Snowing

Here's what Jack & Rudy think of the "warming huts" out on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center :)

"Silly! We need to roll snow angels to COOL OFF! What's a warming hut?"
says the snow rolling sillies in front of one of the warming huts we pass
on the trails.

Notice the nice snowfall you can see against the hut in the prior photo. Increasing snowfall was the theme of the day!

We started amidst light snowfall laying fresh tracks on fast nordic trails:

Clear shot of Jack & Rudy leaning into a tight right on the trail.
I cannot take corners as tight as Jack & Rudy and have to swing way out
left to then glide around the corner at their speed!

Within 10 minutes or so, the snowfall started increasing:

Still pretty clear photo; but you can see active snowfall if you look very
closely (I know, "white on white" is hard to see :)

Then, within another 15 minutes or so and it was dumping! It was snowing so hard that it kept collecting on the camera leading to blurred footage:

Snow covered camera delivering blurry footage.

How hard was it snowing? Well come along for today's video to see for yourself. This clip starts with us slowed while I wipe the camera clear of snow. Once clear, I give an "Ok, here we go," to Jack & Rudy to let them know it is ok to speed up again. Speed up we do and watch how fast the camera gets covered in snow again and Jack & Rudy become blurry objects.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

No complaints here, we LOVE new snow - it is just hard to keep the camera clear to get any footage!

Finally, back to the trailhead and at least Nancy's camera was clear of snow :)

Happy kids awaiting end of run treats with visible against my coat and
Jack & Rudy's black & red fur.

Yay for fresh snow! 9.6 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 81 days on the trails covering 637.1 miles with 60,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Pass the Groomer

We started this morning's skijor laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow in the Dry Gulch backcountry. Fun!

Zipping along laying fresh tracks.

Then, as we love to do, we dropped out of the backcountry and onto the groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. When we got on the upper loop at the nordic center, we found a dusting of new snow over a day old grooming. Not a problem, this upper loop does not get a lot of traffic (being very far from any trailhead), so a dusting over a day old groom was just perfect!

Zipping along with a dusting of new snow for safety over a day old groomed
trail. Safety dust :)

After flying around the upper loop, we paused to catch our breaths before transitioning to the main trail. Well, ok, I paused to catch my breath. Jack & Rudy paused to roll snow angels to cool their jets!

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

Then the day turned absolutely perfect (although it was darned near perfect before this point) as we found ourselves being first tracks on the freshly groomed main trail!

Whee - first tracks on a fresh groom!

Then the question became, just how far in front of us was the groomer and would we catch it? The answer was: not too far and yes, we caught it!

We love to chase and catch a groomer in front of us!

Once we catch the groomer, it is always time to pass. The groomer drivers know us from years of skijoring these trails. When they notice us in their rearview mirror, they will stop (when the trail is wide enough) and wave us on by. Jack has no problem gently passing right next to the groomer snowcat. Rudy, on the other hand, likes to put a little space between himself and the snowcat. Usually the passing lane to get by is wide enough that Rudy just stays on the outside of Jack and that is enough space for him. But, today the passing lane was quite narrow. What did Rudy do? Well, he hopped off trail into the deep side snow to pass as his preferred distance. Funny kid.

Jack cruising right on by the snowcat.
Rudy hopping off trail to pass at his preferred separation.

So, let's put it all together into a video now. Come along as 1) we are zooming on the groomie zoomie; 2) we catch the groomer and slow down; 3) the groomer slides slightly right, stops and waves us on by; 4) silly Rudy hops off trail to pass while mellow Jack walks on by; and 5) back on the trail in front of the groomer and Jack & Rudy floor it again. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Fun day, right guys?

"YES! We love to chase, catch and pass the groomer!!!" says the happy kids.

Today's tally: 8.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 80 days on the trails covering 627.5 miles with 59,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Jack 8000

7 year old Jack surpassed 8,000 career skijor miles this morning! Impressive!

"And I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed EVERY mile of it!" states proud Jack.

Jack's skijor career to date is the following: 1042 days on the trails covering 8001.1 miles with 740,850 feet of elevation climbed! Consider that most of this happened since he was 1.5 years old and that is quite an impressive career he has strung together and continues. For the curious, younger Rudy is about 176 career miles behind Jack; so he should reach his 8000 career miles this season too :)

Now back to today's fun outing. With fresh snow, we decided to skijor the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. To our amazement, we were first tracks in the new snow on this popular trail:

First tracks in the 2-3 inches of fresh snow to start the outing.

As usual, we climbed to the mine to start the outing and, as usual, the silly kids had to stop, drop and roll snow angels to reward themselves for the initial climb:

Jack getting some serious powder flying around him as he rolls an angel
while Rudy is cooling himself gently.

Another note about Jack's career: he has rolled at least one snow angel on EVERY skijor outing of his life (and often more than one). That's 1042 straight outings rolling snow angels. He is such a snow rolling nut! Funny side story - when Jack was young he almost missed rolling a snow angel on one outing. I was skijoring with him and Zorro (Rudy was too young to come along yet) and made a final turn to return to the trailhead to complete the day. Jack had not yet rolled a snow angel on this particular outing. But, when he saw the trailhead (knowing we were about done), he realized he had not got his snow angel in yet. What did he do? Well, he dropped right in front of me to roll before ending the outing. I almost ran over the silly cracker Jack! Since that outing, Jack has NEVER come close to finishing a run without getting his snow angel roll registered :) 

Back to today, next we decided to skijor down and back up the backside of Sallie Barber Mine. What a great decision, it was magical on the backside! Come along and watch the fun in today's video highlight. After we round a right turn in the trail, watch the magic unfold as we get into an open straightaway with tons of wind blown snow drifts to blast through. So impressive to watch Jack & Rudy blast through powder!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Here are some fun still shots from that video:

Blasting through a stretch of deep powder!

And another:

Powering through a powder cache along a slight rise in the trail. Fun!

After doing the backside of the mine trail, it was time to return down the front. As usual, Jack & Rudy always fly by the mine on pass two (versus rolling snow angels on pass one):

Zipping along in the tracks we set on the first pass by the mine.

Fun day with some surprise deep powder caches, right guys?

"Yes! We had a blast blasting through deep snow!" says the happy kids.

Today's tally: 7.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed with a top speed of 22 MPH and passing 8000 career skijor miles for impressive 7 year old Jack! Yay!

2024/2025 Season to Date: 79 days on the trails covering 619.2 miles with 58,800 feet of elevation climbed.