Dog sledding and snow tubing

Look at those gorgeous eyes!

As part of my journey into becoming a full blown Canadian (I can now cry maple syrup on command and I apologise for everything so I'm half way there) I set out on a very Canadian adventure on Saturday to go dog sledding and snow tubing. The whole trip was organised by the group Travelling Chicken and for anyone visiting Ontario and looking to do some adventurous activities I would highly recommend them. T'was they that brought me to Algonquin that time I saw the moose and baby mooseling. They took us to Sugardogs Adventure in Sunridge to go dog sledding and then to Snow Valley to do some snow tubing and the whole day was brilliant craic from start to finish.

Prepare to be bombarded with dog pictures.

I love each and every one of you

The group of nine of us set off from Toronto at 7am of the clock and arrived at Sugardogs at 10am. I promptly threw myself out of the car and ran over to smother the doggos in love and affection. I was like a child in a sweet shop running up and down the line petting every dog and telling them how much I adored them and how they were all good dogs. Our guide, the lovely Ed Schmidt, then gave us a quick lesson in controlling a sled and while standing there in the -15° cold listening to the lecture my toes froze and became ice-cube digits.

Do you have a licence to drive this thing?

The other person on my sledding team was an Irish girl named Orla and she was kind enough to let me do the driving while she sat on the sled. We had a five dog team and one dog, named Manitou, decided that he didn't really care for sledding that day and anytime we paused on the trail he would try to wander off or strolled back the line to say hello to his other dog friends. The journey through the woods was absolutely magical. It was snowing as we sledded and everything was white and silent except for the sounds of the sleds, the occasional bark when we stopped, the yells of the drivers to their dogs and the sound of me screaming "God dammit, Manitou!" every time that naughty pup decided to just do his own thing.

And here we see Manitou looking back at me to see what trouble he can cause next

I should really start bringing that selfie stick with me for stuff like this but I don't know if I can bare the shame of being seen with it...

After finishing our trip through the woods we spent some time hugging the dogs goodbye and making whispered plans to steal some before we reluctantly boarded our mini bus again (dogless) to head on to Snow Valley for our snow tubing hijinx.

First you get dragged up the hill

Then you are at the top of the hill

And then you go hurtling down the hill

I love snow and I love dogs so the day was just a win from start to finish. The gang that I went with were all lovely too so all in all a wonderful day and fantastic snowy adventure.

And I also made a short video of my adventure if you'd care to have a look.