Closing out an incredible "May winter" with excellent snow pack to carry us into June!
"We have had SO much fun this month!!!" declares the happy & focused trio at the
end of our morning run.
How great was our May winter? Well, consider this - we had a very warm April and were wondering if we would really be skijoring into June as April ended. Then, Mayuary came and put our trails back into February or March like conditions. Take a look at the endless snowpack in the following photo from today, May 31st!
Sprinting along endless snowpack as far as the eye can see! What a May winter we had!
We got a later start to the outing than we prefer this time of year. The result, the trails started to really soften during our outing. The prior photo was near the start of the day and the crust looks (and was) very firm. But, now take a look at the softening conditions near our turnaround point of the morning:
A cluster of slush balls coming off Jack (visible in Zorro's shadow).
Lots of footprints & ski tracks in the softening snow.
Softer and softer the trail became until slush was flying off Zorro, Jack & Rudy and into the camera (and me)! All the white speckles you see in the blue sky and against the trees are slush balls flying off my partners' feet and into the camera. Attack of the slush bombs!
Speckles of slush all over the place :)
There is one good thing to do with soft snow - roll in it! Just ask Jack & Rudy:
"Aaahhh - rolling to get the soft, cold snow into our fur!" declares the silly pair.
"These two are such snow rolling goofs!" says Zorro.
Completing the day's outing and Rudy flashed a happy "Hi Mom!" to Nancy as we ran by to finish the day.
"Hi Mom - what a fun day!" flashes Rudy to Nancy.
"Still going!!!!" say happy & forward looking Zorro & Jack.
You could not ask for a better May 31st that we had today atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Snowpack as far as the eye can see with a perfect crust to start the day but quickly softening snow to complete the day: 6.9 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.
Come back tomorrow as we will get out early to celebrate Zorro's 11th birthday on the great snowpack!
2018/2019 Season to Date: 126 days on the trails covering 735.3 miles with 68,800 feet of elevation climbed.
Third day in a row skijoring the incredible late May spring
crust atop Rabbit Ears Pass!
Flying Zorro with sprinting Jack & Rudy alongside.
Love shots of the Flying Z!
Today was quite the wild and exciting outing. It started out
fast & perfect as you see in the prior photo. But, the day
was sprinkled with wildlife encounters! Come along for the
highlights.
We were cruising along when suddenly we encountered moose tracks!
If Zorro stops to inspect then you KNOW the moose tracks
smell very fresh (Jack & Rudy are still perfecting their
moose freshness detectors and they fall for all ages of moose
tracks :) Fun thing to notice in this photo - there is
another set of moose tracks to the right (look behind Jack).
The moose tracks we are sniffing are postholes in the crust
but the tracks behind Jack are on top the crust! Clearly
the postholes were a mother moose and the tracks on the
crust a baby. But think about how solid the spring crust
is if it is supporting a baby moose!
"Yes kids, these are FRESH!" states intense Zorro.
"So deep and so aromatic!" add the kids burying their noses
in the moose postholes.
Despite the freshness, we did not see the moose. So, we continued skijoring for a ways and look what we came across again - more moose tracks! Only a single set this time, wonder if it was
a lone male with a beautiful antler basket on top his head?
"Fresh again! Tasty!" states moose inspector Zorro.
"Love the scent of moose!" adds the youngsters.
Once again, despite the freshness we failed to see any moose.
We had TWO more encounters with moose tracks with the same
pattern: fresh enough to interest Zorro but no sightings.
Now, here is a new one. We were cruising along one section
of the crust when a coyote suddenly appeared to our left and
started howling at us! This brought my partners to a halt to
turn and inspect the coyote. This was our FIRST ever coyote
encounter while skijoring. Looking back at my notes and today
was Zorro's 1082nd skijor outing but his first coyote encounter!
"You talking to US?!?!?!" asks the intense trio stopping
to take in the howling coyote you see across
the ravine between
Jack & Rudy.
Amazingly, talkative Rudy did NOT talk back (stunned silence :)
But, this was too close for me, I ordered my pals to reverse
and high tail it out of there. But...
"Hey, it's following us!" declare Zorro & Jack noticing
the coyote shadowing us to the left.
"Huh, thought we were going fast again?" says oblivious Rudy :)
Yes, indeed, the coyote was shadowing us in the trees to our left. Luckily, Zorro & Jack are very responsible and kept listening to me to go forward instead of drifting towards the coyote. I kept us moving right to move away but we were in a heavily treed area and it kept shadowing us in the trees for
at least a mile! Finally we got to an open straightaway with less dense trees and
floored it. At this point the coyote lost interest. Yikes - too much excitement!
Oh yeah, we did get in some skijoring without wildlife.
Come along for a fun & fast stretch of the outing.
First ever coyote encounter - I am ok if this is the
only such outing we ever have (a little
unnerving being shadowed & stalked):
6.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed
and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2018/2019 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 728.4 miles with 68,100 feet of elevation climbed.
Great shot from the front as the happy sled dogs tow me to the finish of today's fast & fun skijor!
Smiles all around! Love running on snow and towing the human!!!
There are two types of fun airborne shots to capture of my partners. There is the "airborne sprint tuck" (or the "hover husky") and there is the out-stretched sprint fly. Here is one of each in the following: a hovering sprint tuck from Jack with an out-stretched sprint fly from Zorro. Also notice the wide angle in this shot as you see the immaculate spring crust atop Rabbit Ears Pass on May 26th!
Sprint tuck next to a sprint fly next to an almost flying reindeer Rudy :)
Over the years I have, of course, captured lots of airborne sprint tucks & flies from Zorro. I also have a captured young Rudy in both a tuck and fly. But, to date, I have only captured Jack in a sprint tuck many times while he has seemed to always had a toe or two still on the ground when out-stretched. Well, today was the day I captured my first flying Jack. What a handsome and impressive sprint fly!!!
Flying Jack! Flying Jack!!!!
It is always the most fun to capture the trio in a synchronized tuck (or fly). Here is today's hover husky trio. Impressive again :)
Hovering over the snow! Notice the impressive "high lift" from almost 11 years old Zorro
in the middle!
I often mention the great fun we have on the spring crust as we abandon set trails and make our own path. Since there is no trail, my partners have to listen to me. I choose our path through verbal rights, lefts and forwards called out to my perfect listening partners. Come along for today's short clip demonstrating great teamwork as I call out some rights then guide us left by simply turning (they feel my direction and move left without command) until a final left to finish the clip. These three are so much fun to skijor with - they listen PERFECTLY!!!
Zipping along a perfect trail atop Rabbit Ears Pass!
I did not think Rudy would do an 8+ mile skijor this season. I figured by the time he was old enough to go that far that the conditions would not allow it. Oh boy was I wrong. We have had a great Mayuary and the conditions atop Rabbit Ears Pass this morning were near perfect! So perfect that young Rudy made his first 8+ mile skijor (8.1 miles).
Of course, it is late May, so we did see the occasional "signs of summer"...
Open water to our right but perfect crust straight ahead and to our left!
But, despite a few open water sighting like above, the majority of the day looked like the following photo. Endless snow as far as the eye can see and a perfect crust to let us skijor any direction we chose!
You won't find a much more impressive May 25th "snow photo" than this!
Flying Rudy next to hovering Zorro & Jack as we have endless crust to skijor all morning.
Come along for today's short video highlight as we were cruising all over Rabbit Ears Pass like you see in the clip all morning long!
Time to turnaround, time for silly antics from the kids and time for happy smiles from Zorro:
"This is the best May 25th EVER!" exclaims happy Zorro.
"Did you expect different from us at the turnaround?!?!" says the silly snow rolling pair.
I mentioned the other day that young Jack & Rudy still get distracted by EVERY form of wildlife. From moths to moose - if it is alive, they are hunting! Zorro, on the other hand, knows that tiny wildlife is useless - if it's not a moose, elk, deer, bear or porcupine then it is of no use to him :)
Here we are getting ready to hand out the end of run pork treats and look who is the only one paying attention! There were a couple of chipmunks running around the bush in front of Jack & Rudy. Hmmm, a hunk of pork from me or a skimpy chipmunk in the bush? What would you pick?
"Pork!!!! Just give it all to me!" says smartly focused Zorro.
"But, look at the chipmunks! Can we have both?" asks the silly hunting youngsters.
They did abandon the chipmunks for pork eventually. Silly kids!
Rudy's first 8+ mile skijor! 8.1 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.
2018/2019 Season to Date: 123 days on the trails covering 714.4 miles with 66,800 feet of elevation climbed.
Another 6 to 18 inches of new snow on our short trail breaking outing this morning! Mayuary!!!
Love this shot of the powder plowing trio. We are in upwards of 18 inches of powder
here as the trio launches themselves (and me) over and through the May Powder!
Our plan for the day was to return to the same trails we used yesterday. After an aerobic outing setting the trail in 5-10 inches of snow yesterday, we were expecting to reuse yesterday's tracks for a more gentle outing today. Well, so much for that plan. We had only a trace of new snow at our house; but once we got to yesterday's trails we found 6 inches of new snow at the trailhead. The further we went, the deeper it got until we were breaking trail in over 18 inches of snow. This was all new snow in the last 24 hours as we were same trail we set a track yesterday!
Come along for the start of today's run. Do you see any existing tracks in front of us? Exactly, me either even though we set a fresh track on this EXACT trail just 24 hours ago. POW!
Within a 1/2 mile of the start and we had transitioned from 6 inches of snow to 12-15 inches - in just 1/2 a mile distance!
A good view of the snow depth around Jack as Zorro & Rudy are hopping and
plowing through.
At our turnaround point and another good view of the snow depth from Zorro & Rudy. Jack is demonstrating what a great snow angel you can roll in 12+ inches of new snow :)
"Wow - deep out here today!" says happy Zorro.
"No kidding - glad winter is back! April was a long summer!" adds young Rudy who is now
convinced our warm April was actually summer and we are now back to winter :)
"Ahhh!!!!!" says snow rolling Jack.
Swan Valley is known for its moose population. At one point, Jack & Rudy leaped off trail to our left. Given the frequency of moose in this area, Zorro & I fell for the kids' antics and drifted left to look too:
"Wildlife this way!" declares the youngsters.
"Hmmm, let me see...." adds Zorro.
What did we see? Well, nothing! Jack & Rudy are still young enough that they both are enthralled by every form of wildlife. I joke that they react to everything from a moth to a moose...
"Nothing of any value! Children, cannot believe I fell for their false alarm!" declares Zorro,
abandoning the silly kids and their false alarm.
"No wait, I think we see a moth!" adds the over reactive kids :)
People ask now and then if Zorro rolls snow angels - especially given the frequency of Jack & Rudy with Zorro typically just looking on. Well, yes, Zorro enjoys the occasional roll in the snow too, just not every single outing like Jack :)
"Hey, I enjoy a roll to cool off now & then too!" demonstrates Zorro.
"What a silly big brother!" adds the kids.
Another day in May where we were slowed to a crawl by incredibly deep snow! 4.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a "trail breaking" top speed of 12 MPH.
2018/2019 Season to Date: 122 days on the trails covering 706.3 miles with 66,300 feet of elevation climbed.
Laying fresh tracks and breaking trail on Mayuary 22nd - Wow!
It was quite an aerobic outing with 5-10 inches of new snow on our outing this morning. You know what the youngsters are going to do at our turnaround point on such an aerobic day :)
"Look at all this untouched snow!" says Zorro surveying the options in front of us.
"Stopped, rolling!" demonstrates upside down Rudy.
"Hey bro - come join us!!!!" snow rolling Jack says to Zorro.
We went to the South Fork Trail in Swan Valley hoping that the morning's new snow had refreshed the deteriorating trails. Well, yes indeed, we found ourselves laying fresh tracks in 5+ inches of new snow and eventually breaking trail in up to 10 inches of powder. May Pow:
The May POW Trio powering through powder to tow me along!
We did an "out & back" for the majority of the outing. That meant we could reuse the track we sent on the way out for the way back. Polite Jack & Rudy let elder Zorro have the middle track while they took side tracks.
Whee we go as we are able to open up the throttle using the track we set on the way out!
Today's short video clip shows our "track reuse" as we were able to open the throttle somewhat by running in our "out track" on the return. Fun taking advantage of our uphill work on the way back down!
As we came around one bend in the trail, I saw what looked like endless open water ahead. "Oh no!" I thought as all I saw was open water from far away. But, Zorro is our water expert. I always ski behind Zorro in October and May. Zorro will NEVER touch water (he hates it). As I ride behind him in Oct/May, if I see him start to long jump, I quickly cut left or right as this means there is water under the snow (but small enough for him to long jump). If I see Zorro cut right or left then I follow as he is declaring the "water under snow" is too big to long jump and we must go to the side. He has never been wrong about water hazards. So, we continued towards the open water and I let Zorro figure things out. Well....
"I found a safe crossing!" declares smart Zorro. He took us directly to this point!
"Look at all that open water!" says perplexed Jack.
"I'll be over here playing while you 3 work out a way to cross!" adds silly young Rudy.
Of course, Zorro was right, he found a safe crossing! I got my skis lined up and closed my eyes and said, "Ok, let's go" for Zorro to guide and tow us through!
"It's solid enough! Perfect!" says leader Zorro.
"Boy, you SURE are smart!!!" says Jack following Zorro's lead.
"What's wrong with the water?!?" adds still silly Rudy.
It is not often you get to say "happily slowed by deep snow" in late May! 5.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and modest top speed of 15 MPH (you try running in 5+ inches of snow :)
2018/2019 Season to Date: 121 days on the trails covering 701.9 miles with 65,800 feet of elevation climbed.
"We LOVE snow! We LOVE skijoring!!!!" states the happy, happy trio during a quick
pause on the trails this morning.
We went to the trails that span Peaks 7 & 6 of the ten mile range. I expected the conditions at the trailhead to be bad but also expected the conditions up high to be perfect. So, we decided to brave the conditions down low at the trailhead to get to perfect higher up. But, what I did NOT expect was to find the trail PLOWED from the trailhead! Egad!
This trail is a hike, bike and service road in the summer as the ski resort uses it to service lifts and trails on Peaks 6 & 7. Apparently the ski resort thinks summer is going to happen as they had taken out one of their snowcats to plow the road. Egad! Luckily a snowcat does not plow down to dirt; but it does remove a ton of snow and leave very choppy "cat tracks" on the trail. Oh my was it choppy and bumpy from the start:
Look at that snow wall to our left - that is how much snowpack the cat removed!
Look at those snow boulders to our right - this is the snow that was removed!
Look at those cuts going perpendicular to the trail (the "cat tracks") - oh boy was it bumpy!
Despite the cat plow, we did have a plan. The service roads bears left after about a mile or so while the trail goes both left and right. As expected, once we veered right (away from the cat plow) and continued climbing it was PERFECT!!!! Laying fresh tracks in an inch or so of new snow on May 19th! Perfect:
May 19th Freshies. It was SO nice up high. Wow!
We did an "out and back" run and were the only tracks on the trail once we got out of the cat plow. Here we come on the return laying fresh tracks to the right with our "out tracks" to the left.
Zoom - still laying fresh tracks!
That is Peak 6 of Breckenridge Ski Resort in the upper/center of this photo.
Occasionally the trail got narrow enough that some of us had to run in our "out tracks". Jack was in "freshies mode" all morning long. If someone had to drop into our "out tracks", Jack moved himself to the right of the team to continue freshies for himself :)
"Love laying fresh tracks!" demonstrates freshies Jack.
"I'll take any part of the trail as long as we are going!" adds Rudy.
"Flying down the middle!' contributes Zorro.
Today's video highlight showcases just how nice it was up high. Come along for some perfect skijoring on May 19th. So nice up high!
Back to the trailhead and time to celebrate a great May run with end of run treats:
"Ready!" say happy & focused Zorro & Jack.
"I can taste them already! Clearing my palette!" adds slurping Rudy.
An interesting range of conditions this outing. A bumpy 1ish mile up, a perfect 4.6ish mile out & back up high and a TOUGH 1ish mile back down. It got so bumpy and plowed that I eventually had to take my skis off and hike the last 1/2 mile. I do have a backpack which can hold my skis, so the hike is not as bad as if I had to carry skis... 6.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.
2018/2019 Season to Date: 120 days on the trails covering 696.5 miles with 65,300 feet of elevation climbed.
A cute "Hi Mom" from the two youngsters at our "end of run" meeting.
"Hi Mom! Zorro gets the first end of run treat, so
we'll flash you a smile waiting for our turn!" say
cute Jack and Rudy.
"Me first!" says focused Zorro :)
We spent the morning atop Rabbit Ears Pass skijoring along
Dumont Lake and then between the lake and Rabbit Ears Peak.
While the spring crust was still nice and solid, we did encounter
a few sad "signs of summer"; but fun was still had by all.
Here we are cruising along the main trail to Dumont Lake and look
and we encountered to our left - exposed asphalt! Eek! There is a
paved road to Dumont Lake Campground in the summer, so this
underlying asphalt heats and becomes exposed first during the
spring heat up. But, it is still always sad to see! A fun thing
to note in the photo: draw a straight line from Rudy to the top
of the photo and this is Rabbit Ears Peak. The two rocks on top
of the peak are the ears of Rabbit Ears Pass. They look so clear
in person but then so small when reduced to a photo. I have been
on a never ending quest to get a shot of the ears that looks good
once reduced to a photo. Oh well, not yet...
"Eek - asphalt!" I said.
"No problem, plenty of snow on the shoulder!" declares the
sled dog trio.
Nice hover from Zorro & Jack with out-stretched
Rudy to their left.
As we approached Dumont Lake, we turned to go get a view of the
lake. In the heart of winter the snowpack is good enough at
Rabbit Ears that snowmobiles can cross over the lake. We went
to check the status of the lake. Well, it was EEK again!
We are on the shores of Dumont Lake in the following shot and
the dark spots you see to our left are exposed water and the
super shiny spots are paper thin ice. Eek!
Eek - exposed water and thin ice to the left. This was as
close as we allowed ourselves to the lake as
who knows
where it really starts under the dwindling snowpack.
After turning away from the lake we headed towards Rabbit Ears Peak.
Along the way you encounter the official Rabbit Ears Pass Marker.
I paused to get a shot of the marker and, well, I paused...
"Yep, you paused!" say the snow rolling twins.
"When are you ever going to learn! What goofs!" adds Zorro.
Once we were all upright again, on towards the peak. Note all the
prior photos are somewhat dark as it was early in the morning with
overcast skies. I brightened all of the photos as much as possible
and they were still this dark.
Anyway, on the way to the peak and... Bingo - a great shot of the
two rock ears atop Rabbit Ears Peak! Also, notice that the clouds
parted on our approach - a beautiful sunny shot of the ears!
The ears, the ears, we got a great shot of the ears!!!!!
Oh, nice snowpack & crust up here near the peak too :)
Today's video highlight - cruising towards Dumont Lake with Rabbit
Ears Peak in the front/center along the way (far away at this
point, but front and center). And, yes, I am pretty far to the left
of my team to start. The conditions were slick and icy so I was
to the left for safety. Eventually, I sense less slickness so I
slide behind the team to glide along the trail behind them.
How were the condition at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning?
"Fabulous, absolutely FABULOUS!" declares the happy trio when I paused to ask.
But, wait, did I really pause? Yes I did, so you know what that means....
"You stopped, we roll!" demonstrate the snow angel twins.
"Ba Ha Ha, can't believe you stopped and thought we'd continue without this!" states
laughing Zorro :)
We spent the morning on the northern terrain at Rabbit Ears, running the on the endless crust northwest of Dumont Lake. There are a lot of interesting sights to visit in this area. Come along for the fun...
Running by the "cattle staging" pens in an endless snow covered meadow. Imagine how much vegetation there is for cattle to graze on once all this snow melts!
"Where's the beef? No cows here, let's continue on!" says the fast trio gliding by
the cattle pens.
Cruising by the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL. The SNOTEL is the tower in front of this hut (it looks like a small radio tower) while the hut is just supporting machinery for the snotel. A SNOTEL is a device which tracks and measures a wide range of environmental conditions. The most fun measure is the snowpack. As of this morning the SNOTEL reported we are on 38 inches of snowpack at this location. SNOTELs provide great, in depth reports for farmers, ranchers, rafters, fishers, snowmobilers, skiers, wildlife monitors, fire monitors, flood monitors, etc etc... Fun to be able to skijor right by such a great device!
"Hi SNOTEL, bye SNOTEL - nice to have 38 inches today, but wish it was more!" says
the trotting by trio.
Another sight - the CDOT snowplow staging farm. This is where all the snowplows live to clear Rabbit Ears and nearby roads all winter. I thought the photo would come out clearer, but we were just a bit too far away before I turned us around. Oh, well, look very closely. You can see two large blue canisters directly above Rudy and you can barely make out the set of buildings above Jack & Rudy.
"Hey - a snowplow farm! We are snowplows too!" states the trotting trio.
But, the best sight of the day? Endless & wide open meadows with a solid spring crust to run through and make your own path. Come along and watch the fun:
Look at those happy boys patiently waiting for me to come up the trail to hook up and start an incredible run atop Rabbit Ears Pass this morning.
"We are READY!!!!" says the trio so happy that I am finally coming up the trail
to join them.
Unfortunately, today's blog is one of lost footage. Unbeknownst to me, the GoPro camera shutoff very early into our outing and very little of the day was recorded. Unbeknownst to Nancy, she had a big thumb print on the cover of her camera so we got no arrival or end of run treat footage. It is too bad as it was an INCREDIBLE day on the solid snowpack around Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. The crust was solid enough to let us make our own path while the temperatures we also just warm enough so that the snowmobile tracks on set trails were soft enough to use as well!
What fun we had. Oh well, come along for what footage we did capture...
Starting off on the snowmobile trails going to Walton Peak. Zoom we go up the hill!
Riding the skijor tow rope up the trail!
Over the first rise in the terrain and time to test the crust going down the backside of the rise. Zoom!
Floating Jack & Rudy with outstretched Zorro. What a perfect crust!
The path we took crosses over a river that is covered in deep snow all winter. At some point in May or June, the river becomes completely exposed. It is always amazing to see how big this river actually is when you consider you have been skijoring over it for months!
The river is becoming exposed in places, but there are still plenty of solid "snow bridges" to cross it. We came upon our first sinkhole exposing the river and Rudy was FASCINATED. As this is Rudy's first May skijoring, this was the first "spring melt sinkhole" of his life. It was Jack's 2nd or 3rd time seeing such a sinkhole as he had a few short training runs last May. It was, of course, at least the 50th, maybe the 100th sinkhole Zorro has encountered :)
"Whoa - look at that FAST running water!" exclaims curious Rudy.
"I don't think you should go so close to the edge!" suggests smart Jack.
"Yes kids, that's an evil 'sinkhole of spring melt'!" adds veteran Zorro.
Shortly after the sinkhole, the darned GoPro just turned off. This does not happen often, but it is such a bummer we lost the incredible footage of the excellent conditions after we crossed the river and went higher and higher up Walton Peak.
Oh well, a great day that only Zorro, Jack & Rudy know about :) 7.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.
2018/2019 Season to Date: 117 days on the trails covering 676.0 miles with 63,200 feet of elevation climbed.
