Mush! And Other Winter Fun

Out here in the (sort of) Wild West, there are lots of fun things to do other than skiing. Some of the local ranches offer things like sleigh rides, horseback rides, dog sledding, snow mobiling, etc. But these activities tend to be a little expensive and something tourists do on vacation. Because when you're living here, you don't often have the time to go do these kinds of things because you're busy.....I don't know, working?

On Saturday, a local ranch, 4 Eagle Ranch--which is owned by an alum from The Ohio State University, I might add--had a day of free activities. We go to 4 Eagle a couple of times a year for school functions, and last fall Eamonn and I went on a horseback ride at 4 Eagle that we won in a silent auction. It's just a fun place to go. Anyway, on Saturday we decided to live like the tourists and take advantage of the opportunity to try a bunch of things we'd never normally do.

This was my favorite:



I'm riding in the sled with Declan. Eamonn and Finn are in a sled behind us. It was very fun. And pretty uncomfortable. I definitely wouldn't want to travel very far like that. There are two other little segments of video, but frankly, they take so long to upload, I think I'm quitting with one segment. Sorry. But the jumpiness of the video may be making you sick anyway.

We were amazed at how much the dogs seemed to want to just run, run, run. When the sleds came back around to pick up the next pair of passengers, they anchor the dogs to the ground, but also to a snowmobile because they're so strong. When the dogs knew it was time to get ready to go again, they started pulling so hard they could actually drag the snowmobile with a grown man on it, in addition to us in the sled and the musher. Pretty amazing.



A few pics of the other activities available:


Stopping at the obligatory headless cowboy/cowgirl scene. That's Finn on the left, Declan's friend, Jack, standing without a cowboy body, Declan, and Jack's little brother, Reid.


The gang on the wild steer: Reid, Declan, Finn, Jack


Segways in the snow. Who knew this was a sought after winter event?


Declan and me--ready to dog sled.


Eamonn and Finn ready to mush!

Interestingly, I never heard them say "mush" once. Just in case you were wondering.


Declan meets one of the team.


Finn got a sloppy kiss.


Tubing behind snowmobiles. I think I have whiplash.


Meeting this little guy.


Taking a sleigh ride out to the sledding hill. Again--sleigh--not a comfortable way to travel. I'm feeling bad for the Little House on the Prairie people about now.


Finn coming down the sledding hill with some interesting form.


Jack and Declan (at the top) forging (unsuccessfully) a new path.


Declan took a pony ride while Jack and Finn launched themselves off a snowbank.


In the meantime, I admired the view.