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12/29 * Fixing the dog sled trail ~アラスカ・オーロラの旅 Day4~

We were supposed to finish the three-day multi-activity package after having breakfast, so it was almost a free day. We were going to help Mrs. Pat and Mr. Ed fix the trail for dog sleds.

 

3泊の食事付パッケージが朝食後に終了し、基本フリーな本日。
この日は犬ぞりトレイルの修理を手伝うことにしました。

 

It was dinner time the day before when I began to think about helping them. At that time, Mrs. Pat said they were going to fix the trail, especially where I had fallen down, for the people who were coming to ride the dog sled on 30th; the day after.
By the way, at that time, I told her for the first time that I had waved my hands just before falling down from the sled. Mrs. Pat looked a little stunned to hear that.

The word, “fix” reminded me of the new trail which we made in order to get the best spot for auroras in the shortest distances from our cabin. It also led to the dog sled trail. I didn’t know what kind of fixing they were going to do, but I was worried that the trail we had made may have bothered the dog sled trail.

I told her about my worry. She said “Oh well. I didn’t tell you everything. We are going to check it tomorrow.”

I was still worried so that my husband and I checked our new trail and the surroundings when we waited for auroras the day before, and we decided to help them.

 

きっかけは昨日の夕食時、パットさんのこの一言。
「30日に犬ぞりのお客さんが来るから、明日はトレイルの修理をしなくちゃ」
特に私がコケた周辺を整えなきゃ、とのこと。
ちなみにこの時、コケる瞬間に私が手を振っていたことを伝えたら、
パットさん「なんてこった」みたいな表情で唖然としていたような・汗

修理、と聞き、私の脳裏にふと浮かんだのが、
私たちのキャビンからオーロラ観測のベストスポットまで
最短距離で行ける道を作るべく、
自分たちで雪をふみふみ新たなトレイルを作り上げていたこと。
それは犬ぞりトレイルにも続いており、
どんな修理をするのかは分からないものの
えらく迷惑なのでは、と不安がよぎったのでした。

そのことをパットさんに伝えると、
「しょうがないわ、私も何も伝えていなかったし。明日見てみるわ」と一言。

それでもやっぱり不安だった私は
昨晩のオーロラ観測時、
自分たちが作ったトレイルや踏み込んだ場所を旦那ちゃんと確認。
やっぱり手伝おう、と決めたのでした。

 

We offered help at the table for breakfast. After breakfast, we all went to see the dogs.

手伝いたいことを伝えた朝食後、まずは一緒にワンコたちのもとへ。

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Today’s breakfast; freshly made waffles and slices of bacon.

朝食は焼き立てワッフル&ベーコン

 

At the beginning, we cleaned the dog’s house and around there by taking their poos away. The dogs looked happy.

まずはワンコたちのおうちのおそうじ(フンとり)をお手伝い。
心なしかみんな喜んでいたような…?

f:id:tmikky:20160210022010j:plain よ~しよしよし…

 

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This is SPOT. Mrs. Pat and Mr. Ed call him “very very shy boy” because he always stay inside like this and never comes out if there is someone near him. Even if it were Mrs. Pat, it seemed difficult to make him come outside.

ちなみにこの子はパットさん&エドさん曰く
“ベリーベリーシャイボーイ”スポット
人が近くに来ると、こうやって自分のおうちに入りっきり。
パットさんでさえ外に出てこさせるのは大変そう。

 

 

Next, we were off to the trail. We shoveled and heaped up the snow in order to fix the trail. The new trail which we made didn’t need a big effort to fix. It made me so relieved.

その後、犬ぞりトレイルの修理へ。
雪をかいたり、盛ったりして整えていきました。
私たちの作ってしまった新たな道は
そこまで大きな修理を必要とするものではなく。内心ホッ

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The dogs who accompanied us like DOZER, YUKIE, and so on were so excited because they could run around the large snow fields without any leash!

ドーザーユキなど、一緒についてきたワンコたちは
雪野原をかけ回ってとっても楽しそう!

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We checked the trail, played with the dogs, and finished fixing around noon.

こんな感じでトレイルをぐるりとチェックし、
ワンコたちと戯れながら修理が終了、お昼どきに。

 

 

We had to prepare all our meals starting from that lunch. We made rice balls by using the rice left over which Mrs. Pat gave us. We ate the rice balls, the coleslaw salads which she also gave us, and sausages which we bought at the supermarket in Alaska.

 

今後の食事はすべて自炊。ひとまず今日の昼食は
パットさんから貰った昨日の残りご飯でおにぎりを作り、
これまた貰っていた昨日の残りのコールスロー
アラスカのスーパーで買ったソーセージなどを食べて、
ごちそうさま。

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We chose the sausage with reindeer meat added.
It was tasty because of the strong taste of meat and spices.
トナカイの肉入りソーセージ!濃い味&スパイシーで美味しかった◎

 

 

In the afternoon, we put on snowshoes which we borrowed from Mrs. Pat and went hiking in the forest near there.

午後からはパットさんにスノーシューを借りて、
近くの森をハイキング!

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I saw just trees and snow and it was quiet. We warmed up and even sweated because we walked longer. It was good exercise.
We went back about the time for feeding the dogs and helped.

 

ひたすら木々と雪だけの風景が続き、とても静か。
かなり歩いたため体はポカポカ、途中、汗ばむほどにも。
いいエクササイズになりました◎
犬のエサやりタイムまでには帰ってきて、お手伝いをして…

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After helping, we prepared our dinner. We ate the biggest Rainbow Trout Salmon barbecued and raw fish, SASHIMI in Japanese, of small King Salmon. Of course, they both were what we caught the day before. We also ate salads and a Portobello, which is our favorite mushroom and we called it “haunted mushroom”, and drank sake which we brought from home in the Seattle.

 

夕食は、昨日私たちがゲットした
どでかいトラウトのバーベキュー
キングサーモンのこどものお刺身
おばけキノコサラダ、家から持ってきた獺祭も!

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About the observation of auroras, it was almost cloudy and we got tired, so we decided to sleep soundly. However, each of us got up and checked the sky at once during that night. It was still cloudy and there was no aurora, either.

 

そしてこの日のオーロラ観測…。
あいにくの曇天に加え、疲れも溜まっていたので
今晩はゆっくり眠ることに。
それでもそれぞれ一度ほど、途中で空は確認したのだけれど、
変わらず曇り空のまま、ノーオーロラだったのでした。