Busted Binding!

Busted bindings or not - we still worked hard and
deserve our hotdog rewards when we arrived
back at the trailhead.

Busted Binding - waaa, our skis are in the shop!

It started as such a great day. Max, Zorro & I were skijoring up French Gulch. A few inches of fresh powder at the lower elevations. We took a less traveled right turn about 1/2 way up the gulch and were exploring steep terrain in 5-8 inches of fun, soft powder. Oh, we were having a blast! Eventually we had to come back, maybe we shouldn't have...

As we came out of the trees and back onto the well-traveled trail, we started our sprint back towards the French Gulch trailhead. It looks like a fast track, I thought, I bet we are going to hit some serious top speeds. Up & down through some gentle slopes and Max & Zorro started to shift into another gear. "Oh boy, good forward! Let's go," I exclaimed. And then "OH NO!" - exposed rocks just ahead and closing fast. Quick, get my skis to the right, get my skis to the right, can't slow down, get to the right .... and ... BANG, my left ski caught a patch of rocks before I could get all the way to the right. Wipeout, flat on the ground - "Oh that hurt," I moaned. I started wiping snow off my body, told Max & Zorro, "my bad, good wait" (they understand "my bad" command as meaning they did nothing wrong, it's not their fault we stopped). Then, wait, my left foot is not still in its ski. Look down, look back - Aaaah! No! My binding busted. No, no, no!

But, it was true, I busted the binding on my left ski. Total equipment failure! What could I do... I gathered up my skis, poles and shattered pieces of binding and told Max & Zorro, "Sorry, no top speeds today. Ok, let's go," and we hiked & jogged the rest of the way back to the trailhead.

The skis are "in the shop" as we speak. Max, Zorro & I are anxiously awaiting report on the damage and estimate on when they will be fixed. Pray for a quick ski repair job...

Vital Stats: 5.3 miles; 100m total time; 60m skiing time (40m break time and jogging back down the trail with busted skis); 18 mph top speed (the skis busted just as we were beginning to accelerate into some real speed); 1250 feet of uphill elevation gain.

Cruising up the lower sections of French Gulch. A nice 2-3 inches of fresh powder.

Taking a break high above French Gulch.
Snow angel Max cooling himself off.

Looking back at our ascent path. We are about to restart and go back down
this path. Steep, narrow and fast huskies - a skijoring musher's biggest challenge!

The return approach to the trailhead. Sad sack human carrying his busted skis!
Please let them be repaired soon!

In The Weeds

2 of the more "interesting" stretches along Boreas
today. See, there is snow along the shoulders in
the weeds. Just enough snow to keep us going
until we got to the better condition up higher!

Oh Yes, We Did Ski This! - that was the motto of the day. Max, Zorro & I decided to test Boreas Pass Rd today for some skijoring fun.

The trailhead did have sufficient/packed snow to give us confidence to go. But, look at the pictures to the left - some of the "sun exposed" lower sections of Boreas were, well, sketchy at best. That won't stop our skijoring team, though, we saw snow in the weeds on the shoulders of the road. So, position the skis in the snow and on we go!

You can divide the path up Boreas Pass into 2 parts: (1) the trailhead to Bakers Tank; (2) Bakers Tank to Boreas Summit. The first section, to Bakers Tank, was on & off between acceptable conditions and "sketchy at best" conditions. But, we were determined to go, so Max, Zorro & I carefully navigated the sketchy patches and joyfully ran the acceptable patches. As we reached Bakers Tank, I knew there was no way we would be able to ski back down this section, so I made a "mental note" of this and onward we continued. The second section (Bakers Tank to the Summit) was very enjoyable - a few icy patches with some exposed rocks but mostly snowpacked terrain. We cruised up this section of Boreas at a nice uphill pace. Arriving at Boreas Summit, we called Nancy to ask her to drive to Bakers Tank to pick us up. Then, regroup and sprint downhill from the Summit to Bakers Tank.

Comical Event of the Day: You may have heard me mention before that one of Zorro's life principles is "none shall pass". Boreas Pass Rd is still open to cars this time of year (it closes to cars in late Nov for the rest of the snow season). Well, as we where skijoring up Boreas, a 4wd truck came up on us from behind. I guided Max & Zorro to the shoulder so the truck could pass. As soon as the truck passed by, Zorro exclaimed "NONE SHALL PASS" and dropped into sprint mode to chase the truck! Hilarious.

The Route: Start at the Boreas winter trailhead and then skijor up Boreas Pass Rd to Boreas Summit (6.7 miles); take a break; skijor back down Boreas Pass Rd from the Summit to Bakers Tank (3.7 miles).

Vital Stats: 10.4 miles (6.7 up/3.7 down); 125m total time, 110m moving time; 1300 feet of elevation gain; 19 mph top speed (and an impressive top uphill speed of 14 mph!)

Starting off from the Boreas winter trailhead. Note the conditions: packed snow
and somewhat icy - but still SNOW! See, we were not crazy to start off on this
route today - even though we had to "ski off the shoulder & in the weeds" to make
progress in some of the very sketchy patches not far from here.

Upper sections of Boreas Pass Rd (well past Bakers Tank). Nice packed conditions,
a Siberian Speedway!

Zorro reading the Continental Divide marker at the Summit of Boreas Pass.

Taking a break at the Boreas Pass Summit. Max choosing the left side of this ice
patch to "continue on". Zorro choosing the right side of this ice patch. The darned
human picked "turnaround and back down" as the path to continue - wimp, Max & Zorro
could have continued further for hours!

Things to Remember

Returning to the French Gulch trailhead.
Happy Hauling Huskies!!!

A little snow Tuesday night and into Wednesday got Max, Zorro & I itching to test the trails in the backcountry.

It was still "early season" conditions (e.g., shallow snow and some exposed dirt & rocks here and there). But, enough snow to get a good early season training run under our belts. Only our 3rd outing of this season, so we are still shaking the cobwebs from the summer time off. Three things to remember from last season that we forgot today...

(1) Brad: remember to place your skis in a snowplow position when you are bent over to pick up poop on the trail - this position is your only brake or snow hook. When you forget ... the Siberian engine lurches forward (while you are bent over) and you do a face plant (luckily not in the brown stuff! :-)

(2) Max: remember to cruise past deer tracks crisscrossing across the trail - you are the lead dog and if you veer right (or left), the whole crew gets off kilter. When you forget ... <poof> our skijoring 3 pack is tangled in the rough!

(3) Zorro: remember to "maintain speed & ignore distractions" when operating at high speeds (15+ mph). When you forget and get distracted by a squirrel off the trail while sprinting ... <bam> you stumble and the human has to cut a hard, emergency right to try and keep a ski from smacking you in the rear!

3 things we had perfected by the end of last season - still refreshing our memories and re-honing our skills this season...

The Route: Start at the BnB trailhead on French Gulch Road. Skijor up French Gulch Road to & through the French Gulch winter trailhead. Continue on the French Gulch trail until reaching the last of the private cabins in the gulch. Take a short break and then sprint back down to the French Gulch winter trailhead.

Vital Stats: 6.8 miles; 88m total time; 73m moving time; 1050 feet of elevation gain over the first 2/3 of the outing; 17 mph top speed.

Cruising up the mid sections of French Gulch. A nice 2-4 inches of
fresh powder and no existing tracks.

Our "turnaround point" - Zorro looking ahead and saying, "Turnaround? Why?
Look at the fresh, untouched snow ahead of us!!!"