Melt Mist

Cool shot of the "melt mist" coming off the snowpack in front of us!

It almost looks like smoke. It almost looks like fog. But, no, it's mist coming off a
section of shallow, and thus melting, snowpack.

Our plan was to make a tour around Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning. There are two ways to access Walton Peak. One route is a service road and the other goes across wide and snow covered meadows. The meadows route is always a lot of fun until...

Until the evil river of snowmelt cuts through the meadow and leaves you no way to cross. We chose the meadow route this morning, hoping that one of the snow bridges over the river would still be intact. Well, here is what we found:

"Impassible, time to turnaround!" declares smart veteran Zorro.
"Really, we crossed this river less than a week ago! Can we jump it?" asks young curious Jack.
"I'm just going to drop & roll until you three figure out where we are going!" declares youngest Rudy.

Well, of course we followed Zorro's decision and turned away from the river. The opposite direction takes you on a series of snowmobile trails between Walton Peak and Harrison Creek. These trails are packed by snowmobiles & groomers all winter and maintain their snowpack the longest. Zorro was right, head towards Harrison Creek and it was perfect:

A hovering Rudy Ball with sprinting Zorro & Jack to his right.

A little further and a hovering Jack Ball:

Hovering Jack Ball with sprinting Zorro & Rudy on each side.

Put the two prior photos together and you get today's fun video clip. Come along and watch us skijor this PERFECT patch of trail between Walton Peak and Harrison Creek!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually it was time to turnaround. Everyone having a good time?

"Why YES! Glad you asked!" responds the happy, happy trio.

But wait, did I stop to ask that question? Uh oh, you know what that means...

"Aaahhhh - we stopped I roll!" demonstrates silly snow rolling Jack.
"Well, I'm still having a great time despite goofball Jack!" adds happy Zorro.
"Really? And you all call me the wild one? I can't bear to look!" states Rudy in disbelief :)

A little re-routing necessary to keep on snow; but still a very nice June run atop Rabbit Ears Pass: 7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 130 days on the trails covering 763.8 miles with 70,800 feet of elevation climbed.