Is it even a dog? Not interested.

Can you just feel the power behind the impressive sled dogs in this photo. Wheeee!

Flooring it up a slight rise in the trail as I glide behind powerful Jack & Rudy!

We started today's outing in the backcountry; but with recent warm days, cool nights and no new snow, the backcountry trails are getting a bit slick and icy. So, we dropped onto the groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center after a short trot through the backcountry. The nordic trails were PERFECT. As you see above, Jack & Rudy were flooring it once we got onto safe terrain. All that speed, though, means you really need to roll snow angels to cool off during any pause in the outing :)

"Rub a dub dub, cooling our jets!" says the snow rolling sillies.
Talented Rudy is rolling AND eating snowcones at the same time :)

We love running into the groomers out on the trails. The drivers know us from years of skijoring and we typically have fun passing interactions with them. But, today, we came upon the groomer rounding a corner and did not have a chance to safely pass. So, my pals and I stepped off trail to let the groomer come on by as we all watched approvingly and waved (ok, I waved, not Jack & Rudy :)

"Hey dude! Thanks for the groom, we are going to zoom!" says
approving Jack & Rudy watching the groomer come on by.

Sure enough, behind the groomer is a freshly groomed trail. Jack & Rudy know what to do with a fresh groom: Groomie Zoomie!!!!

Catching air on the fresh groom. Wheeee!

We continued flying along the fresh groom until we started encountering other people coming up the trail. But, no need to slow down for oncoming traffic - fly on by!

"Coming through! Hi, bye, made you smile!" says Jack & Rudy to the
oncoming skier. The kids love entertaining the oncoming crowds
and flying on by.

Finally, let's get to my favorite part of this morning's outing. We start today's video highlight with a nice clip of Jack & Rudy towing me to the finish of this morning's awesome skijor outing. As we arrive at the trailhead, there is a little loose snack dog meandering about. Watch Jack & Rudy's great "not interested" reaction to the barking snack dog. "If you aren't working, pulling a human or pulling a sled, are you even a dog? Not interested!" is the reaction the pest gets from Jack & Rudy. Classic! Love it!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Everybody knows working dogs get "end of run treats" :)

"You have our full attention! Was that barking thing even a dog?" says
my wonderfully focused partners.

Beautiful outing once we got onto the great nordic trails: 9.3 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 500.3 miles with 47,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Bluebird Day

It was a beautiful bluebird morning to catch some air high in elevation at Breckenridge Nordic Center!

Catching air on this beautiful morning skijor at over 12,000 feet
above sea level. Wheeee!

Today's outing took us to the higher elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. Despite being high in elevation, we start the outing flying along in a dense forest of trees.

Jack & Rudy literally flying along a perfect nordic trail in the woods!

Then, we climbed, climbed and climbed in elevation until we got over 12,000 feet amidst thinning trees. The reward for the climb? Well, turning around and flooring it back down! Come along for today's beautiful high elevation skijor clip as the GPS registered us topping 24 MPH. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually it was back into thicker trees but still beautiful bluebird conditions:

What a glorious morning!

Along the way, those pesky rodents under the snow distracted Jack for a moment. He had to lunge off trail to dig for the rodents. Rudy is always quick to follow with one of his beautiful high arching rodent dives to go searching for rodents himself!

"Dig, dig, I KNOW they are under the snow right here!" goes rodent dunking Jack.
"Oh really? Well, then, INCOMING!" joins Rudy via one of his patented
rodent dives.

Time to turnaround, everybody having a good time?

"You bet!" exclaims happy Jack.
"WOOOOOO, me TOOOOOO!" adds singing Rudy.
Oh, don't worry, they both rolled snow angels immediately after this shot.
The "stop, drop & roll" professionals :)

Over 9 miles and topping 24 MPH - now that's how you earn end of run treats!

"Yes, we earned them, dish them out!" says the happy & focused kids.

A zooming day on fast & wide nordic trails: 9.3 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 64 days on the trails covering 491.0 miles with 46,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Rec Path

The happy sled dogs flashing their beautiful smiles for the camera as we concluded this morning's fun skijor outing:

"Hi Mom! We had a BLAST today!" says the happy kids flashing their
smiles to Nancy with the camera on the side of the trail.

Today was our first outing this season skijoring the Blue River Recreation Path from Breckenridge to Frisco (the next town north of Breckenridge). The kids were juiced to GO this morning as we hadn't skijored the rec path yet this season. See what I mean:

Catching air at the start of the day's outing. Wheeee!

Come along for the video evidence of Jack & Rudy "shot out of a cannon" to start today's outing. The clip starts with us stopped as I am completing getting my gear in order. Then I give the "ok" and like a cannon shot we go. We slow slightly to cross a bridge over the Blue River and then boom again once we are off the bridge and back on solid ground. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

This route is fun as it mirrors both the Blue River and Highway 9 which go from Breckenridge to Frisco. Many times the rec path is close enough to the highway that we gets approving honks and even people rolling down their windows to holler in approval. Jack & Rudy love putting on a show for the highway riders!

Whee - flying along as you can cars on Highway 9 to our right.

Along the way, we have to a few side streets intersection the rec path from Highway 9. Each such road crossing has me taking off my skis, crossing the exposed road and then putting the skis back on. I'm pretty fast at getting the skis off; but I'm slower in getting them back on. Well, Jack & Rudy make full use of every pause to re-attach the skis: Stop, Drop and Roll!!!

The funny kids rolling snow angels while I put my skis back on after crossing
the road leading into the Breckenridge Building Center.
They never miss a chance to Stop, Drop and Roll :)

Eventually we get to the Adventure Park at the south end of Frisco. As we enter the park, we pass by a (very distracting :) stable. Jack & Rudy do run on by the stable; but it also gets their FULL attention, especially Jack!

4 horses in view to our right. Jack is FULLY aware of the cluster of horses.
Rudy gave a slight glance to the horses; but Jack is always the most distracted
by them :)

Finally, down to the trailhead parking lot and even lower elevation Frisco (lower than Breckenridge) has snow walls to climb for end of run treats:

"Such a fun day! We love running the rec path!" says the happy & focused kids.

What a fun way to travel from Breckenridge to Frisco: 8.4 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 63 days on the trails covering 481.7 miles with 45,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Snow Angels

Jack & Rudy catching some serious air flying along the Gluteus Maximus nordic trail:

"Whee, we can fly!" says the impressive hover huskies.

For today's outing, temperatures were above freezing the entire time. Sure it was still in the 30s (F) but above freezing. That is HOT to Jack & Rudy. I knew we were in for some serious rolling of snow angels to cool off at any turnaround point during the outing!

Sure enough, turnaround point #1 and we got "Snow Angels with a View" from the funny kids:

"Gotta hop off trail into deeper snow to roll and cool off!" declares the
sillies. Nice mountain views in the background too!

Then it was back to skijoring and flooring it at every chance along the way:

Zipping along with more nice views! Wheeee!

Then, we got to turnaround point #2 of the day. Well, Jack & Rudy were clearly "on fire" by this point and really needed to roll, roll and roll some more to cool off. Typically they roll snow angels for about 5 to 15 seconds before hopping back up to start running again. Well, not today! Come along and watch today's video highlight to see for yourselves. The clip starts out with us approaching turnaround point #2. Now watch as the goofs proceed to roll, roll and roll again for almost an entire minute! Finally, if your volume is on, you'll hear Rudy sing one of his beautiful WOOs to end the clip. What silly kids!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Then it was back to skijoring again until we came upon turnaround point #3. What do you think happened? 

"HA! Fooled you! We didn't drop & roll at point #3!" says the surprising
but very happy kids.

No need to roll at point #3, so I they are cool enough to floor it again. Yep:

Zipping by the Hallelujah Warming Hut.

Finally, keeping with some of the "view themes" above, how about 'end of run treats with a view?

"Ready!" says the happy & focused kids perched atop a snow wall with
more nice mountain views in the background.

A fast, fun, warmish and extended snow rolling day: 9.3 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 62 days on the trails covering 473.3 miles with 45,1000 feet of elevation climbed.

Surprise Dusting

We got a surprise dusting of new snow this morning to help make otherwise hard packed & slick trails quite enjoyable!!!

Fun snow poofs coming off Jack & Rudy's feet as we zip along
in the surprise dusting!

The forecast for this morning was "warm & dry" conditions. While the "warm" was correct, the "dry" was not and we started our outing amidst light snowfall that had started an hour or so earlier and left a nice dusting of new snow on the trails. I refer to this type of dusting as my Safety Dust as it enables me to go on trails and speeds that I would not have attempted without a little dusting to provide me control and safety. 

It was such a nice dusting that we were able to skijor side trails I would have definitely otherwise avoided this morning!

Zipping through an old "mining days" ghost town on a trail that would have
been too slick & icy for me to ski without the safety dust!

The dusting was also just enough for me to comfortably let Jack & Rudy fly on by any & all oncoming traffic. The kids love to flirt and fly by the oncoming traffic:

"Coming through, wheeee!" says the fun kids flying on by.
Rudy always gives an extra flirtatious glance if he is on the inside
when we pass on by. He is such a flirt!

Now come along for the video counterpart of the prior photo. We start out on a fast straightaway in the sun (which had just broken through the clouds). This section of trail gets all day sun and would have been too slick for me to go this fast safely without the safety dust. So, zooming we go until we dip back into some denser trees, round a fun corner and then fly on by the oncoming skiers. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I mentioned the "warm" part of the "warm & dry" forecast was accurate. With temperatures just around freezing, Jack & Rudy really needed to roll snow angels to cool their jets at our turnaround point.

Snow angels with a view :)

 Nothing quite like a surprise safety dust to allow you to floor it all day, right guys?

"Oh that was FUN! Love the safety dust!" says the happy kids
awaiting end of run treats atop a tall snow wall.

Nothing quite as magical as a surprise safety dust when you expected hard packed & slick conditions! 9.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 61 days on the trails covering 464.0 miles with 43,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Tug of War

Everybody having a good time today?

"Oh you bet! We are having a BLAST!" says the happy, happy sled dogs.

That prior photo is a rare one from Jack & Rudy. I used to get "synchronized happy face" shots from my original pals, Max & Zorro, quite frequently. But, with the Jack & Rudy comedians this is a rare synchronicity. Typically I get a "happy Rudy face" along side a snow angel rolling Jack or a "happy Jack face" along side a woo singing Rudy or a snow rolling Rudy. But, today we got a rare synchronous smiles from the two goofballs :)

We had another rarity today too - taking interest in a stick we encountered on the trail. Typically, Jack & Rudy will ignore most sticks along the way. But, every once in a while, a certain stick draw interest from one. Well, if it draws interest from one, then it ALWAYS leads to subsequent interest from the other. This dual interest tends to morph into a stick tug of war and today was one such occurrence:

"I found the stick first!" declares Jack,
"Don't care, if YOU are interested in it, then I am too!" responds Rudy who
proceeded to start this tug of war with Jack over the rare interesting stick :)

Ok, two rare events documented, now it is time for what we really did today - skijoring!

We started on technical trails in the backcountry:

Wheeee!

We then dropped onto the wide & groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. When we first drop into the nordic center, we are far from any trailhead. As a result, we start out on trails that get very little traffic as most humans cannot propel themselves this far. So, we had trails that were groomed yesterday but still pretty perfect from very light traffic yesterday:

Zipping around a corner with pretty nice "day old" conditions far
from any trailhead.

How nice was it far from the trailheads? Well, nice enough for Jack & Rudy to FLOOR IT and top 23 MPH skijoring this morning. Come along for a glimpse into the fast, fun & wild ride:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually, though, we have to make our way back to civilization. Once we got onto the primary trail (and, thus, near the trailhead), the surface was pretty tracked up from lots of use yesterday. No problem, though, Jack & Rudy can catch air on any type of trail conditions :)

Whee - catching air along a pretty tracked up trail.

Finally, it was time for one of Jack & Rudy's patented maneuvers of their very own - climbing tall snow walls to get face to face with me standing for end of run treats!

We are basically eye to eye as the funny kids found a VERY tall snow
wall to climb today!

A really beautiful day for a fun, fun skijor with my pals: 9.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 59 days on the trails covering 445.2 miles with 42,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Soft

Fun shot from the front of the happy, happy sled dogs towing me to the finish of today's skijor outing.

Smiles all around - such happy kids to be towing me in the snow!

We started the day laying fresh tracks in the backcountry. I was a bit surprised how much fresh snow there was as we had less than an inch or so at home. But, we'll take any and all fresh powder!

Wheeee - fresh tracks fun!

After touring around the backcountry, we dropped onto the wide trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. The nordic center's traditional big, heavy snowcat groomer is out of commission; so they are using snowmobiles towing grooming sleds to maintain the trails until the snowcat is repaired. As we dropped onto the nordic trails, we came across one of the snowmobile groomers:

"Hey, cool setup!" says impressed Jack.
"Interesting!" adds curious Rudy.
You can see the "grooming sled" behind the snowmobile that is being
towed to try and maintain the nordic trails.

There is one primary drawback of a snowmobile + grooming sled versus a grooming snowcat: the snowmobile is no where near as heavy as a snowcat. We have had upwards of 4 feet of new snow fall in the last 4-5 days; so the lightness of the snowmobile really shows. While a heavy snowcat packs snow pretty firmly, a light snowmobile leaves a very soft trail behind when there has been a lot of new snow. The result? Well, it is quite a workout for my pals to gallop through soft terrain. No complaints from anyone in our team, it is just quite a workout - compare this to running in sand!

Impressive Jack & Rudy still catching air despite the very soft trail
conditions. These kids are professionals :)

Now come along for the video counterpart to what I described above. Watch as Jack & Rudy are running hard and getting quite a workout on the soft trail (notice all the snow poofs and their footprints deep in the snow to get an appreciation for how soft it was). What a fun workout for all!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The trails at Gold Run are in a known moose habitat. Along the way, Jack & Rudy pulled a sharp right off the trail to inspect a deep moose trough leading into a very moosey meadow:

Only a big moose can walk through snow this deep and not leave any
indentations in the snow from its belly - just deep moose legs posts!
"Moose went this way! We should too!" suggests silly Jack & Rudy.
I vetoed this suggestion :)

Since we failed to get any moose meat, we might as well settle for our pork end of run treats instead:

"Ok, we'll accept the pork; but why couldn't we go find the moose?" asks
the happy kids.

A little backcountry fresh tracks fun followed by a nice workout on soft nordic trails: 9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 58 days on the trails covering 435.8 miles with 41,400 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Dumping

For the third day in a row, Jack, Rudy and I found ourselves breaking trail in over a foot of fresh, new snow! Wheeee!

Look at that power as Jack & Rudy are blasting through almost 2 feet
of fresh powder at this point of the outing!

When you are skiing, snowboarding and/or snowmobiling in deep snow, it is often referred to as "snorkeling" as your head is often barely above (or below) the deep snow. Well, today we have a classic shot of Jack snorkeling as he & Rudy are breaking trail in snow about as deep as they are tall:

Love Jack's nose up in the air to keep above the "Jack deep" snow he is
blasting through. Snorkeling!!!

In addition to wonderful deep snow this morning, it was also actively DUMPING snow all outing long. The only drawback of active, heavy snowfall? Well, the camera continually collects snow and gets blurry. Both photos above are clear as I had just wiped the camera clear of snow. Most of today's footage looked like the following photo:

Jack & Rudy blurred by two things: 1) snow collecting on the camera; and
2) deep snow they are submerged in while blasting through!

How hard was is to keep the camera clear, well today's video highlight shows you. This clip starts with a blurry camera which I wipe clear after about 3 seconds. Then you get to see the beauty of Jack & Rudy romping through a foot of snow until less than 50 seconds later when the camera is blurred by snow again. Perfect day for Jack, Rudy & I; rough day for the camera :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I did wipe the camera clear at our turnaround point of the day and, well, the kids did their turnaround usual :)

"Stop, drop & ROLL in the wonderful deep snow!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

What a wonderful snow day, right guys?

"Oh that was FUN!" says my snow covered pals awaiting end of run
treats atop a tall snow wall.

An aerobic day of breaking trail in deep snow amidst active, heavy snowfall: 4.6 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 57 days on the trails covering 426.8 miles with 40,600 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Reroute

We found over 2 feet of fresh, untouched snow on this morning's skijor outing!

Jack & Rudy powering through 2 feet of powder. Impressive.

My original plan for the day was to do a one way skijor, starting from one trailhead and finishing at another. We had new snow overnight, so I was expecting to be laying fresh tracks with Jack & Rudy on my one way plan. Well, as you see above (and below), the new snow was WAY deeper than I expected. As the snow got deeper, it was clear that my one way planned route was not a good idea today:

Stalled for a moment in a ton of deep snow.

While Jack & Rudy have no problem breaking trail, I like to reward them on deep snow outings with "out & back" routes. That means they get to break trail in one direction and then reuse the track we set on the way out on the way back. It's nice to give them that reward for hard trail breaking work on the way out. So, I rerouted us a different direction to a trail that Jack & Rudy know is an "out & back" as that is the only option on this particular trail (unless you want to skijor 20+ miles one way to the next trailhead :) So, cruising we went until I announced it was time to turnaround and head back. Everybody ready?

"Not yet, need to stop, drop and ROLL an intense snow angel first!" goes silly Jack.
"Woo, you bet! Let's floor it back!" adds Rudy singing in approval.

So, then it was time to reuse the track we worked to hard to set on the way out. Whee!

Enjoying our "out track" on the return.

But, while running back in your "out track" in 1-2 feet of snow is easier (than the way out), it is by no means EASY! Come along for today's video fun to see what I mean. Watch as Jack, Rudy and I are having fun bouncing up, down, back & forth in today's ton of fresh snow. Wheeee! 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and my pals are very willing to accept 'end of run' treats after a deep powder workout this morning:

"Ready! You have our FULL attention!" says the focused pair.

It's always fun when you get to announced "today's skijor was slowed by 1-2 feet of powder!" - 6.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 56 days on the trails covering 422.2 miles with 40,300 feet of elevation climbed.