This weekend I was surprised by my husband with a romantic and amazing trip out to the mountains. One that I had no clue about and he planned every single little detail. I was pretty impressed that my husband went to such lengths to impress me. I could possibly be one of the luckiest gals around.
On Valentines day my husband told us to wake up pretty early so that we could get ready for our day out. I didn’t know what he had planned but since dog sledding is something I have wanted to try for a while I had a good idea of what was about to happen. We went downstairs at 9 am and waited for the bus to pick us up, as soon as it came around the corner I shrieked thats how excited I was. We were going to go Dog Sledding in Canmore. The company we went for was Howling Dog Tours and they were nice enough to pick us up all the way from Banff considering the tours were in Spray Lakes around the Canmore area. Once we got into Canmore we met the rest of the party and on the way we were, going up the mountain side to our destination. When we arrived we were placed with our respective guides. We walked over to our sled and met Luke, he was a nice fellow who just moved here from Australia. He was super friendly and very informative. He has a great passion for what he does and it shows. He introduced us to our sleigh team, a 6 dog team with a 2 in the front 2 in the middle and 2 in the back formation. Our favourite pups were Star, Maui Jim and Thunder. Star was in the front, Maui Jim was in the middle and Thunder who has 2 other siblings, and his two parents amongst the dogs was in the back. After we met them we got to harness them up. This was really fun because as soon as you brought the harness out they started to get really excited. They knew it was time to go back out again and couldn’t stop jumping around. When all the dogs got harnessed its like their inner wolf came out they were all howling and just wanted to start running. No wonder the company’s name is Howling Dog Tours lol
When we left the camp it was just puking snow, so for anyone thinking of doing this tour please dress appropriately.Wear some warm gloves, snow pants if you have them, and some waterproof boots. Its better to take precautions and come prepared as you never know what the weather will be like. When we got going the dogs really pulled hard, it was crazy to believe that they have that much strength. It only took 6 dogs to pull myself and my husband as well as the tour guide.
Our sled was really comfortable as it was lined with sleeping bags and there were blankets to sit underneath to enjoy the ride. However you don’t have to just enjoy the ride from inside the sleigh, the tour guide lets you come on the back with him and enjoy it that way as well. Once your fingers get a bit nippy you can always jump right back in once the sleigh has stopped.
The tour took around 2 hours once we got back to camp we got to hang out with the dogs for a little bit longer while we waited for the bus to pick us all up. They let us enjoy our time with hot cocoa as well as cookies, it was quite enjoyable. This tour was definitely an experience I will never forget and I am glad we went with Howling Dog Tours.
To book an amazing experience for you and your loved ones you can visit their site here http://www.howlingdogtours.com/
If you want further information about our experience, please do not hesitate to message me. I would more than gladly give you information.
