It´s done! Our winter-season 23/24 is done, since the last guests left back home yesterday. With one teary and one smiling eye we look back to many good memories during the last 4 busy months. This last winter was not an easy one, as the weather was really messing up a lot. Too warm, too cold, sudden rain in February, then again masses of snowfall and storms, that blew away all our trails. But once again we did it! Thanks to a team, always adjusting to the changing conditions, thanks to guests, who reacted with lot of understanding to possible and needed adaptions, and thanks to great dogs who ran with enthusiasm until the end, when there was already a lot of melting water standing on the lake-ice. A huge Thank You to everybody who was involved in our 21st winter-season at Eräkesus!
We have been guiding: 18 Bears Trails, 15 Winterweeks "Plus", 11 Winterweeks for Beginners, 3 Ruunaa-Weeks, 3 Go West-Tours, 3 Kalevala-Shortprograms, 6 Christmas- and New Years-Weeks und 6 Musher-Workshops. The number of guests was rising from 146 in the winter before to 187 during this winter. The trend in direction of pre-Covid-figures is clearly visible and we are curious to see, how coming winter will be.
In the New Kennels we already started down-training the dogs during mid-March. They all together ran 74´310 km. Best runner was here Otchum with 2´225 km, followed closely by Talvi and Leica. In the - a little bit bigger - Old Kennels the dogs have been running until the very last tour and ran a total distance of 119´160 km. Best worker here is Anouk with 2´594 km, followed also closely by Strike and Minea. Total distance covered by all dogs together: 193´470 km, a great job done, guess you agree! Thanks so much to all doggies for doing their job so well!
During the next days and weeks we will clean up a lot, wash and repair equipment, all winter-stuff has to be stored away, all summer-stuff has to be taken out. And of course we will enjoy a few more days off, than we could get during the last weeks. Holiday now also comes for us, one after the other. Slow down, relax, recharge the accus.
We wish you all a nice spring-time - warm greetings from North-Karelia, where the snow is now melting fast as well!