downsizing

The plan that made the most sense was two-fold. I wanted to gain a little more control over the team so that I could correct Reese's U-turns with less intervening tangles and chaos getting in the way. I also wanted to avoid the giant hill and creek bank drop-off that have given us some trouble getting to the good, groomed trail system. My solution was to run a smaller team - just Reese, Xtra, Devilfish & Parka, down in the opposite direction of our usual route to a small trail-head closer to the main road out of the neighborhood. Peter and I had traversed this route on foot last spring, and based on the giant swamp over overflow at the time I was relatively certain that although we might run into some slush there would be no sharp drops to navigate. Also, as it was Sunday, I wanted to head out late to ensure the weekend skiers and their loose dogs and small children would be off the trails as we were heading for territory much closer to a populated subdivision than our previous runs.

I hooked up my chosen four just as dusk was falling, after pulling the bag of dog food and the emergency duffel of cold weather gear off the sled. This would be a short run, always in walking distance of home, and the evening was sitting just at Zero degrees. We headed out of the yard down our usual trail. To my delight, when I stopped the sled at the road-berm and asked Reese for a right instead of our usual left he figured it out immediately and lead the team in the correct direction before my sled made the corner. Elated, I let the dogs run down the still quite-snowy road at a good clip. There was a car parked at the trail-head a half mile down and it helped Reese see the trail break in the trees. He took the team around that turn with no problems (we even missed - barely- hitting the bumper with the sled)  and hardly a halt. Excellent! I was beaming.

We ran down the trail and crossed the creek - all frozen overflow with no slush or sudden drops - without an issue. Passing several sort-of broken trails to the right and left was no problem. There was a bit of confusion as we got to the next T-intersection. I'd never come this way before, and the trail splits for the right-or-left turn pretty early. I didn't even realize the trail had split before Reese had taken the right turn, when we needed to go left to loop back around. A few yards later, when we got to the main trail, I asked Reese for a left and he hopped around and we were flying again in a second. Three perfect turns! No U-turns or tangles or stall-outs! It was getting darker, but I left my headlamp off, relishing the glow of snow at dusk. We came upon a single skijourer and her two loose labs, but passed them without incident even though they gave chase.

We hopped down the creek and were home in about half an hour. The run had been stellar, Reese had performed without a hitch. I was elated! Perhaps all he needed was a new direction to reset his turning habits and get us moving forward again.