Dog Sledding Day!

On Saturday, we got up ridiculously early, met our Girl Scout friends in the local playground parking lot (this probably looked pretty shady), and headed our 5-car convoy 2 hours NE to Freeland, Maryland.  We landed at the Freeland trail head of the Northern Central Railroad Trail at Gunpowder Falls State Park, where we were met by Catherine and Eric and their awesome pack of sled dogs.

Daphne was excited.  Can you tell?

After a lesson about sled dogs, the girls got to help harness them up in preparation for their big ride.

The girls were divided among three stops so they could tag in and out of the "sled," which was actually more like a buggy since there was no snow.  They each got to ride for about half a mile.  At my stop, we had to find things to do while we waited.

Daphne was giddy when it was finally her turn.

I am so happy that she got to have this experience.  I'm not sure if all the girls really appreciated how rare an opportunity it was, but they all had fun.  Even our most nervous little scout was hugging the dogs by the end of the day.

Dog-sledding is now my new number one bucket list item.  Only I want to do it with my family, in the snow (like in Maine or Vermont), in the back country, for miles and miles.  I used to want to go to Antarctica to see the penguins, but now Dog Sledding is the new Antarctica.  I am changing the label on my "Nantucket" jar.  It will now be the "Dog Sledding in Vermont or Maine in the Back Country for Miles and Miles" jar.  Now, to get Kev on board with the plan...