Trail Juncture

Trail juncture... Goofy kids... 

Shall we go left, right or "stop, drop & roll"?
Did you know there are three options at every fork in the road: left, right or roll?

The difference between myself and Jack & Rudy at a trail juncture? Human at the trail juncture, "Let's pause to check our 'time on trail' to decide which way to go." Goofballs (or silly kids or cracker boxes or 4 year olds :) at the trail juncture, "You paused! Stop, drop and roll!!!!!" That pretty much sums up the difference :)

From the GPS, our top speed on the trail this morning: 25 MPH. Zoom!

Zippy Zoom! Wheeee!

We had a great morning flying around the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center. With a 1/2 to 1 inch of new snow, the conditions were absolutely perfect. We were not first on the trails after the fresh snow, but were 2nd or 3rd tracks most of the day. With such fast & fun conditions, we made multiple passes on various stretches of trail to get the most out of the outing.

Pass 1: fast going Jack & Rudy with the town of Breckenridge far down to our right.

Zooming again!

Pass 2: flip the order from Jack & Rudy to Rudy & Jack. But, second pass, same as the first: zoom!

Still zooming, still peeking at Breck far down below us to our right.

Today's video highlight is a nice "glide to the finish" of today's skijor with Jack & Rudy. The video might not look like much; but it makes me proud to watch my teammates. Keep in mind that we are approaching an often busy trailhead (busy with people and dogs), so Jack & Rudy need to listen to my commands to slow or accelerate through the potentially busy terrain. Also notice the perfect transition to the narrow finish lane and the perfect STOP on my "wait" command to end the day. What great skijor partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Such a fun team, let's report back to retired mentor Zorro:

"I taught them well, huh?" asks focused Zorro.
"We LOVE behaving while zooming!" adds my perfect teammates!

Fun times on fast trails! 9.4 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 66 days on the trails covering 534.3 miles with 50,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Packed

The trails around Sally Barber Mine were VERY hard & fast packed this morning!

Cresting by the historic mine on hard packed snow.

It was an interesting outing around Sally Barber Mine today primarily because I had NO brakes all day long! My usual brake is to snowplow in loose or soft snow or to take myself into deep snow. Well, the trails were hard packed from lots of recent use while the shoulders were punchy from warm days/cold nights. As a result, well, I had no brakes! Good thing Jack & Rudy listen to my verbal cues!

The less popular back side of Sally Barber Mine - hard & fast packed terrain!

The popular, front side of Sally Barber Mine - SUPER hard & fast packed! No brakes today!

Whew, this hard packed surface sure gave my legs a workout!

We did multiple laps up, down & around Sally Barber Mine this morning. Laps often involve stopping and turning around. Turning around often involves goofy Jack & Rudy :)

Turnaround = Roll Around! demonstrates the goofy kids.

Come along for some "hard packed, no brakes" skijoring in today's video highlight. Good thing Jack & Rudy are such good partners and listeners. It's also a good thing we did not run into the one thing that causes them to NOT listen - moose! These trails in are in moose country, so I was on high alert rounding every blind corner as I had no brakes for moose emergencies (except to throw my body down :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Whew, that was a fun albeit wild day on super packed terrain. Let's go report in with retired mentor Zorro:

"Glad they kept you alive!" says focused Zorro.
"Hey, we listened and slowed when you asked!!!" reports good, good
Jack & Rudy!

A day of working the human's legs to try and keep under control on super packed trails! 8.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 524.9 miles with 49,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Keystone Gulch

Watching a chairlift at Keystone Ski Resort from Keystone Gulch Road!

"Interesting! Why not use sled dogs to tow you up instead?" asks curious
Jack & Rudy inspecting the chairlift running people up the mountain.

This morning was brand new for Jack & Rudy as we skijored Keystone Gulch Road at the edge of Keystone Ski Resort. Normally, we are never as far away from Breckenridge as Keystone. But, we had some errands to run on the other side of the county, so found ourselves near Keystone once done with our chores. Well, since we were in Keystone, we might as well skijor Keystone Gulch Road!

Keystone Gulch Road serves two purposes (in winter). First, it is a service road for Keystone Ski Resort to run snowcats and snowmobiles up the edge of the resort with supplies and other jobs. Second, it is a recreation road for cross country skiers and snowshoers. Therefore, it was a wide & snowmobile packed trail for the majority of our outing. Jack & Rudy know what to do on wide & fast packed trails!

Zooming along Keystone Gulch Road.

What is really cool, though, is the upper section of Keystone Gulch. Eventually this road turns into part of Keystone Ski Resort as a trail connecting the base of two different chairlifts. As a result, they groom this section of the road for skiers on the resort to connect between lifts & trails. Well, Jack & Rudy know what to do on a freshly groomed trail - ZOOM!

Flying on by an uphill skier as we are now on groomed Keystone Gulch Road
that is serving as part of the ski resort too!

Today's video highlight goes along with the prior photo - groomie zoomie trail. The clip starts with us around a corner watching the chairlift you see in the first photo. Since we cannot ski up into the lift area, I instruct Jack & Rudy to turnaround. Well, they turn and suddenly it is a groomie zoomie so Jack & Rudy literally take off to sprint the groomie. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Today was the first time young Jack & Rudy have ever been on (or even near) Keystone Gulch Road. I have skijored it once with Max & Zorro in the past (last time we had chores to do near Keystone in the winter :) and I've hiked it a handful of time in summer with Max & Zorro. Well, Jack & Rudy fully approved of Keystone Gulch Road. From fast snowmobile packed to resort groomed, it was perfect. In case you were wondering, the snow in Keystone is just as nice for snow angels as the snow in Breckenridge :)

"Yep, we can 'stop, drop & roll' in Keystone too!" declares the
snow rolling goofballs.

A fun day showing Jack & Rudy some new terrain, right Zorro?

"Ah yes, Max & I loved the occasional trip to Keystone too!" says focused Zorro.
"New terrain, same results! Wheeee!' declares Rudy.
"Hey, don't forget me back here!" adds patient Jack.

A fun & zippy new outing for Jack & Rudy: 7.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 64 days on the trails covering 516.5 miles with 48,500 feet of elevation climbed.