Comedy, Go, Catch

Fun "shot from the front" of the happy kids towing me to the finish of today's excellent skijor outing!

Wheeee! Smiles all around!

Notice anything special about the prior photo? Well, Jack & Rudy are first tracks on the groomed corduroy! Sure, there are a couple of snowshoe tracks to our left, but we are first tracks on the center of the freshly groomed trail!

We spent most of today's outing at Gold Run Nordic Center (with a little bit of the outing on backcountry side trails). At one point along the nordic center trails, the groomer does a little cul-de-sac turnaround. This is at the highest elevation point of our outing. So, I typically pause at the top of this cul-de-sac for two reasons: 1) to let the goofballs roll snow angels to cool off after towing me up; and 2) for me to get ready for the Jack & Rudy missile to LAUNCH me back down the trail! So, here we are at the top of the cul-de-sac:

Cooling our jets, rub a dub dub!

Now for today's "comedy, go & catch" video clip. The clip starts just after Jack & Rudy had got up from their snow angels. Jack & Rudy had turned around to GO but I have us paused while I adjust some equipment before restarting. So, if your volume is up, you'll hear Rudy protesting (by wooing) about how long I am taking. Then, as I rotate around you'll see what Jack is doing with my extended pause: rolling snow angels as he always does (once I re-paused us, he stopped, dropped and rolled AGAIN). 

Next, all it takes is one "Ok, here we go Jack." from me and he pops up from his snow angel and launches down the trail. Now watch the fun as we top 24 MPH in what I knew was a chase. "What chase?" you ask, well about 1m 8s into the clip and you can start to see groomer lights ahead of us until we finally catch the groomer and have to slow down. Jack & Rudy love playing catch the groomer!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

For the curious, we know the groomer drivers from skijoring these trails for years. When the trail eventually gets wide enough for us to pass, the driver will pause and wave us on by. On today's encounter, the trail was not wide enough yet for us to safely pass. So, I'd slow Jack & Rudy for a bit to give the groomer a little head start and then we'd catch right back up again. Slow, Run, Catch - repeat, repeat, repeat :)

Catching the groomer again after slowing to give it a head start.

As I said, eventually the trail gets wide enough for us to pass. The driver always stops and we safely trot on by. The driver and I always exchange smiles and waves as we pass!

Wide enough to pass - here we come!

For us to have encountered the groomer where we did, meant it had already groomed the main trail at Gold Run. So, once we passed, we connected onto the freshly groom main trail around a couple of corners. Well, Jack & Rudy know what to do with a fresh groomie zoomie:

Zoom go the hover huskies. Wheeee!

Finally, a really nice high snow wall to climb today for end of run treats!

"That was so FUN!" says the 'catch the groomer' pair.
Sorry my head is unseeable in the bright sun, but we are here
for Jack & Rudy's happy faces anyway :)

A fast, fun and short day playing catch the groomer at Gold Run Nordic Center: 5.4 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 31 days on the trails covering 234.9 miles with 22,400 feet of elevation climbed.

Flirts

"Hello from the historic Sallie Barber Mine!" says the happy sled dogs.

"HELLO!"

We did a "different than usual" skijor tour around Sallie Barber this morning. We started the day by climbing to the mine from the quiet, backside trail. As is usual with the silly kids, it was necessary to stop, drop and roll in the snow after the initial climb to the mine. We typically do the initial climb from the frontside. But, as you see, climbing from the front or the back yields the same snow rolling results:

"Ahhh, rub a dub dub, cooling our jets after the initial climb!" says the
snow rolling goofballs.

Then, for another different twist, we went out & back on the narrow Trail of Tears starting at the mine. This trail is barely 2 Siberians wide in the summer and gets even narrower with snowpack. Sometimes Jack & Rudy can still fit shoulder to shoulder in the winter; but often they have to switch to single file skijoring to fit on the narrow single track. They still jog and tow me at a nice pace in this configuration, just not nearly as fast as when both are able to pull side by side :)

Jack taking the lead to tow me on the narrow Trail of Tears while
Rudy takes a break jogging behind him (they do switch to take
turns doing the work in the lead).

Finally, it was time for us to complete the day on the popular frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. Jack & Rudy love flooring it on this trail and flirting with the crowds we often encounter.

"Hi! Coming through!" says the fun kids. Rudy always gives onlookers a
flirting glance when he is on the inside lane when we pass. Jack is typically
all business flying by whether he is on the inside of outside lane.

Did I mention Rudy loves to flirt when he is on the inside lane? A little more proof:

"Whee! Made you smile!" says silly Rudy giving another flirting glance
from the inside lane as we glide on by.
"Yes, made you smile; but 'focus forward', 'focus forward' - maintain speed!"
adds all business Jack.

We'll go back to the first "on by" photo above for today's video highlight. Come along as we weave through a couple of curves in the trail before flooring in on an open straightaway to eventually fly on by the oncoming snowshoer. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and a much better snow wall to climb for treats than yesterday, yay!

"We love climbing snow walls to get treats!" says the happy & focused kids.

A quick, but very fun, outing at Sallie Barber this morning: 4.6 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 30 days on the trails covering 229.5 miles with 22,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Authorizations

Beautiful views, beautiful bluebird morning, beautiful fresh groomed trail, beautiful sled dogs - that about sums up today's great skijor outing :)

Cannonball Jack next to Rudy the Missile as we fly along the freshly
groomed nordic trail with great views in front of us and to our right.

Jack & Rudy covered all ranges of authorizations (or lack thereof) on today's outing. Let me show you what I mean.

First, we had unauthorized play bowing and wrestling on the trail:

Double play bows from the sillies about to launch into a wrestling
match on the trail. Unauthorized!!!

Second, we had authorized but not encouraged diving for rodents off trail under the snow. The rodent dives are always fun to watch, thus authorized. But, I say "not encouraged" because if I did encourage this behavior, Jack & Rudy would spend all day off trail digging for rodents and we'd never skijor :)

"Dunk! I sense rodents under the snow!" declares dunking Jack.
"Really? Well, then, INCOMING!" joins Rudy with one of his patented
high arching rodent dives. Authorized but not Encouraged!

Third, we had authorized hover huskies catching some serious air while topping 24 MPH skijoring on the freshly groomed nordic trail. 

Whee! Look how high off the trail the speed demons are! Zoom!
Authorized and ENCOURAGED!!!!

Today's video highlight goes along with the prior photo. Come along as we are skijoring at around 12,000 feet in elevation on a freshly groomed nordic trail topping 24 MPH behind wonderful Jack & Rudy on a gorgeous bluebird morning. It doesn't get any better than this!!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The only slight letdown of the day's perfect outing? Well, not much of a snow wall to climb for end of run treats at the trailhead. There was one good wall, but the car parked next to it had an obnoxious dog barking nonstop inside of it - not fun to be right next to such a loud and annoying creature. So, we settle for what little wall we could find:

Rudy on a little bit of a perch but only Jack's rear end was able to fit
on any sort of incline. Oh well, we still very much enjoy end of run
treats at ground level :)

All authorizations exercised by the comedians today as we covered 9.6 miles with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 29 days on the trails covering 224.9 miles with 21,600 feet of elevation climbed.