Paws2Trail

Kind of doubt that the New Yorker would be posting AI art.

Screenshot of an account named "Husky dog lovers" here on Bluesky.

Does anyone know who's behind this account? They appear to be a content farm/bot.

According to their feed, they've had 4-5 different huskies go over the rainbow bridge in the last couple of weeks! Either they're bad/unlucky with canine health issues or they're fishing for sympathy engagement.

Siberian husky Zeena invades the shallows of a pond from the right of the scene, creating a circular bow wave curving from her nose outward and back. Pock-marked bits of ice, like interconnected gray islands float on the surface of the pond to her left. Through the calm surface of the water sunken oak leaves are revealed, some still reddish brown, others a greenish gray of the murky substrate. One speckled orange and brown leaf has risen to the surface and shines in the hazy sunlight.

Old, crusty ice is receding on the lakes, revealing autumnal memories from the previous year.

That is the face of a husky who has opinions!

So sorry to hear! 😢💔❤️

Love that synth music!

OMG! We need two of these for our adventures!

#uglydogs

Rookie Musher And Her #UglyDogs Raise Money For Students | TODAY YouTube video by TODAY

Because we all need this memory today.
This is what we are.

The acquaintance of mine who attended her first race less than a month ago (UP200/Midnight Run) that is now headed to Anchorage for the weekend has begun using "dog friendly" as a synonym for "cold." 😂 (She is originally from Florida.)

She just said "the forecast today is dog friendly with snow." 😂

Such a wonderful final adventure! We had a similar experience with our old girl Gypsy two years ago. Heartbreak and joy combined. Wishing you the best in this difficult time. 💕

It has! But now it's over and we have to return to work. 😢

She may have CLAIMED that it was a mistake, but secretly she probably wanted to know what the joy of rolling in the mud was like.

Eating A&W burgers and fries in the car. Jeff holds his burger with a couple bites out of it in the driver's seat. He's looking at the camera with a somewhat silly side-eye. Tonttu is looking over the barrier to the back seat at the burger or something beyond.

The same photo as before, but Jeff has turned his head to look sideways at Tonttu, who has turned to look back at him, with a bit of tongue sticking out of his mouth.

Third in the series, Jeff continues to look at Tonttu, who now leans forward and gives him a doggy kiss with lots of tongue on Jeff's bearded chin.

Skijoring vacation is over. We have returned to the land of brown and mud. 😢

But there were burgers along the way, which makes things somewhat better! 😋

#Huskies #Burgers #DogsOfMastodon

Oh, he'd scarf down that burger in one bite if he had the chance!

(He, and Zeena, both got a proper-sized nibble once the humans were done.)

Both of them. 😉

Eating A&W burgers and fries in the car. Jeff holds his burger with a couple bites out of it in the driver's seat. He's looking at the camera with a somewhat silly side-eye. Tonttu is looking over the barrier to the back seat at the burger or something beyond.

The same photo as before, but Jeff has turned his head to look sideways at Tonttu, who has turned to look back at him, with a bit of tongue sticking out of his mouth.

Third in the series, Jeff continues to look at Tonttu, who now leans forward and gives him a doggy kiss with lots of tongue on Jeff's bearded chin.

Skijoring vacation is over. We have returned to the land of brown and mud. 😢

But there were burgers along the way, which makes things somewhat better! 😋

#Huskies #Burgers #DogsOfMastodon

Zeena stands amid the destruction she wrought on the snowy surface of the beaver pond next to the trail. She has dug up not only the depression that first grabbed her attention, but also an even larger chunk of the snow between there and the trail. She seems satisfied with her work and gazes out into the bright winter sun.

And here's the result of Zeena's investigations! She turned up a LOT of snow, but found nothing underneath for her efforts.

The trip back was uneventful until the very end when warm temps and sun on snow caused things to get VERY sticky and we ended up walking part of the way back.

The end!

Zeena looks out over a frozen pond, created by a beaver dam. The water has killed a handfull of trees, their trunks bare sticking out of the snow. Her focus is on a slight depression in the snow before her, off the trail. There is also a hint of a track where some animal has dragged its body in the snow.

Jeff's perspective of Zeena investigating the snow along the trail over the beaver dam, as Dale watches and Tonttu wanders in the snow in the foreground. The snowmobile continues up over a small hill just beyond.

We stopped at the beaver dam that's a couple miles in. No recent activity, but there was this odd depression on the side of the trail (which goes over the dam) that Zeena was dedicated to investigate. VERY interesting smells down below there.

We rested and had a snack while Zeena investigated...

Looking back towards the car, parked behind a big pile of snow on the left of the groomed snowmobile trail. A number of snomobile tracks go up and over the berm. Jeff and Tonttu are just getting started down the trail towards the camera.

The point at which Moose Trail, AKA 1335, splits off from the snowmobile trail, marked by a narrow, brown plastic vertical signpost with the US Forest Service insignia, 1335, and icons indicating that it's suitable for offroad vehicles. Jeff and Tonttu lead the way down the trail, which shows signs of previous snowmobile activity under a softening layer of fresh snow. Zeena appears at the left edge of the screen, ready to proceed after Dale finishes his photo.

Zeena was leading the way down the trail, a combination of old snomobile tracks generally following the same path, under a couple inches of fresh snow. She's diverted to the side of the trail, nose down to investigate an interesting smell.

Everyone waits while Tonttu rolls in a deep depression in the side of the trail. It looks like a snomobile had drifted a bit too far off to the side of the packed trail and tipped on its side in the deep snow. The hole it left is perfectly sized for Tonttu to roll in.

Our trail turned out to be just about perfect: snomobiles had been down it sometime after the recent deep snow, but a few inches had fallen on it since, creating a perfect surface for huskies to break trail without assistance.

Dale and Zeena lead the way, skijoring down a wide, flat trail packed on a snow-covered road through northern boreal forest. Tontto follows at a distance, pulling his skier who's taking the photo.

After one last attempt to ski the groomed end of the Banadad, aborted because of wind debris over the trail, we switched plans and skis to try the Hoks on the "Moose Trail".

Getting there requires first following 1/2 mi of snowmobile trail, freshly groomed this morning!

#Huskies #Skijoring

Belated video from George Washington Pines yesterday: Tonttu's full run on Jeff's Insta360

#Skijoring #Huskies #Insta360

A symbiotic relationship. Is it Mutualism, Commensalism, or Parasitism?

#Huskies

Dale takes a selfie. He's dressed for backcountry skiing, with a bright orange Dynafit headband, complete with feline (snow leopard?) logo and sporty sun glasses. Behind him, Jeff takes his own selfie, while husky Tonttu rolls in the snow. It's a bright snowy landscape, an opening created by a beaver dam, with paper birch, fir and pine just beyond. They're skiing on a trail that has had snowmobile traffic sometime before the last snowfall.

Each in his own world.

The inside of a restaurant, facing a trapezoidal wall, rising to a wide fireplace and chimney on the right, filled with windows creating a view out over a frozen lake. The sky is showing reddish colors of dusk. The dim interior has several tables of diners enjoying drinks and a meal. There currently are no wolves visible on the lake.

It was late enough coming back that we stopped at Poplar Haus for supper. (& cocktails!)

It was dinner & a show: far out across Poplar Lake a black wolf made several passes across the ice. At one point it got the zoomies & bounced around on its way!

A fine end for yesterday's adventures!

The best part of this trail is the fast little hill with a turn at the bottom, which comes at the end of the loop. Listen to the skis sing on the slightly crusty snow!

We both made it, despite some rather uneven conditions and sticks that like to suddenly grab your ski to slow you down.

Husky Tonttu rolls on his back, legs all akimbo, on the side of a ski trail on a bright and sunny winter day. The framing is at a bit of a Dutch angle, heightening the drama. Up ahead, Dale prepares to clean up after his skiing partner, Zeena.

Tonttu knows how to entertain himself while the humans pause for poop cleanup duty.

Zeena leads her skier down the trail, on the left side that is packed flat, avoiding the track. The flat area has slightly fewer sticks and needles than the right side where the tracks lie.

Skijorers Tonttu and Jeff approach the camera from behind. They're exiting a cut through some tall, thin pines and other evergreens, into an open snowy flat with a clump of brush to the right. Tonttu is trotting down the narrow left side of the groomed Nordic track, while Jeff has chosen to ski the flat packed area to the right. This open bit out of the trees has fewer needles and sticks on the snow.

A large clump of dead, lichen covered tree top has fallen on the right side of the ski trail, splaying branches over the trail. Some have skied/walked over the branches, breaking them into bits, while others have chosen to make a slightly less-twiggy path around on the left. Jeff and Tonttu have already passed. Zeena is just leading her skier down the middle.

Not optimal ski conditions! While footprints reduced the farther you got from the trailhead, the ski tracks that appeared ended up being the MOST stick-&-needle-filled places to ski! Little valleys for the wind to deposit stuff into. We spent most of the time on the flat to the side, dodging twigs.

Siberian husky Zeena is ready for skijoring pointing down a snowy trail through pines, fir and other evergreens. Streaks of sunlight cut between the trees and lay across the trail. The trail has been well trampled by hiking boots and paws, nearly obliterating the Nordic style groomed skiing track. Twigs and needles scatter over the snow.

Day #6, X-C Skiing George Washington Pines

This is a "groomed" multi-use, dog-friendly trail close to Grand Marais, so it gets a lot of traffic. You can barely see the track here at the beginning!

Because of the recent winds, everything was scattered with twigs and needles.

#Skijoring #Huskies

Such perfect layers!

Zeena forgot her skis! 😩

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