Peaceful Day!

It was a beautiful day out in French Gulch this morning. 2-4 inches of fresh snow at the lower elevations; up to 20 inches of untouched powder at the higher & less traveled elevations; a Siberian beautiful 9 degrees when we started; and not another soul on the trails - just Max, Zorro & I laying fresh tracks all day long! What a gem of a skijoring day!

Our return to the French Gulch winter trailhead. The tracks you

see on the right side of the trail are our original tracks. We had

the trails 100% to ourselves today and were laying fresh tracks

in untouched powder from 2 to 20 inches deep! Woo!

The changing depths of untouched powder made for a fun day with lots of varying speeds:

(1) 1/3 of the outing we were laying fresh tracks in 2-4 inches of untouched powder - the "fast track".
(2) 1/3 of the outing we were laying fresh tracks and breaking trail in 4-10 inches of untouched powder - the "jog track".
(3) 1/3 of the outing we were breaking trail 10-20 inches of untouched powder - the "workout track".

Vital Stats: 6.7 miles; 90m total time; 80m skijoring time (the "workout track" really slowed down our pace - but, boy, was it a workout!); 20 MPH top speed; 900 feet of elevation climbed.

At our "break point" far out in French Gulch. Max burying his head deep in the
snow - notice the top of Zorro's little black ears as he observes Max's snow dive.

Seconds later from the previous shot. Max has rotated around (without lifting
his head out of the snow) as Zorro dives in to help explore...

Did I mention the "deep, beautiful, untouched snow" as you got far out in French
Gulch? As I was planting my ski pole at our break point, it sunk all the way into
the snow without ever touching ground - just the 6 inches of handle is above the
snow in this shot!

A nice shot of our tracks coming up & out of French Gulch. Sunny blue skies
and untouched powder - what a peaceful & fun day!