Crust Again

Another beautiful skijor atop the solid Spring crust at Rabbit Ears Pass!

The hover huskies, Jack & Rudy, catching air as we zip along the solid
Spring crust!

After a successful skijor on the Spring crust yesterday, we returned to the same general area this morning to go crust skijoring again. Yesterday we found an awesome Spring crust around Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. Today, we went the other direction towards Dumont Lake and found the same awesome conditions as you see in the prior photo. Wheeee!

When we skijor the crust near Dumont Lake, we are able to wind our way across vast, crust covered meadows and pay a visit to the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL. The SNOTELs sprinkled throughout the westerns US measure a large range of environmental factors. But, the measure of most to interest to Jack, Rudy and I is the depth of the snowpack Today, this particular SNOTEL reported that the snowpack depth at this location is 62 inches. Nice, a 5+ foot deep snowpack!

Cruising by the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL as we skijor atop over 5 feet
of snowpack to last us for many more weeks :)

We did have one set of obstacles to deal with today - deep & frozen snowmobile tracks. Basically snowmobiles had run through these same meadows when the snow was soft (i.e., in the afternoon) and made deep tracks. These tracks then froze overnight and became today's obstacles. Jack & Rudy have no problem with these frozen tracks, they simply leap over them or run through them. But, me on skis is a different story. I have to cross these deep obstacles at an angle just off perpendicular and push my poles into the snow to give me a little lift. If not, the frozen tracks can grab ahold of my skis and lock me in (which typically leads to a wipeout :)

Jack & Rudy have no problem with the deep & frozen track obstacles as
you see here. Wish I could leap on skis like them :)

But, the tracks are not really that big of a deal, I just have to be conscious of them and make sure I cross at a proper angle. So, come along for today's video fun as we are cruising along the Spring crust amidst a few track obstacles at first before clearing the tracks and finding a nice open straightaway to open up the throttle. I love how Jack & Rudy (especially Rudy) glance back at me after many of the track crossings to make sure I made if over safely. Great partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Springtime is, of course, warm to Jack & Rudy, so rolling snow angels to cool off is in order at any break during the outing :)

Rub a dub dub, cooling our jets rolling in the snow!

Finally, back to the trailhead for end of run treats and apparently I was a little too chatty for Rudy and slow in dishing out the treats!

"Ready!" says happy & focused Jack.
"You going to talk or serve?!?" asks curious, head cocked, Rudy :)

What a fun crust skijor outing: 7.1 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 137 days on the trails covering 1172.5 miles with 116,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Crust

Look who had the BEST time skijoring around Walton Peak this morning!

"We are having a BLAST!" exclaims the happy, happy kids!

Our original plan this morning was to go out & back on the main snowmobile trail on Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. The day started as planned as we went out for quite a distance when I paused at a trail junction to decide whether to go right or left. Well I stopped and...

"Stop, drop and ROLL!" goes the snow rolling sillies.
But, look closely, Rudy is rolling off trail without sinking.

Big Rudy not sinking while rolling? Hmm, I thought, is the crust firm enough to hold us? The crust, you ask? Well, the one highlight of Spring is warm days yet nights below freezing. Each day the top of the snow softens and each night it refreezes. When this nights are cold enough, the refreeze will form a crust firm enough to support our weight. I did not expect the crust to be firm enough to support our weight today; but once I saw Rudy rolling without sinking, I started to rethink that. So, we did not turn right or left at the junction but turned around instead to go test the crust on some open areas behind us.

Along the way back to the openings to test the crust, we were riding the leftover groom on the right shoulder of the trail as the hover huskies came out to play :)

Catching air riding the leftover groom on the right shoulder.

Along the way, both Rudy and my right ski occasionally drifted off the groom and onto the crust to our right. I didn't sink! Rudy didn't sink! Could it be true, the crust was really firm enough to support us? Well, we took on short detour off trail to test the crust and SUCESS!

Whee! The Spring crust can support our weight today!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo and see that, sure enough, the crust was plenty firm to support our weight! What fun! As this clips ends, we reconnect with the main snowmobile trail.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

One of the great things about a firm crust is that you can abandon set trails and go any and every direction you want! While the prior video ends with us reconnecting with the set trail, that was only because we were testing the crust. Once established, we left the set trail quickly after the end of the video clip and proceeded to wander our own path through vast, crust covered meadows for the rest of the outing. Fun!

Yay for the crust as we zoom across vast, crust covered meadows!

What an unexpected crust surprise this morning, right guys?

"Yes, yes, yes, that was FUN!" says the handsome duo awaiting well earned
end of run treats.

What a Spring crust treat this morning: 9.7 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 136 days on the trails covering 1165.4 miles with 115,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Mid Winter in Late April

Look at these awesome "mid winter like conditions" we found this morning in late April!

Laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow atop an otherwise
perfectly flat & packed trail!

How was this possible? Well, the light layer of new snow is thanks to Mother Nature. The trail is the furthest from civilization on what is Gold Run Nordic Center during winter. But, the nordic center is closed and few, if any, make it out to this trail without a groomer helping pave the way. But, I have Jack & Rudy and that is as good as a groomer for me :) So, this particular trail has sat pretty much untouched since the nordic center closed 3 weeks ago.

So, a trail that has been packed by a groomer all winter + a trail too hard/far for most people to get to + a nice layer of fresh snow from Mother Nature. Well, Jack & Rudy knew what to do with these surprisingly great conditions in April. Come along and watch the video highlight to see for yourself:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way we did side "backcountry out & back" to visit one of our favorite old mining ghost towns in this area. This is probably our last visit to this location this season as it is very sun exposed and melting fast:

Whee! Zipping by all the old mining buildings in this cool ghost town.

The tracks you see in the prior photo are our own out tracks. Well, that meant we had to turnaround at some point before coming back through the ghost town. Well, yep, you guessed - turnaround, roll around!

Snow angels with a view from the comedians almost intertwined to stay
on the snow and not hit that dirt in front of us :)

Eventually, though, we had to come back to civilization. As I expected, the trail near and leading to the trailhead had been very tracked up with lots of post holes. But, with the morning's new snow (safety dust, as I call it), we were able to continue at a nice pace over the chopped up trail:

Catching air with the help of the safety dust along a trail full of
deep footprints and post holes.

That was fun, right guys?

"Oh yeah! We liked zooming on the mid winter conditions best of all!" says
my fun pals happily awaiting end of run treats.

Some surprisingly nice conditions for most of this late April outing covering 8.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1155.7 miles with 114,600 feet of elevation climbed.