Back to Boreas

We have got enough snow the last few days to reopen the trail up Boreas Pass for skijoring!

Laying fresh tracks up Boreas as you see a few of the ski runs from Breckenridge
Ski Resort coming into view in the upper right.

The lower part of the Boreas trail had melted down to dirt & mud as of just 4 days ago. But, with two decent snowstorms in the last three days, Boreas was back to life this morning. We got out early and were first on the trail and found ourselves laying fresh tracks almost the entire time up Boreas.

Hmmm, we were "first on the trail" but were laying fresh tracks "almost the entire time up" - how could that be? Well, we were second on the trail for a short stint. Who was first? A MOOSE or two or three!!!!

"FRESH MOOSE TRACKS!" exclaim the excited and energized trio.
Draw a straight line starting between Jack & Rudy to the bottom of the photo - this line will
touch three large "two toed moose prints" in the trail.
Zorro found another set of tracks to the right as well. At least 2 moose had been on the
trail very recently.

The moose tracks lasted for about 20 yards until we saw the moose had doubled back and left the main trail. Veteran Zorro is an excellent "moose tracker" and Jack is starting to learn use his nose to determine which way the moose went too. Youngest Rudy is still too enthralled with the tracks to worry about direction yet :)

"Moose went THIS WAY!" say Zorro & Jack trying to convince me to abandon trail
and skijor down the cliff to the right :)
"I'm just taking in the WONDERFUL moose track smells!" adds directionless Rudy.

Obviously I vetoed Zorro & Jack's idea of chasing a moose off a cliff :) About 10 yards past this photo and the moose tracks ended; thus the reason we knew they doubled back and left the trail where Zorro & Jack identified. Then it was back to laying fresh tracks the rest of the way up Boreas.

Time to turnaround and head back down. Right after the turnaround, Jack & Rudy hopped in our "up track" for an easier ride down while Zorro wanted to keep laying fresh tracks in the shallow powder in the right shoulder. Come along and watch the fun skijoring back down Boreas:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually Zorro decided we could make faster progress if we all got "in track". It is amazing how tight these three can get if the trail requires it for fun speed!

Fun Siberian Husky trio fitting tightly into the ski track we set on the way up.

Laying fresh tracks and inspecting moose tracks - a great way to earn your end of run pork treats:

"Well, we didn't get 'moose meat', so hand out the 'pig meat'!" declares the focused trio.

A real treat to get back on Boreas Pass so late in April: 5.8 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 106 days on the trails covering 603.3 miles with 56,300 feet of elevation climbed.