Do you have to be a skier or a snowboarder to enjoy winter? Absolutely not! The key is to just get outdoors and do something. If you don't, the winter truly becomes unbearably long.
I recently went on a dog sledding adventure with Hank DeBruin and his team of adorable dogs and helpful humans at Winterdance; an Ontario dog sledding tour company that operates out of the Haliburton Highlands near Algonquin Park.
After a quick lesson on all the key commands (turns out "hike" is the new "mush"), we took off with our team of six very excited dogs. They effortlessly pulled us along a pristine wilderness trail that took us through the woods and across frozen lakes surrounded by ice drenched cliffs. Hank led the team for the first twenty minutes and then we switched up so I could try my hand, or more importantly my foot at guiding the team. Turns out the dogs like it if you help pushing too!
I would highly recommend it. You can do a two-hour, half-day, full day, moonlight or multi-day dog sledding trip. The two hour trip is $120.
If you like the atmosphere of a great ski resort, but don't ski, no worries! Many of the big ski resorts across the country offer just about every outdoor winter activity you can think of. Big White, situated just outside Kelowna, is home to mountains of kid-friendly diversions, like the Happy Valley Adventure Park, with ice skating on two illuminated outdoor ponds, tubing at the Mega Snowcoaster Tube Park, Mini-Snowmobile rides and the Ice Climbing Tower.
If you prefer something a little more serene, consider Jasper's Icewalk tours, canadianoutback.com/Jasper-Ice-Walk. It allows you to experience the wonders of Jasper National Park's Maligne Canyon from the ground up as an ice walk adventure guide leads you through a maze of fascinating ice sculptures along the canyon floor. You will step into a surreal winter world of ice caves, fossils and towering frozen waterfalls stretching more than 30 metres up the canyon walls.
Whistler's Snowmobile Fondue Tour combines the best of the outdoors with a wonderful dining experience. You drive your own snowmobile up Blackcomb Mountain and wrap up the evening with chefs serving a gourmet three-course candle-lit fondue dinner in the Crystal Hut, a rustic, Canadian-style log cabin perched at 6,000 feet.
And for those who really want to celebrate winter, check out some of our great outdoor festivals. Winnipeg's Festival du Voyageur is Western Canada's Largest Winter Festival. It kicked off with the Winter Solstice and the opening of the Arctic Glacier Winter Park, but the Saison Voyageur spans over ten weeks and peaks with ten days of celebrations at the Festival du Voyageur, which starts this weekend.
For outdoor hockey enthusiasts, check out the largest pond hockey game in Peace River and Lac Cardinal taking place from Feb 17 to 20, 2011. The game will feature 440 players participating in one game of pond hockey!
