The last 2 weeks were fully in the focus of our Long-Trail Test-Runs, called Go West. A lot of preparations and good nervs were necessary to realize the 2 weeks and this bothered the whole team.
"Go West 1" was with 2 wellknown customers and had great conditions. Temperatures were between -10 and -18C, dropped below -25C only during the last night, when the dogs already had a real doghouse to sleep in. The trails were good, hard and the sun came out a few times. A great 8.dog-team in front and 3 teams with 6 dogs were fast-trotting or even running over the fairly unknown trails. It was a lot of fun for dogs and humans. Moritz and Simone were guiding this first week to the cabins Otroskoski, Kuohatti and Aittokoski. And yes, we topped the 200km: the final counter wa at 201 km! A real challenge was the night in the open cabin Otroskoski, as this one is really (!) simple and did not heat up at all. The private cabin Kuohatti then was pre-heated when we arrived after the longest day and having warm water at arrival made it much easier. And the last day, to the Aittokoski-cabin, was like coming home.
"Go West 2" sadly had not so nice conditions. It was started with 4 customers and again Moritz and Simone as guides. A lot of new snow, temperatures just a bit below zero and heavy winddrifts made this tour much harder then the previous. That's why we decided to use a front-scooter for baggage transport and trailbreaking for the 4 days on tour. That means that Simone and Moritz had both 2 days on the scooter in front and 2 days on the sled as guide. Already the trainign-day was shortened - compared to the week before - as the dogs had a touhgh time on the trails. Because of that we also decided that we change the cabins and make this 2nd week to the cabins Aittokoski - Kuohatti - Aittokoski. That way we could save a lot of baggage and the dogs got a real doghouse for 2 nights. They appreciated this a lot after the hard, slow days on the trails. Having 2 nights with elextricity, water, real beds etc made this 2nd week more to a comfort-tour compared to the first one. at least for the nights... as durinjg the days a lot of physical work was done by dogs and humans to make it over the full distance.
The route of the new program is passing over a lot of hills, many ups and downs, some longer stretches on old forest roads. Only the last 2 km were on ice and had some overflow. The forest-trails are completely untouched, there are no houses visible until shortly before arrival at Kuohatti, when we pass by some summerhouses on the lakeshore. Some guests loved the routing, some found it more boring compared to the spectacular Ruunaa-Trail.
And now it's our job to evaluate the routing, the experiences, check out and decide if we want to take this week to the program 2023 and in which version, what could be optimised and where we have alternatives. But first Moritz is enjoying a guide-free week and Simone is guiding a special group to Ruunaa. And the GoWest-doggies deserve a full 3-day-break. It was definitely a special experience, both weeks and for sure the guests and guides will keep it in memory.