We left pretty early in the morning and when we got to the place in Gatineau Park you could already hear all the dogs "bark". It really sounded like wolves and it was very loud. The owners greeted us and we all went inside the cottage to stay warm. They brought three little puppies and let us hold them. They were SOOOOOO cute!!! We devided the group into three smaller group and mine was the first one to go dogsledding. It took quite a long time until they got all the dogs out and put them in front of the sleds. It was really cold, windy and snowy so I got a little worried that it would "ruin" the experience but once we got going it was sunny and the snow stopped. We were 5 students and one of the owners. It was more difficult to steer the sled than I had thought but I got used to it after a while. We had to stop every now and then because the dogs started fighting or just had to pee or poop :D
I was sad when we got back to the cottage after almost an hour and wanted to go again :) But the dogs needed to rest and it was time for the other groups. Before that we had lunch around the fireplace in the cottage. After the second group had left with the dogs, my group went cross-country skiing. It was pretty fun and it's so different from downhill skiing. I fell right at the beginning when I tried to get down a little "hill" and the "pizza slice" move didn't work with those long skis. I managed to control the skis after a while though and enjoyed going through the little trails in the forest.
Afterwards we all came back to the cottage and had apple and sugar pie.
The last part of the day was snowshoeing. We got these big thingies to put under your shoes and it feels weird to walk with them and quite a challenge not to fall. We walked through the forest once again and the sun set during the walk so we could see it through the trees which looked really beautiful. Once we got back, it had cooled down a lot and we were all pretty tired and exhausted so it was a good time to go home.
It was such a special day that I will probably never forget :)
In other news, I have booked my flight from Seattle to San Francisco!!! YAY! I'll go there on February 25th until I leave North America again to go back home to Germany on March 21st. Still almost 2 months to go.
Ottawa has been EXTREMELY cold last week (I saw -27°C once but apparently it was even colder at some point) so it is a bit difficult to get yourself outside if you don't really have to ;) It is getting warmer again though and you start thinking that -10 is a hot summer's day!!
We'll go ice skating on Rideau Canal tomorrow and we booked a shuttle bus + lift ticket to go skiing next weekend.
