Monday, March 18, 2024

Shoulder Corduroy

Zipping along in leftover corduroy on the right shoulder of this wide snowmobile trail.

Lots of snowmobile tracks going along this trail but look at that wonderful
span of untouched corduroy we found to ride on the right shoulder!!!

Today found us skijoring snowmobile trails on Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. There is a "main trail" that gets groomed a few times a week and then lots of side snow and open meadows for snowmobiles to go explore off the main trail. We like to skijor this main trail as the grooming keeps it from getting too bumpy as you'd find on the side trails. But, the groomer had not been out on the trail for at least a day or two; so, most of the "groomer corduroy" was missing from lots of snowmobiles riding the trail. Thus, most of the outing found us on the following conditions:

Running in snowmobile tracks along the main trail with pretty much all
of the recent groomer corduroy missing.

But, as you saw in the first photo, we found the occasional wonderful stretch where the snowmobiles had converged to the middle of the trail and one or both shoulders had some great leftover corduroy. Jack & Rudy know what to do when they get my skis on a corduroy - floor it!!!

Nice span of corduroy under Jack; so I moved my right leg behind
him, shifted my weight right and, zoom, off we went :)

Now come along for a video example of what I've been talking about. This clip goes along with the first photo above. Just enough leftover corduroy on the right shoulder for us to safely uncork the skijoring engine. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Today's comedic interlude from the comedians, Jack & Rudy, is a really funny one - leap frogging rodent dives! The interlude starts with Jack hopping off trail for rodents as we were jogging. Rudy was to the left and, when he noticed Jack lunge off trail for rodents, he did a beautiful swan dive in front of me to Jack's location. Keep in mind we were jogging when this started - I almost smacked into Rudy as I was trying to stop!

Beautiful high arching rodent swan dive from Rudy as I'm attempting
to stop and not smack into him. Note a bit of Jack's head on the right
edge of the photo as he is already dunked in the snow searching for rodents.

Rudy landed his dive in front of Jack which caused Jack to lunge forward in case Rudy was onto some rodents he may have scared forward under the snow from his first lunge:

BOOM, Rudy just landed his rodent dive.
"Hey bro, are they up there? Here I come!" comes Jack with a little
dive forward of his own.

But, it turns out Jack did NOT land next to Rudy to search for rodents. Nope, Jack  leap frogged Rudy and went rodent searching again. This did not go unnoticed by Rudy who then leapt up to dive again to where Jack had leap frogged. 

"Hey! You leapt past me! Here I come! Incoming!" goes re-diving
Rudy to join Jack's leap frog.

Despite a hilarious sequence of leap frogging rodent dives, neither kid came up from the snow with a rodent in his mouth (as Rudy did recently). Oh well, nice try guys :)

Back to the trailhead for end of run treats. Which was more fun, zooming on the shoulder corduroy or leap frogging rodent dives? 

"We loved BOTH!!!" says the happy & proud kids.

I, of course, enjoyed the shoulder corduroy the most - so much softer on my knees than frozen snowmobile tracks! 9.3 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 110 days on the trails covering 941.4 miles with 91,900 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Cautious to Speeding

Flying to the finish on this morning's fast skijor with smiles all around!

Wheeee!!!!! Such happy kids!

It was "ends of the spectrum" for conditions on this morning's outing. We started in the backcountry and found the trails to be quite slick and icy. Luckily, Jack & Rudy automatically know to proceed cautiously on such conditions. So, it was a gentle jog through the backcountry to start the outing.

Gentle going on slick & icy conditions.

Then, we transitioned onto the groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. What did we find? We were FIRST on the freshly groomed upper loop at the nordic center. What did Jack & Rudy think of the fresh groom? Well, BOOM! Oh my, they were flooring it on the groomie zoomie after being so good and gentle for me on the slick backcountry trails.

Flying on the freshly groomed nordic trail! Zoom!

How much did they appreciate getting on the nordic trails and being able to go full throttle? Well, 25 MPH worth of appreciation as that is the top speed the GPS registered us hitting this morning. Come along for a glimpse into the fast & wild ride as Jack & Rudy topped 25 MPH during this stretch of the outing. Hang on human!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We were going so fast that we did the upper nordic loop twice - first tracks on the first pass and second tracks (to ourselves) on the second pass. Finally, we transitioned onto the mani nordic trail to skijor back to the trailhead. While not first tracks on the main trail, we were third as only two skate skiers had been on this trail before us. Third tracks on a recent groom is still groomie zoomie conditions :)

The hover huskies catching air on the main trail as you can see two
sets of skate skis tracks on the trail before us.

What did Jack & Rudy think of the fresh groom?

"So fun, so fast! Need to roll and cool my jets!" declares snow rolling Jack.
"I approooooooooooooove!" woos signing Rudy.

Finally, back to the trailhead for some well earned end of run treats:

"We had a GREAT time today!" declares the happy, happy kids.

From cautious backcountry skijoring to full speed nordic skijoring all in the same outing: 9.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 109 days on the trails covering 932.1 miles with 91,000 feet of elevation climbed.


Saturday, March 16, 2024

First Tracks

Look at who we ran into out on the trails this morning:

"Hi Mr. Groomer, thanks for setting the trail for us this morning!" says
Jack & Rudy pausing to let the groomer turn right and continue on his way.

If we ran into the groomer, you know what that means. Yep, we were first tracks on the freshly groomed nordic trail for almost the entire outing! After breaking trail in 15+ inches of fresh powder the last two days, it was a complete reversal today as Jack & Rudy were flooring it on fresh nordic trails. Zoom!

Jack & Rudy know what to do on a fresh groom! Zoom!

Zipping around the upper elevation trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center and we were first tracks on the fresh groom the all morning until the last mile or so returning to the trailhead when we finally ran into so other groups of people and dogs. The views of both Jack & Rudy and the Colorado Rockies are stunning at the highest elevation points on these trails:

Fun snow poofs coming off Jack & Rudy's feet with awesome views
all around us.

We got on some wonderful, extended straightaways to really put the pedal to the metal. Wheeee!

Fresh groom and not another soul on the trails. Time to open up the throttle!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Groomie Zoomie!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course all that zooming around meant rolling snow angels to cool off were in order whenever we paused. 

Stepping off trail to roll and cool off in the side snow, aaahhh!

Back to the trailhead and, with all the snow we've had recently, the snow walls created from plows are getting quite high. Today Jack & Rudy were eye level with me for end of run treats!

Now that is a high snow wall and what happy, happy sled dogs!

A real groomie zoomie day: 10.3 miles traveled with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 108 days on the trails covering 922.8 miles with an even 90,000 feet of elevation climbed.