Fresh Tracks

Who was enjoying the wonderful fresh snow this morning?

"I am! I am!" exclaims happy Jack.
"You know if you ask I'll respond in song!" woos silly Rudy.

Today was a surprising and absolutely amazing day of laying fresh tracks in new snow.

We started in the Dry Gulch backcountry and, no surprise here, we were first laying fresh tracks in 4-6 inches of new snow. But, to our surprise and pleasure, we came across the occasional wind blown drift providing us upwards of 10 inches of snow (or more) to blast through for short distances. What fun!

Jack & Rudy blasting through one of the short-lived, but many, wind blown
drifts of fresh powder!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. As you'll see, most of the outing was spent laying fresh tracks in 4-6 inches of snow. But, the occasional wind drift provided some nice powder caches to blast through. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We then dropped onto the trails of Gold Run Nordic Center to extend the day. Well, it was "surprising and amazing" as there was 2-3 inches of untouched, fresh snow over the otherwise groomed and packed upper nordic loop:

Jack & Rudy literally FLYING as we are laying fresh tracks on the
upper loop at Gold Run! What a treat.

Next it became "shocking and amazing" as we transitioned onto the popular and well-used main trail at the nordic center. What did we find? Well, once again, 2-3 inches of untouched, fresh snow over the nordic trail. We were laying fresh tracks on the busy main trail almost the entire distance! It wasn't until the last 1/2 mile or so that we finally encountered other tracks and people. I don't think we've ever been able to lay fresh tracks on this busy trail for almost the entire distance! Shocking!

Laying fresh tracks on the popular & (usually) busy main trail.
Shocking and amazing :)

We did have one turnaround point during the outing. Jack & Rudy were running hard in the fresh snow all morning long; so I fully expected dual snow angels from them to roll in the fresh snow to cool off. Yep:

"Ah, rub a dub dub!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

Laying fresh tracks in the backcountry and then almost the entire distance at the nordic center! Could it get any more surprising and amazing than today?

"No, you cannot top today's amazing outing!" states the happy & proud
kids awaiting their end of run treats.

Today's fresh tracks tally: 9.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 82 days on the trails covering 646.3 miles with 61,600 feet of elevation climbed.