Flirting

 Such a fun skijor outing this morning, right guys?

"You bet! Fun, fun, fun!" exclaims the happy pair at on of our turnaround
points of the morning.

We had a great time skijoring in Swan Valley this morning. We did an "out & back" on the Middle Fork Trail and then a short "out & back" on the South Fork Trail. Come along and watch the fun coming back on South Fork. Despite how nice the trail looks, it was a bit choppy and icy under the morning's new snow. As a result, you'll see Jack glancing back to check on me a few times after the ski makes a "not so pretty" sound scraping a piece of ice. Thanks for checking Jack!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Once done skijoring Middle Fork and South Fork, it was time to drop into the dog sled trails shared with Good Times Adventures. Jack and Rudy love seeing and flirting with the dog teams.

Here we are paused to watch a team going along a trail parallel to ours:

"Hey friends! Over here!!!" says Jack & Rudy.
You can see the musher & sled clearly in this photo. The tops of
the sled dogs are just barely visible in front of the sled.

Further along and we were transitioning from a side trail to the main trail. As we came over a rise where the trails meet, we encountered a team approaching along the main trail. We stopped to yield to this team and let them go on by. Rudy is the "classic sled dog" in this exchange. No matter how much your sled dog loves you, he's willing to drop you in a second to join a moving team if you are stopped :)

"Woo! Take me with! Take me with!" declares Rudy who is suddenly
willing to drop Jack & I to join the moving team. Classic Rudy and
classic "sled dog" :)

Cruising along later and now we are on the main trail as a team approaches from the side trail. Rules of the road: yield to teams on the main trail:

"Hi friends! Passing through, thanks for waiting!" says Jack & Rudy.
You can see the two lead dogs of the paused team watching us and
willing to drop their team to join us instead. Classic :)

Let's go tell Zorro about the fun day, he'll enjoy hearing about our adventures!

"Kids! Glad you came back!!!" says happy Zorro greeting at the
trailhead parking lot.

Fun morning skijoring around Swan Valley and then flirting with dog sled teams: 10.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 72 days on the trails covering 577.3 miles with 50,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Never

 Yay for active snowfall on our entire skijor this morning!

Look at that nice, big flake hitting the camera in the upper center of this shot.
Notice all the small white speckles which are further away snowflakes. Yay!

Oftentimes a video can show active snowfall much better than a single still shot. Come along for a glimpse of this morning's fun as we lay fresh tracks amidst active snowfall all around us. Yay for snow!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

While the active snowfall was certainly a feature of the day, the highlight was our catch and exchange with a fatbiker on the trail. We were cruising along a somewhat winding trail at one point when Jack & Rudy kicked it up a notch in speed. This trail is known for moose, so I was scanning the trees and expecting to see a moose. Instead, as we rounded a corner in the trail, look what we found ahead of us:

Fatbiker ahead!
"We don't do 'second place'! Catch the fatbiker!" declares Jack & Rudy.

It really is true, Jack & Rudy do not do 'second place'. They will floor it to catch anything in front of them on the trails. Sure enough, we caught this fatbiker from behind. When he noticed us, he pulled over to the right and I directed Jack & Rudy to go into the deep snow on the left to pass with a proper distance between us. As we were passing, the fatbiker said, "Wow, you are fast, I've never been caught from behind by a cross country skier!" I laughed and said, "Don't worry, you still haven't - it was all them, not me!" as I pointed to Jack & Rudy. He laughed and gave me an thumbs up to that :)

A little further along and time to entertain an oncoming fatbiker this time:

"Hi! Bye! Made you smile!" declares passing on by Jack & Rudy.
You can barely make out the big smile on the biker's face if you look closely.

Still need some laughs from the day? Well, it was the usual antics when I paused momentarily to assess our time out on the trails to pick a direction to continue:

"You stop, we roll! Wheeee!" demonstrates the stop, drop & roll twins.

Silly kids! Now on to Zorro's entertainment for the outing:

"Poke, poke, remember ME first!" says Zorro as he is poking my leg with
his right paw to make sure I remember who gets the treats first :)

A beautiful morning to skijor amidst active snowfall and entertain a couple fatbikers along the way: 8.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 71 days on the trails covering 566.7 miles with 49,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Cornering

 We had a fast & fun sunrise skijor yesterday morning:

Jack & Rudy zipping along as the sun begins to emerge from behind
the mountains in front of us.

We had a bunch of appointments yesterday, so had to get out early for a skijor outing and didn't have time to summarize and share the fun until this morning. Jack & Rudy got the message that the sunrise skijor also meant a short outing. The result? The two speed demons hit a top speed of 24.2 MPH!

Come along for some more cool sunrise shots:

Approaching Kathy's Viewpoint warming hut as the sun peeks over
the mountains in front of us. Zoom, zoom!

Further along and we are closer to the same mountains as the prior photo but now the sun is still behind the mountain. That is, Jack & Rudy were approaching the mountains faster than the sun was rising!

Approaching the Hallelujah Warming Hut as we have beat the sun rising
to this point on the trail :)

Today's video highlight: as I said, Jack & Rudy were in top "fast form" yesterday morning. The trails were also packed and fast. This meant I really had to ski to take the corners with Jack & Rudy. Come along and see as you'll lose sight of Jack & Rudy on multiple corners as I am tucked and putting all my weight into the inside ski to whip around with the kids! Also, nice form to end the clip as we get to the narrow "end of trail" and it only takes a subtle "Easy, easy" request from me for them to finish gently. Good boys!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

That clip shows just a few of the tight corners I had to drive into to keep pace with the kids. My knees are still feeling the impact of the outing this morning!

All done with the quick outing, let's enjoy 'end of run' sunrise treats with elder Zorro:

Nice shot again of the sun peeking over the mountains.
Nice shot of happy & attentive Zorro, Jack & Rudy :)

A quick & fast run yesterday: 6.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 70 days on the trails covering 558.3 miles with 49,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Powder Day

 It's been a while since Rudy gave us one of his beautiful rodent swan dives :)

"Rodents under the snow! Incoming!" demonstrates diving Rudy.

Along with Rudy's fun dive, it is humorous to notice Jack in the prior photo. He clearly did not detect the same rodent activity as Rudy as he is still cruising uphill. It wasn't until Rudy completed his dive that Jack noticed what was going on! Of course, he circled back to check if Rudy really caught any rodents (no he didn't :)

We had some fresh snow overnight so we headed out to one of our favorite powder trails going up and down Baldy Mountain. Baldy is very steep, so we (or I :) need powder to keep the human alive on this steep terrain. Everyone uses the same initial trail to get up Baldy; but, after a couple of miles, you get into thinning trees as you approach treeline. Once the trees thin, people fan out every which direction to make their own path up & down upper Baldy. We found ourselves laying fresh tracks up our own route for a few miles. We then turned around to reuse the track we set on the way back down.

Well, initially Jack wanted nothing to do with our set track. He wanted to keep plowing in the fresh powder!

Jack blazing trail to the right while Rudy and I reuse the tracks we set
on the way up. Powder Jack!

Eventually Jack decided it really is easier to reuse the track you set up on the way down. Come along for a fun clip of us reusing the track we set on the way up. First tracks up and then second tracks down!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I mentioned, when you are down in the trees, everyone uses the same trail. So it was fast, fun and packed down lower:

Zooming along the common trail below treeline.

Even when in the trees, though, Jack, Rudy and I know some secret, lesser used trails to get our own fresh powder stash:

Breaking trail in our private powder stash!

What a fun way to make use of a powder day!

"Glad you wore those kids out!" states Zorro.
"We certainly earned our 'end of run' treats today!" adds Jack & Rudy.

Fun powder on steep baldy: 6.1 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 69 days on the trails covering 552.1 miles with 48,700 feet of elevation climbed.

WNWNW

 Jack & Rudy flying along the trail this morning. Zoom!

Zoom, zoom, zoom!

The three of us have put together a new combination of trails this year around Sally Barber Mine. In all of Max & Zorro's skijoring years, we would combine Sally Barber with French Gulch to get a nice 7-10 mile skijor outing. But, French Gulch is now a plowed road to houses and no longer a cross country ski trail. The Sally Barber Mine Trail, on the other hand, is a wonderful trail but too short to skijor just that trail. So, Jack, Rudy & I have put together a pattern linking the wide (Sally Barber) and narrow (Trail of Tears) trails into a fun set of laps.

We start on the fast & wide Sally Barber Mine Trail:

Lap 1 on Sally Barber - hover huskies!

We then loop back through the forest along the narrow Trail of Tears:

Just wide enough to glide along should-to-shoulder.

We then make a second lap on the fast & wide Sally Barber Mine Trail:

Switched sides, same result: hover huskies :)

Then another lap back through the forest. At times this trail is often only 1 Siberian wide:

Following Jack on the narrow single track.

Finally, it's back to the fast & wide Sally Barber Mine Trail. Come along and watch part of the last lap on the fast & wide trail. You'll note a few small rises in the trail that Jack & Rudy launch me over. If your volume is turned up, you'll hear me saying "Whee or Woo or Whoa!" as I whoop over the rises :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Fun day as Jack & Rudy now have a new skijor route incorporating Sally Barber Mine that Zorro only did parts of a few times in his skijor career!

"The kids did something new? Wow!" says impressed Zorro.
"We did, we did - we can make routes too!" declares proud Jack & Rudy.

Our second time skijoring this new Wide/Narrow/Wide/Narrow/Wide (WNWNW) pattern of trails: 8.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 68 days on the trails covering 546.0 miles with 47,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Cruising

 Starting out the day skijoring from Breckenridge to Frisco on the Blue River Recreation Path. Wheeee!

Off we go for a wonderful skijor from Breckenridge to Frisco!

The rec path follows the Blue River from Breckenridge to Frisco and, along the way, we get many opportunities to run alongside Highway 9 (which mirrors the river too) along the way. Here is one of our many flirts with the cars along the highway. The SUV to our right gave an approving honk and yelled, "Woo!" out the window to us :)

Laying fresh tracks in the light layer of new snow as we entertain the 
cars along Highway 9.

The rec path gets groomed and, every once in a while, you find yourselves the first tracks on a freshly groomed track. Fresh groom = zoom!

First tracks on this stretch. Zoom!

But, most of today found us laying fresh tracks in the light layer of new snow over the groomed trail:

Fun footprints behind Jack & Rudy as we continue to entertain
the cars out on Highway 9.

Is that a stop sign ahead of us in the prior photo? Yes, indeed. Side roads turn off the highway and cross the rec path at 5 different points along the way to Frisco. At each crossing, I have to take my skis off, walk over the road and put the skis back on. Well, that means we stop 5 times....

This is what happened at each of the 5 crossings :)
"You futz with your skis, we'll roll snow angels!" declares the goofy kids.
As you see by the sign, we just crossed the road leading into the Breckenridge
Building Center from Highway 9.

But, in between the 5 road crossings, it was ENDLESS skijoring from Breckenridge to Frisco. Come along for a fun glimpse into the endless ride behind Jack & Rudy. Fun!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

End of a very entertaining skijor and time for 'end of run' treats. I love how Jack & Rudy so politely yield to retired Zorro first at every end of run event. 

"Ready!" declares Zorro.
"Of course we let him go first - he taught us EVERYTHING we know!" 
adds patiently waiting Jack & Rudy.

Another fun skijor trip from Breckenridge to Frisco: 8.3 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 67 days on the trails covering 537.9 miles with 47,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Flying Reindeer

"I'm known as Rudy the Flying Reindeer. Let me show you why!!!" exclaims super happy Rudy.

You don't see a set of faces much happier than this!

Rudy is known as the flying reindeer for two reasons. First, he's Rudy (think Rudolph) and he has a red nose. Thus, "Rudy the Flying Reindeer" from "Rudolph the (flying) Red Nosed Reindeer." Second, well, Rudy literally FLIES around the trails :)

We did our fun "mix up of trails" this morning where we start in the backcountry, then drop onto fast groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center and then exit via the backcountry again. Once on the nordic trails, Jack & Rudy were in super fast form this morning as we topped 24 MPH as a top speed!

We did two fast laps around the nordic trails and Rudy decided to really showcase his flying reindeer skills. Here we are on the first lap - flying Rudy!

Beautiful form from the flying reindeer!
Jack is no slouch himself, but Rudy really has the "fly form"!

Second lap, same as the first: Rudy the Flying Reindeer!

Beautiful shot of flying Rudy!
Jack is right there with him in speed; but, oh my, Rudy sure has some
impressive lift and fly in this shot!

Put it all together and you get this fast & fun 'Skijor Minute' for today's video highlight. Zoom is pretty much how to sum up the day!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, doing two laps means you really need to 'cool the jets' and roll in the snow after the second pass:

"Fast & fun, but need to roll and cool the jets!" demonstrates the silly kids.

Finally, how about this for a close knit trio ready for their 'end of run' treats?!? Good thing we all like each other!

The trio in tight ready for me to dish out the pork treats!

A fast & fun day showcasing Rudy the Flying Reindeer: 8.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 66 days on the trails covering 529.6 miles with 46,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Good Dogs

 "Hello! We had so much fun skijoring this morning!" says happy Jack & Rudy!

Such happy kids at our turnaround point. Oh, don't worry, they rolled snow
angels before posing for this shot (note the snow on Rudy's nose leftover 
from rolling in the snow :)

Lots of fun to be had on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. Come along for the ride.

We started in the morning shade topping 23 MPH on the Gluteus Maximus Trail. Zoom:

Nice power from Rudy and nice speed from Jack. Wheeee!

We then got out of the shadow of the mountains and into the early morning sun. Such nice views:

Cool clouds, mountains and morning sun to our right.
Impressive Jack & Rudy flying along the trail :)

Here is a really cool shot that needs a little explanation to appreciate. It was snowing nearby with a slight breeze while we are flying along this trail in the sun. So, all the white speckles you see against the trees are snowflakes being blown onto us from the nearby snow via the morning breeze. Look straight up from Jack's right ear and that white blob is a snowflake that just hit the camera. Snowing while the sun is shining, pretty cool.

Snowing? Yes. Sun shining? Yes. Cool.

Now for today's video we get good dogs and bad dogs. Good dogs: Jack & Rudy towing me along the trail and then stopping on command when we encounter loud barking dogs coming up the trail. Bad dogs: the two coming up trail barking excessively as their human can barely get them slightly under control. Good dogs: Jack & Rudy silently waiting for the bark frenzy to get close enough where I can release them to run away from the bad dogs and finish taking me to the trailhead. I like good dogs :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Good dogs get 'end of run' pork treats!

"We were all good dogs today!" says the happy & focused trio.

Lots of cool photos today with an impressive video of good dogs Jack & Rudy: 9.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 521.4 miles with 46,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Fly and Flirt

 Jack & Rudy showing their usual disregard for "trail signs" :)

"Hey, we can't read! Go, go, go!" demonstrates the fast running duo.

We had a fabulous morning skijoring the trails in Swan Valley. We started the day doing an 8 mile loop towards and then away from Georgia Pass. The south direction of the loop was a wide and well-used trial. But once we turned to come back north, we were on a much lesser used trail that winds through the forest:

Winding through the trees on a trail roughly one snowmobile wide.
Laying fresh tracks in about a 1/2 to 1 inch of fresh snow too!

Come along and watch some fun video footage of the romp through the forest. Gliding behind Jack and Rudy as we cruise through the forest. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After the 8 mile warmup lap, it was time to reconnect onto the "dog sled" trails used by Good Times Adventures back closer to the trailhead. I paused to listen for teams to decide which direction to go. Well, I stopped:

"You stopped, we ROLL!" demonstrates the goofy kids.
Love the look on Jack's face :)

I did pickup what I thought was the sound of teams in the area, so off we went to flirt with the teams on the trail. Here is a nice shot of us paused for a team coming towards us before veering off on a trail to our right:

"Hi friends! Bye friends!" says onlooking Jack & Rudy.
They LOVE running into teams on the trail to flirt with :)

A great day with a fast 8 mile warmup lap and then 2+ miles of "seek & flirt" with the dog sled teams. We need to tell Zorro all about it:

Happy trio at attention for the 'end of run' party!

10.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 64 days on the trails covering 512.3 miles with 45,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Catch the Groomer

Look what we found on the trail this morning - the groomer!

Oh boy,  a day of "catch the groomer" fun!

"Groomer ahead, groomer ahead!" declare fast running Jack & Rudy as
we came upon this groomer after rounding a corner on the trail.

It's always fun to catch & play with the groomer on the trail. The groomer drivers love it too as they always wave and smile at us. It turns out that Jack & Rudy are faster than a groomer on flat, downhill or slightly uphill terrain whereas the groomer is faster on any steep inclines. I think today's groomer driver was having as much fun as us! Here we are at a loop in the trail where the groomer turns around (the groomer went right where Jack & Rudy are heading before looping around the trees in the center to come back towards us). We had just finished a steep incline to this point so the groomer was ahead of us. The driver stopped and waited for us at this junction and then smiled and made a "come on" gesture with her hand/arm for us to follow :)

"Hi groomer! Take your head start and we'll come after!" says Jack & Rudy.

I stopped Jack & Rudy for minute or so to give the groomer a big head start and then off we went racing behind. The result? We caught the groomer again of course!

"Groomer ahead! Caught it again!" says flying Jack & Rudy.

Come along and watch one session of "catch the groomer." When the video starts, I have just released Jack & Rudy from a pause to start up again. If your volume is up you'll hear me say, "Woo Hoo, Catch the Groomer!" as we take off. Jack & Rudy knew what I was saying and zoom we go. Eventually we do catch the groomer (as shown above) and I pause Jack & Rudy again to give the groomer another head start. Fun day of "catch the groomer"!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After a fun few rounds of pause/chase/catch, the groomer turned right whereas Jack, Rudy and I needed to go left to head back towards our intended trailhead. Our final glimpse of the groomer for the day:

"Bye groomer, it sure was fun running with you!" says Jack & Rudy.

Finally, back to the trailhead to celebrate the fun day with elder Zorro:

"You should have seen us 'catching the groomer' big bro!" says proud
Jack & Rudy.
"I know, I taught you both that game!" declares Zorro who had many
days of 'catch the groomer' in his skijoring career :)

Fun day of 'catch the groomer': 8.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 63 days on the trails covering 502.0 miles with 44,300 feet of elevation climbed.