Surprise

We were surprised and downright shocked how good we found the trail conditions to be this morning!

Perfect stretch of snow covered trail with soft, not icy, snow to glide along!

I decided to take us back to the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. My expectation was to find a lot of exposed ground and the need to take my skis off to walk over. But, my other expectation was to find patches of really nice trail on the primarily shaded stretches of trail. Well, my first expectation (lots of exposed/impassable ground) was WRONG!!!! Woo Hoo! My second expectation (good conditions in the high elevation shade) was even better than expected. What a surprise treat outing this morning.

With early season conditions and recent warm/dry days, we did encounter the occasional iffy stretch of sun exposed trail, but not so bad that I needed to take my skis off!

Yikes, the snow coverage is getting thin in a few areas!
Luckily, Jack & Rudy know to slow to a gentle trot when we encounter
conditions like this.

Today's video highlight is another great "teamwork video" skijoring with Jack & Rudy. Come along as we start the clip cruising along a nice stretch of trail. Then, about 20 seconds into the clip and we come across some exposed rocks. All I need to do is call out "Easy" to Jack & Rudy (that's our command to "slow to a gentle jog") and we slow to glide through the exposed rocks. Then, once past the rocks I call out "Ok, here we go" and Jack & Rudy know it's ok to takeoff skijoring fast once again. Great teamwork!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Now for today's comedic entertainment from the comedians, Jack & Rudy.

First, we had moose tracks to inspect:

"Sniff, sniff, these smell FRESH!" says track inspecting Rudy.
"Moose went left, we should too!" suggests moose tracking Jack.
Sorry Jack, we are not following moose tracks off trail and into the trees :)

When conditions are good, we like to do a larger outer loop at the nordic center and then a smaller inner loop. But, both of these loops share a section of trail that is sun exposed from sunrise to sunset. I knew there would be no snow coverage along this exposed section. So, what to do? Well, repeat the good patches again and again. We did the lower part of the loop out & back (until the snow disappeared) and then out & back again. We then did the upper part of the loop out & back (again until the snow disappeared) and then out & back again. Of course all of this "out & back" skijoring lead to multiple turnaround events on the trail. The turnarounds did not go unnoticed to Jack & Rudy. Turnaround Roll Around!

"Turnaround, roll around [repeat 8 times]!" says the silly snow rolling kids.
The deck behind us is part of the Hallelujah Warming Hut.

What a shockingly good day out on the trails, right guys?

"Yes! We had a blast!!!!" says the happy kids awaiting end of run treats.

Surprisingly great conditions as we stuck to high elevation and shade protected trails: 8.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 11 days on the trails covering 87.4 miles with 9000 feet of elevation climbed.