We are in Tromsø, the Paris of the north. A beautiful city with lovely shops and restaurants, but, alas, Covid protocol won’t allow us to explore independently, so we’re relegated to planned excursions. Not a hardship. Last night we travelled about 40 minutes outside the city to the Tromsø Villmarkssenter, or Wilderness Center, for a dog sledding experience.

The center had over 300 dogs at the onset of Covid, and because of lost bookings they knew they needed to downsize. Thankfully Norwegians are active, outdoor people, and the center adopted out 100-150 dogs to locals, and they’ve become ski and snowshoeing buddies to lucky Norwegian families. The dogs are bred at the center, and begin training at 2 months old. Walks, commands with treats, getting used to harnesses, establishing temperament to decide where on the sled team they would fit best, and finally being paired with an experienced dog that will help train them and not take any crap from them. The hierarchy of the sled team is everything. Older, experienced dogs at the front, not pulling but steering; workers behind. And they are STRONG!

Our musher was from Colorado! Very lovely and very knowledgeable. She gee hawed them through the course, even having to tell the dogs from the sled behind us to slow down as they approached and were right next to us. They didn’t want to slow down, one of them actually jumping straight up in the air, not able to contain the excitement.

After our trek we were able to meet the puppies, HUGE at 10 months old. And then tea and cake in a nice warm yurt. It was snowing heavily when we left Tromsø and all through our sled ride, but the sky cleared at Villmarkssenter and again we were able to see the Northern Lights.

Magical!

Deborah