Short Fun Run

Today's skijor outing was a short fun run covering 6.3 miles with 750 feet of elevation climbed.

Why short, you ask? 1 degree at the trailhead with steady snowfall and a constant to gusting wind.

"No, really - why a short run?" ask my curious partners who found nothing chilly
about the day's conditions...

We spent most of the day laying fresh tracks on 2-4 inches of new snow on trails in the forest. This kept us somewhat protected from the wind gusts so it was just lightly falling snow with a steady wind.

Happily trotting along & laying fresh tracks in the forest.

Happily sprinting along in 2-4 inches of fresh snow.

Trot, trot, trot - a fun & fast trail for most of the day.

It wasn't "fast, fresh tracks" all day as we encountered a few stretches of breaking trail in 8-10 inches of snow - fun workout!

Letting Max do the "trail breaking work" along this stretch of deep snow.

And, occasionally we had to deal with the intense wind gusts bringing the wind chill down to around 30 degrees below zero.

Riding Zorro's lead through a gusting meadow.
The haziness of the photo is blowing snow.
Notice all the tails drifting and pointing to the right (the strong wind was blowing left to right).

For the most part, we did a good job of hiding from the wind gusts by staying in the trees. But, oh my, were the wind exposed sections cold!! A quick 6.3 miles with 750 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 60 days on the trails covering 514.4 miles with 60,350 feet of elevation climbed.