Sniff

Jack smells moose in the neighborhood!!!

"Sniff, sniff, moose in the hood!" declares moose detecting Jack.
"Where? Where?" asks curious Rudy.

While we never spotted an actual moose, I know Jack was right and one must have been nearby camouflaged in the trees. I know from experience that Jack is an EXTREMELY accurate moose detector. Rudy, on the other hand, can get equally bothered by the scent of a moose to the scent of a moth; but not Jack, he's moose accurate!!!!

Back to skijoring, we had a great morning on the highest elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. With a busy Saturday on the trails yesterday, we knew we had to get to the highest elevations for the trails to not be too tracked up. Success, very few humans had made it as far as us yesterday. Yay!

The fun kids catching air near the highest point of our outing.

We were dipping in & out of sun & shade all morning long. I love this contrast shot with me (and the camera) still in the shade while Jack & Rudy are glowing in the bright sunlight:

What a fun "shade to sun" contrast shot!

We are on "dogs allowed" trails of course. So, that means we often encounter loose dogs along the way. Very few others skijor like us; most people are cross country skiing on their own power with loose dogs accompanying them - how boring!

Anyway, Jack & Rudy are great and have no problems with other dogs. But, every loose dog we encounter is a wildcard - some are friendly, some are scared (of the fast sled dogs) and some are downright aggressive and should NOT be loose out on the trails. Today, as we came around a corner as loose dog appeared ahead of us. First it downed when it saw us (not always a good sign) and then it got up and started trotting to us. So, with the dog in the middle of the trail, we had no choice but to stop.

Here comes fluffy meandering down the middle of the trail. Ugh.

Now come along for the video event of the loose dog obstacle. The clip starts out with us happily galloping along the great nordic trail. Then, about 30 seconds into the clip and the dog appears. It then starts coming up trail towards us and things go "out of view" as I'm stopping us to wait and see what kind of dog fluffy actually is (nice or not). Well, fluffy was nice, so, as you'll see, Jack & Rudy only give it a passing sniff (it was in the middle of the trail after all) and then they have no use for fluffy and would rather pass on by and FLOOR it again. I love skijoring with these guys, they love SPEED over loose dog any day!!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and a different section of the wonderfully high snow wall we climbed yesterday for end of run treats.

The happy kids perched up high for end of run treats - fun!

A great outing with a mild "loose dog obstacle" to glide on by: 8.4 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 11 days on the trails covering 67.8 miles with 8100 feet of elevation climbed.