Mid Winter in Late April

Look at these awesome "mid winter like conditions" we found this morning in late April!

Laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow atop an otherwise
perfectly flat & packed trail!

How was this possible? Well, the light layer of new snow is thanks to Mother Nature. The trail is the furthest from civilization on what is Gold Run Nordic Center during winter. But, the nordic center is closed and few, if any, make it out to this trail without a groomer helping pave the way. But, I have Jack & Rudy and that is as good as a groomer for me :) So, this particular trail has sat pretty much untouched since the nordic center closed 3 weeks ago.

So, a trail that has been packed by a groomer all winter + a trail too hard/far for most people to get to + a nice layer of fresh snow from Mother Nature. Well, Jack & Rudy knew what to do with these surprisingly great conditions in April. Come along and watch the video highlight to see for yourself:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way we did side "backcountry out & back" to visit one of our favorite old mining ghost towns in this area. This is probably our last visit to this location this season as it is very sun exposed and melting fast:

Whee! Zipping by all the old mining buildings in this cool ghost town.

The tracks you see in the prior photo are our own out tracks. Well, that meant we had to turnaround at some point before coming back through the ghost town. Well, yep, you guessed - turnaround, roll around!

Snow angels with a view from the comedians almost intertwined to stay
on the snow and not hit that dirt in front of us :)

Eventually, though, we had to come back to civilization. As I expected, the trail near and leading to the trailhead had been very tracked up with lots of post holes. But, with the morning's new snow (safety dust, as I call it), we were able to continue at a nice pace over the chopped up trail:

Catching air with the help of the safety dust along a trail full of
deep footprints and post holes.

That was fun, right guys?

"Oh yeah! We liked zooming on the mid winter conditions best of all!" says
my fun pals happily awaiting end of run treats.

Some surprisingly nice conditions for most of this late April outing covering 8.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1155.7 miles with 114,600 feet of elevation climbed.