Off Trail

Going "off trail" to lay fresh tracks on the endless spring crust for mile & miles - wheeee!

Laying fresh tracks over Dry Lake. Yes, skijoring over a frozen lake!

Today is probably our last time skijoring over a lake for the 2016/2017 season as we are entering a week with no snow and high temperatures in the forecast. So, we made the most of our last chance to skijor a lake. Wheeee!

Temperatures overnight dropped below 20 F and remained in the 20s all morning. We knew this meant the spring crust would be solid enough to hold our weight. We also had 3+ inches of new snow fall yesterday all over the terrain. The results of "low temps + new snow"? Well, we abandoned all set trails and found ourselves happily laying fresh tracks as we made our own path across frozen lakes, open meadows and groves of trees. What a fun outing!

Kicking up powder behind us as we lay fresh tracks atop the spring crust over an open meadow.

Tree skiing with Max & Zorro is so much fun. They politely keep the speeds to a jog or trot as they listen to my left/right/forward commands to weave us through the forest.

Trotting through the trees as we listen to all the mushers directions. Perfect!
Note the fox tracks going perpendicular to Max & Zorro as they ignore the tracks and
listen to my "forward" instructions. What partners!

Although some would think temperatures in the high teens/low 20s are chilly, some would not :)

"Oh man, soooo hot - must roll to cool off!" demonstrates silly snow rolling Max.

A beautiful day to abandon set trails and lay fresh tracks for miles & miles atop the spring crust: 9.4 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 1042.3 miles with 110,500 feet of elevation climbed.