toronto stories

winter adventures

My friend is still out here visiting his family so I took advantage of this time to go to the icewine festival that was being held at Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was the first day of the festival so we didn't have to contend with the crowds at all and were there already at the first winery when it opened! The weather was fairly mild and we had a blast drinking ourselves silly. We managed to hit 7 wineries and sampled their various ice wines, often paired with decadent chocolate. We also enjoyed lunch at Hillebrand Estates and dinner at the sister company, Peller Estates. And no, we both passed on wine for dinner! After all those tastings, we could barely tell one from the other...it was all fantastic except for one winery where they paired the ice wine with a Starbucks coffee to make a special drink. Whose bright idea was that? It was a complete waste! We also walked around the little town where I (of course) took some photos.

The other exciting thing I did was I went up with the same friend to Alpgonquin Park to go dog sledding!! We were extremely lucky as we were the only people that booked a tour for the day so we practically had a private tour! The guide owned 41 huskies and they were all eager to be chosen to go. We took turns both riding and driving the sled. I prefer the driving for sure - that way, you don't get cold sitting still for so long and of course you run the risk of getting your butt massaged every time you hit a bump in the trail. We had 6 dogs and our guide had 6. Our dogs were so enthusiastic in the beginning but by the end of the afternoon, they were needing much nudging to keep moving. The conditions were perfect - a light dusting of snow for the dogs' paws and a layer of ice below for our sled to glide through. Sunlight was filtering through the trees and small flakes were sparkling as they fluttered down. We covered in a half day trip what the guide says he normally takes a whole day to do. Believe me, a half day is all you need! It was around -28 with windchill so that's enough! We did pause at the halfway point (16 km) to have a hot chocolate before switching places and turning around. I have to say our dogs were a bit stupid(?) as they for some reason preferred to run on the left side of the trails(!!) and then liked to cut corners when rounding bends. (So maybe they were smart?) We passed by some snowmobilers and I had to apologize profusely for forcing them on to the left side of the road. (Do you really think I had control of my dogs??) Anyway, it was a very enjoyable experience and I was almost as exhausted as the dogs were by the end of it!

posted by toronto girl @ 11:17 PM