Snow Dogs

Jon working Tucker












Me working Mason:







Shrek sitting Pretty:





Our trailer:


Mason, so Handsome:



So big he doesn't fit in his bed. He has to wear that shirt so he doesn't lick his cuts:

Trip of the Year

Here are some pics of our roadtrip from Eatonville, WA to the border in Idaho, into Canada.

A little town by Snoqualmie Pass: Attractive, eh?




Restroom break in chilly, Idaho weather:


Cheesy, dirty motel we stayed at after being denied across the Canadian border. Damn Canucks.


Candian Border. Screw Mickey the Mounty with an attitude:


A view into Canada:

Alberta!

I'm in Alberta, Canada! After 4 days of driving and mega-B.S. we finally made it to Conklin Camp, in NE Alberta. We made it to the border the first night, at about 1am, and got turned away. Bummer! We made it the next day, and then stayed in Fernie. I got to see some landscape-those pics will be in another post. Then we drove up to Calgary and stayed the night, and finally to Conklin via Edmonton! The trailers for the canine handlers are awesome! I have a full bed, a bathroom, and another small room that is a living area, kitchenette, office, and I have a flat-screen TV with satellite! It is super sweet! It is also a little stinky cuz Mason is smellying things up.

After a few days of orientation and first aid training, we got to take the dogs for a walk in the snow. Dang! It is really cold here...-10C most of the time, which is about 14F...really chilly! My eyelashes, eyebrows and hair froze. Mason had icicles coming off his mouth. Yesterday we got to work the dogs for the first time on a practice problem. I've never seen Mason so amped...it was a good time. And last night we drove back down south to Edmonton for our snowmobile training class.

Here are a few of the machines we practiced on:


And the others:


Our French-Canadian instructor, Mike LaChance:



Me revving it up. I swear, my fingertips almost froze off today-not fun.

Snoqualmie Falls

Last week was full of rain! It rained for a few days and we got something like 6 inches of rain in places within 24 hrs! The rivers flooded, and towns were all underwater. Pretty typical if you live here, but I don't think I could get used to that. With all the rain on the news and footage of the falls, I wanted to check it out myself. Snoqualmie Falls was sort of trickling before all the rain, and now it is ragin'!

One of the powerhouses:


The Falls:



It was really, really misty!



Really cool vegetation/epiphytes: