Well, also our season comes soon to an end. Tomorrow we drive the last departure-transfer to the airport. Then we have to get used again to have an empty guesthouse and lodge. It was - once again - a great season! Until the very end we could run our programs as plannedwith sledding, cabin overnights and snowshoehiking.
170´831 km is the total distance what our dogs have been running this season. Means more than 4 times around the globe! TopDog of this season is "Lex" (first picture) who already took this place during autumn training and never lost his position during whole winter. Congratulations to Lex and his owner Alex! On the other end of this list are the very old dogs, who do not run anymore at all, but still have fun in their life: Ruija, Osmo, Molly, Rollo, Chippo, Paco, T-Pow. And inbetween those extremes, we have all the other beloved dogs, of which every single one gave all it could during the season. No matter if they run 10 km totally or similar distances like Lex, we love them all and we are so proud of all of them! Many of the older ones succeeded many times to surprise us with their lasting desire to run! The young ones have all been running now and they will be great workers during next winter! Strong, powerful, enthusiastic! Thanks to every single one of our dogs for beeing here with us! You all deserve the soon starting summer-break. For down-training the working dogs and giving more experiences to the teenagers, we will run still a few shorter trips, but then soon it will be too warm and we will enjoy spring and summer!
259 weekguests were here during this winter. We had 9 Musherworkshops, 24 groups Bears Trail, 9 Bordertrails, 28 Winterweeks in the different variations and 3 Exklusive groups. Many guests were infected with the virus "sleddog" and many have already booked for next winter season. When some tears are dropping on the departure day, this is for us the best feedback and confirmation in our job. A huge thank-you therefor to our guests! You came as guest and left as friends! Also a huge thank-you to our partners on the European travel market who support us with so many bookings and make it possible for us to live our dreams!
17 weeks our winter-season lasted; 112 nights we spent with dogs and guests in wilderness cabins. Our new trails to the own cabin Aittokoski increased the diversity of the tours a lot and the big space in and around the cabin was appreciated by everyone. Thanks to weather-god who supported us during whole winter. At the very beginning it could have been a little bit more, and at the end it could have been a little bit less snow. We still have masses of snow and we discuss and bet a lot about the day, when the very last bit of snow might have disappeared.
A Team of 8 we still have here. Nadja left already end of March, Frank wasonly here for short 4 weeks this season. Moni will start driving south during next week. A big Thank-you to all workers, no matter how long or short their working-period is/was. You all helped steering Eräkeskus through a busy high-season and giving our guests an unforgettable week of holiday. You are part of the most important part of Eräkeskus: Eräkeskus without dogs would be sad, Eräkeskus without you would be even sader. Thank You! The 8 pictures in these News (after Lex) represent the most special picture of every single worker, for whatever reasons this might be so.
The next generation is planned and hopefully on their way for summer. Mysa and Mogly should be proud parents of the first litter in summer 2018. But a confirmation by ultrasound we get only around mid-May. 2 more litters are planned for summer, but as usual, the selected females take their time to come in heat. Sooner or later why will be... we are patient. 9 of our dogs left us during this winter. As we have rather high number of old dogs, those moments happen sadly more often. We we cannot change the circle of life and death, we can only keep those old gone ones forever in our memory. And some of the next puppies will have maybe again some similarities in character or exterior, keeping those memories alive!
For the next few weeks we are closed, most of us enjoy a holiday now by their own. Our summer season starts on 1st June and no matter if there will still be small remainings of snow of not, we are looking forward to summer 2018!