RAVEL GO WILD?
SPEEDING along with miles of brilliant white snow in every direction, it’s easy to be overtaken by the beauty of it all and drift into a happy, peaceful daze.
Until, of course, the yell of “lean left” comes from behind as the dog sled you’re sitting on tilts precariously, you hold on for dear life and hurl yourself sideways.
Dog sledding is an amazing experience but it’s not all that easy – even if you’re just a passenger.
Thankfully our team of seven huskies knew exactly what they were doing and it was the perfect way to travel through the wilderness of Canada’s Yukon territory.
With snow-covered forests, even more snow-covered mountains and halffrozen rivers, there’s no doubt this really is the wild.
Winter plummets to -40C and even at a relatively balmy -10C, half an hour outside is a challenge, especially when travelling at speed.
Having the icy wind biting at your face is half the fun, but racing back into the warm Sky High Wilderness Ranch comes with a sense of relief.
I visited at the end of autumn and, while the sunshine makes it stunning to look at, the clear air is bitter. This really is proper Canada – the North, with a capital N.
Landing the previous night at midnight in the city of Whitehorse, 1,500 miles north-west of Vancouver, was rather like arriving on the moon, desolate and VERY chilly.
Visitors need proper boots, thermals, overtrousers and a hardcore coat too.
Not that the huskies seem to mind and their cacophony of barks and excited yelps is testament to how much they seem to love to run.
The staff know the name of each of their 150 dogs and clearly adore them.
After reading Jack London’s classic novel Call Of The Wild just before my trip I’d hoped for a half-Saint Bernard and half-Scottish shepherd like his main character, Buck.
Sadly there was no sign of a Buck, but the descriptions of sledding were even more vivid after a trip on the snow and ice for real.
The bestselling book has now been made into a film, which is released on
Wednesday and stars Harrison Ford, left. Half live-action and half CGI effects (for the dogs), it tells the story of Buck’s dognapping from a comfortable home in LA to the wilds of the Yukon as a sled dog during Canada’s Klondike gold rush.
The trailer shows men trekking up a mountain pass in blizzards and thick snow – something London himself had to do when he headed north in 1897 to try to make his fortune.
Some of the estimated 100,000 people who went there struck gold and were instantly made very rich.
After his arduous journey to the Yukon, London finally arrived at
Dawson City – the place that would become the heart of the gold rush. But as he searched for his fortune alongside thousands of other hopeful prospectors, he came down with scurvy.
He was lucky to survive and, despite his brush with death, a love for the desolate and harsh countryside had become deeply ingrained.
When he returned home it inspired him to pen Call Of The Wild – believed to be based on a real dog called Jack that he met in Dawson City – and he went on to be the first American author to make a million dollars.
But sledding is not just a thing of the past here, in fact it’s a huge part of the culture and every year 50 mushers (sled drivers) and their dog teams take part in Yukon Quest, a 1,000-mile race from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Whitehorse.
Some things have moved on, of course, and there are now faster and marginally less precarious ways to see the wilderness than by dog sled. And they’re just as much fun.
The cryptic description of one mode – Viking Excursion – turned out to be the name of our vehicle. The Viking is a sort of cross between an open-sided car and a snowmobile.
Our amazing guide Tobias, from Epic North tours, whipped between trees and up and down icy hills without batting an eyelid as we all clung on for dear life with frozen fingers and equally