Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Preserve the Human

Turnaround point on the trail with Jack & Rudy, everyone having a good time?
"Yep, but turning so we can get going again!' says all business Rudy.
"Ha, yes, but did you know you stopped?" smirks 'about to roll a snow angel' Jack.
Just after the prior photo, I started turning with Rudy until I felt a tug to the gangline left of me. Yes, Jack had dropped to roll a snow angel, but the GoPro on my chest was already turned with Rudy and missed capturing the "always rolling" Jack :)

We started the day with the kids, Jack & Rudy, and eventually added Zorro to the team for the last 1/3 of the outing.

Fun sequence to show that young Jack & Rudy have learned the concept of "preserve the human" because if I get hurt, the skijoring fun is all over! Here is a nice capture of both looking back to check on me after an almost mishap:
"Whoa - you ok back there? We need the human to keep the season going!" says the
concerned pair.
What happened? Well come along and watch. We start the clip cruising along until my skis hit something under the snow. If your volume is up, you can hear it, but even without volume you can see my "stumble" as the ski hit something. It was probably a piece of ice or small rock since I was able to keep upright; but it was enough to interrupt our glide. You'll then notice my perfect partners slow and glance back to check on me. I utter a simple "sorry" as I am recovered and upright, so off we go. But, seriously, if I had said "wait" or "ow" or some accidental profanity (or fallen), you can tell by Jack & Rudy's glance that they were prepared to stop. I know this from experience, they will stop on a dime if they think the human is in trouble! Impressive kids!
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As you see in the video, all they needed was to hear my "sorry" and feel me back in the proper upright position. The human is ok, so we go, go, go!
"Yay, the human is upright - floor it!" says the fun kids.
If you are wondering about the darkness of all the photos above & below, well we started our outing this morning before sunrise and ended just after sunrise but with the sun still behind the mountains around us.

Anyway, done giving the kids a warmup lap and time to meet up with Zorro & Nancy to add Zorro in the team. The fun elder gentleman hooked in and here we go flying to & on by Nancy and further for a nice extended finish with Zorro:
"Hi mom - coming through!" says the happy trio flying to & by Nancy.
On by, so nothing to stop for now :)
"Bye mom! Hope you can catch us!" says the fast pair cruising on by.
We raced Nancy from one trailhead to another. Zorro, Jack, Rudy & I on skis and Nancy in the Jeep. We won!!!!
"Can't catch this!!!!" demonstrates the fast flying trio
beating Nancy from one trailhead to another :)
A nice sunrise skijor going 2/3 of the outing with Jack & Rudy and finishing the final 1/3 with elder Zorro along for the ride: 6.4 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 130 days on the trails covering 880.3 miles with 80,100 feet of elevation climbed.

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