Still Soft

Wonderful mid-April snow conditions at Sallie Barber Mine this morning! Yay!

Start of the outing on soft snow in an array of pre-existing tracks.

We had 6 inches of fresh snow Monday night and another 3 inches Tuesday day. With that new snow amounts, we decided to try out the Sallie Barber Mine Trail for this morning's skijor. It is really hit or miss what you find on this popular trail, especially now that we are into warm April days and subfreezing nights. To our delight, as you see in the photo above, we found a wide swath of ski tracks from yesterday with still very soft snow in and out of the tracks (the snow can get very punchy and/or icy quick this time of year). So, it was a wonderful glide up front side of the trail to the mine this morning!

Once at the mine, the comedians, Jack & Rudy, put on their typical Sallie Barber Mine Skit: rolling snow angels to cool off after the initial climb to the mine:

Rub a dub dub, snow angels at the historic mine.

We then went down and back up the back side of the mine trail. This side is popular with locals and not so much with tourists, so it is always a little less tracked up. But, today was a shock. Only a single set of ski tracks existed on the back side of the mine - wow! If needed, Jack & Rudy can squeeze into a single set of ski tracks. But, I know Jack (also known as Powder Jack) and he prefers to run in the side powder if it is shallow enough for him to keep pace with Rudy running in track. If it is too deep to keep pace on the side, he'll squeeze into the track with Rudy. But, today, the side was shallow enough for Powder Jack to enjoy fresh tracks alongside in track Rudy:

Rudy using the set track while Jack runs in the shallow side powder.
Powder Jack!

As usual with these two, after going down and back up the back side, it was time to fly by the mine as we started the final descent back down the front side:

The Jack & Rudy usual: rolling snow angels on the first pass by the mine
so you can fly on by the second pass :)

Then it was the final descent of the well-used but still very comfortably soft front side of the trail:

Whee! This will be too icy (in track) or punchy (out of track) in a day or
two to safely skijor (for me :)

Today's video highlight? How about a peaceful glide along excellent conditions on the front side of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. Come along for a glimpse into the fun:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, we found nice little snow shelf in the parking lot to climb for end of run treats. But, you had to squeeze in tight and close to fit for the treat handouts :)

The fun kids packed in very tight and close to me to fit for
end of run treats.

A really nice mid-April day on Sallie Barber: 7.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 132 days on the trails covering 1133.0 miles with 112,100 feet of elevation climbed.