Saturday, February 2, 2013

Packed to Powder

Today had it all: packed fast trails, single track deep trails and dual powder trails....

(1) To start, we were on packed snowmobile trails. Most of this direction was uphill, so being packed helped us maintain a good uphill trot:
Most of the packed trail was like this: 2 separate snowmobile tracks with deeper powder down
the middle. Max & Zorro each chose one track for themselves and I glided along behind,
alternating which track I rode in. Notice the "snow wall" to Zorro's right - about "Zorro
shoulder deep" - fun!
Still trotting along at a nice uphill pace with each Husky choosing their own track.
(2) After cruising the packed track for a while, it was time to take a lesser known/lesser used single track to cut through the forest:
You can see the "single track" in front of Max. If you step out of the track, you sink to your
Siberian shoulders in deep snow. So, it was single file skijoring as we were gliding along the
fresh snow in the single track.
Sometimes the "single track" is not so obvious. But, it is there and Max & Zorro know to follow
the track to keep from sinking deep.
(3) Our final section widened up from the single track into a "2 Siberian Wide" dual track with 3-5 inches of fresh powder:
Wide enough to run shoulder-to-shoulder again in 3+ inches of fresh snow.
Cruising a "2 Sibe Wide" trail with fresh snow is skijoring at its best! :-)
A fun, albeit somewhat short, outing today: 7.2 miles with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and 3 degrees of different terrain to enjoy.

2 comments:

  1. Looks amazing! I was attempting to work today grading lab reports, but found instead I was looking for new skijoring equipment, as I'd gotten rid of mine...but now I have a new pup to train. (Yay!) Any recommendations on gear?

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    Replies
    1. I get my skijoring equipment from Black Ice Dogsledding Equipment (www.blackicedogsledding.com) - they are very prompt shipping orders and the equipment has been very durable.

      As for skis, I go with Rossignol waxless cross country skis. I just find waxless so easy to maintain. Although, you do need to apply "swix glide wax" to them if the snow is extremely wet and sticky - but this only takes a few minutes. I have Rossignol EVOs for deep snow and Rossignol XTours for packed or groomed. I hear Fischer has nice waxless skis too, but I have not tried them.

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