The winter blues settle in when people get sick of staying indoors, watching the same reruns, and knitting tiny mittens for their house centipedes. Get back to nature and out of that teeming lair of insects with today's Groupon to MUSHERS Dog-Sled Tours in Warren. Choose from the following options:

• For $75, you get a Simply Perfect dog-sledding adventure for two, available Sunday–Thursday at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3 p.m. (up to a $150 value).
• For $79, you get a Just a Smidge dog-sledding adventure for two, available Friday–Sunday at 9 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3 p.m. (up to a $250 value).
• For $99, you get a Tiki Torch Trails dog-sledding adventure for two, available Monday–Friday at 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m., and 9 p.m. (up to a $240 value).
• For $120, you get a full-day overnight Evergreen Dream adventure for two, available Monday–Thursday and departing at 12 p.m. (up to a $550 value). The adventure includes:
  • Two meals
  • Heated tents
  • Winter camping equipment

All tours include:

• Experienced guide
• Five-dog sled team
• Sleds and harnesses
  
  

Adventurers must be at least 13 years old to drive a sled with a guide’s permission, or to participate in evening or overnight tours.

Leading teams of purebred and rescued siberian huskies, MUSHERS Dog-Sled Tours takes up to six participants on hands-on rides through local wilderness. Delve into a light sledding experience and command a pre-harnessed five-dog sled team on the one-hour Simply Perfect tour. Following a 15-minute tutorial on sled anatomy, turning, and braking, experienced guides lead groups on 45-minute jaunts over varied terrain and through occasional yeti flash mobs on snow-swaddled trails. On two-hour Just a Smidge tours, guides teach their protégés how to harness their dogs and assemble teams before instructing them how to drive the sled. Two riders take their places on each sled to traverse winter tableaux, stopping along the way to snap photos and pen heavy-metal albums about the landscape. At tour's end, sled drivers glide back to the kennel to feed and reward their canine compatriots. One-hour Tiki Torch Trails tours lead adventurers on nighttime trail runs after a briefing on sled and team control. Lit by headlamps and glowing trailside rows of tiki torches, rider pairs and their five-dog teams carve the snow on a silent 45-minute tour, interrupted only by the sounds of the woodland creatures' nightly pyrotechnics shows.

Drivers can also explore the challenge of a full-day and -night wilderness excursion on the Evergreen Dream tour. Up to six guests convene for a one-hour briefing where guides divulge safety information, technical sledding tips, and team-assembly instructions. Following winter survival lessons such as identifying the edible parts of a snowman, teams embark on a two-hour afternoon trail excursion and return to base camp in the early evening to care for their canines and craft their own starlit supper. Sled drivers get back on the trails for independent night runs, and retire to heated tents and weather-tested sleeping bags at night's end to learn empathy for Jack London's butler. After cooking their own breakfasts, drivers lead dog teams on a final two-hour morning run. Drivers and riders keep the same teams for the duration of their trip, and may check in with guides for assistance at any time.