.

The drive was somewhat long. I slept a bit. We listened to the radio and some podcasts. It was about 6 pm when we finally arrived in Ely. Driving through town, we were pleasantly surprised to discover snow sculptures in the town park that had been there since their winter carnival. James and I got out of the car and wandered around looking at the different pieces. We were also getting cold as the sun was setting and began to worry about how on earth we were going to survive 3 nights of winter camping when we were as cold as we were just looking at the sculptures.

Because we were due to the Outward Bound homeplace between 8 and 9 pm, we knew we had some time and we needed to get dinner. We drove through downtown twice scoping out the options in the small town and settled on Vertins, a local joint with both a front restaurant area and a back pub. We hit the pub part and my coworker Matt joined us (he was also going on the dog sledding trip). We enjoyed $2 Guiness (seriously!) with our sturdy meals and guess about what we were about to experience.

Finally, it was time to scoot. We were officially ready for our adventure and we headed off to Outward Bound.

Arrival was weird. We couldn’t find a parking spot in the main lot. When we did find something close to the main building, no one greeted us at the door. There were people standing around who I assumed were from my workplace, but no one was especially friendly and I felt immediately awkward. James and I decided to go find Matt since he hadn’t arrived yet. We went outside, found him and, as we re-entered the building, suddenly there was someone to greet us. I felt much more comfortable with this. She told us where to park, told us to get our stuff. I’m always more relieved when there is order and direction.

We headed out, parked our car and walked back with our gear. Inside, I barely set it all down when a young woman called us over. She was one of our instructors and was gathing up our group. We were minus one girl in our party who had gotten sick and couldn’t come out for the trip. I told Anna Lisa, the instructor, that I was glad she was female because the rest of our group was boys – not that I have anything against boys. But it’s nice to have someone along to relate to (and who can answer the girlie questions).

Our group was quickly assembled and we were introduced to our second instructor, Simon. Where Anna Lisa appeared fresh-faced and enthusiastic, Simon appeared experienced and calm. I felt we were in good hands. I also felt things suddenly moving fast. I’d brought my knitting into the building because I thought we’d be sitting around, how wrong I was about that!

We were taken to a large outfitter-type building full of metal cages containing gear. Anna Lisa and Simon sat us down to give us an expectation of what we were about to experience. They also wanted to know what we were expecting to get out of the trip. We were given markers and told to draw both an image that represents ourselves and an image that represents why we were there. I drew a triangle that represented three major points of my life: work, marriage and triathlon. I also drew a dog — because, honestly, that’s why I was there. I was there for the dogs. We went around the group explaining our artwork. There were five of us on our expedition not including the instructors: Phil and Benght (a father and son), Matt (my coworker), James and me.

We were also asked the question, “If we were on a deserted island and could have only one luxury item, what would it be?” I was lame and said my iPhone. I wish I could have thought of something more symbolic or meaningful, but I lacked the imagination. It was also the damn truth. Luckily, others in our group had similar electronic answers.

From that introduction, we moved quickly into the gearing up. We were given an overview of layering and what kind of clothing was necessarily for the conditions we were about the encounter. We also took out everything that we brought and had the instructors inspect our wares. We also were introduced to our mouse boots — these ginormous army surplus things that we had to wear with liners, a plastic bag called a Vapor Barrier Layer (VBL) and another sock layer. We had wind pants, wind jackets and down jackets provided. We also had the backpacks and sleeping pads and bags provided as well. We tried everything on, we packed up, we locked our city clothing away.

By this time, it was almost 11 pm. I was tired. We knew we had a big day ahead of us and we were all trotted down to a bunk house. It was our last night indoors before our adventure. We slept in our long underwear. I laid awake a long time listing to my bunkmates breath and wondering about the coming days. The next morning our trek would begin. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about it all.

In other words, what the hell had I gotten ourselves into…

 [to be continued...]

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