Distractible

Riding behind the Siberian Bullet Train this morning on the trails :)

The out stretched speed demons launching me along a fast & wide
nordic trail. Wheeee!

Today's outing had us skijoring upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. While the trails were last groomed yesterday morning, there is still plenty of groom to use once you get far away from the trailhead. Few mere mortals make the full upper elevation loop. So, as you can see in the photo above, the trail (far away from the trailhead) was still near perfect with only a few ski tracks from yesterday. It is so nice to have Jack & Rudy to propel me out to this terrain!

Along the way, we drifted off trail for a quick break before starting a very steep climb. We all know what Jack & Rudy do with breaks:

"Stop, drop & ROLL!" goes snow rolling Jack in the nice soft snow off trail.
Happy Rudy had just finished rolling an angel too (you can see the indentation
in the snow under him). I show this photo, because I saw it coming in his
facial expression...

Wait for it.... Wait for it... WOOOOOOOO :)

Yes, talented Rudy went from rolling a snow angel to flashing me a "you
know what's coming next!" smile into a song of woos - all in a matter
of seconds! Sometimes you have to roll AND woo, just ask Rudy :)

Next we did the steep climb to the highest point at the nordic center. The reward for the climb is being able to FLY down the other side. Jack & Rudy know how to reward themselves for a steep climb:

Catching air near 12,000 feet in elevation at Breckenridge Nordic Center.

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Watch as Jack & Rudy are in a real speed groove, flying along the wonderful, high elevation groomie zoomie. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Now go back the video again and pay close attention at about 15 seconds into the clip and you'll see something has caught Rudy's attention to our left. What was it? I have no idea. I glanced left, but at the speed we were going only a moose would have been visible anyway :)

Was I worried about Rudy's glance left? No! Why? Well, watch the video again and notice Jack is not distracted at all. Jack is the level headed, reliable leader of our team. He only gets distracted by large wildlife. Since Jack had no reaction when Rudy glanced left, I knew it was just distractible Rudy being himself. I often joke that Rudy gets distracted by leaves to moose and everything in between! Want some proof of that statement. Well here you go :)

Silly Rudy getting distracted by a TWIG in the trail! Sure, he doesn't
even break stride; but who gets distracted by a twig? Silly Rudy.
Oh, and there is level headed Jack showing that a twig is nothing to
get distracted about.

From distractible, nosy Rudy to level headed, mellow Jack - the personality range of our fun team could not be wider. But, we do have one thing in common (besides the love to run):

"We both know how to give our full attention for end of run treats!" says the
happy, focused kids atop a snow wall awaiting treats. Clearly Rudy
won "king of the mountain" today getting quite a bit higher than Jack :)

What a fun & energetic morning: 9.4 miles traveled with 1400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 52 days on the trails covering 391.4 miles with 37,200 feet of elevation climbed.