Scrapes and Glances

Uh-oh....

An unauthorized session of "tag & tackle" breaking out as we reached the
historic Sallie Barber Mine this morning :)

You know what came after the prior photo! Yep, BOOM, tag, tackle, wrestle, flip, flop, duck, dodge - you name it, the playful kids did it!

Prior photo aside, we really did skijor the Sallie Barber Mine Trail this morning. We are still dealing with the aftermath of last week's super windstorm as we have not had new snow to cover any of the tree debris littered on the trails. For the most part, it is just minor debris that we can easily run and glide amongst:

Zipping along with minor tree debris scattered on the trail.

But, there are locations where large and often many trees fell across the trail last week that had to be removed by chainsaws. Unfortunately, in removing these large downed trees, a lot of sawdust and tons of little branches remain littering the trail. While not as bad as exposed rocks, my skis still made a awful scraping noise each time they grazed a pile of dust & twigs. Check this out, for example:

You can see the remnants of the large trees that fell forward and to our left.
You can also see the dust & twig debris covering the trail.

Jack & Rudy are great partners, of course, and they automagically slowed when we approached difficult debris for me to ski over. In fact, each time either of my skis made a scraping noise, one or both of them would glance back to check on me. Such great pals:

"You ok back there, that didn't sound good?" asks the great kids glancing
back to check on me after one of my skis scraped across a patch of twigs.

Now come along for the video fun of what I'm talking about. This clip starts out with us galloping along amidst minor, no issue, debris on the trail. Then, about 30 seconds into the clip and we get to a swath of heavy debris from downed tree removal. Watch as Jack and/or Rudy glance back to check on me a total of 7 times (each time one of my skis scraped) as we pass over this swath of debris. What great partners to keep checking on me!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I was happy as can be to dish out end of run treats to my perfect partners who had my well being in mind as we scraped through some sketchy patches of trail!

"We'd rather slow, glance and keep you upright than not skijor at all!" declares
the great kids awaiting end of run treats atop a mini snow wall.

A fun, albeit short, outing on the parts of Sallie Barber Mine that have had the downed trees removed (there are sections that are still blocked by trees): 4.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 16 days on the trails covering 94.9 miles with 11,500 feet of elevation climbed.