Indiana Creek to Boreas

Max surveying the route ahead

We got a nice dump of fresh powder on Saturday - that inspired Max, Zorro and I to head out to Indiana Creek for the first time this season on Sunday morning.

Our goal: skijor from the Indiana Creek winter trailhead (in Spruce Valley Ranch) up towards the ghost town of Dyersville then swing up to Boreas Pass Rd and ski down to the Boreas Pass winter trailhead. We have never skied this route before - so GPS in hand and Max & Zorro ready to go and off we went...

The route was a fun, gradual incline with lots of fresh snow as we went up the Indiana Creek trail and passed the right turn that leads to Dyersville. Once we passed the Dyersville turn, the trail is supposed to sweep you up to Boreas Pass Rd quickly (or so I thought). Well, about 10-15 minutes past the Dyersville junction, it sure did not feel like we were 'quickly' or 'sweeping' connecting to Boreas Pass. We stopped, I checked my GPS and asked Max & Zorro "what do you think, the GPS shows we are close to Boreas, should we continue?" You ever heard a Siberian Husky say, "no, let's turn around?" Well, neither have I, so onward we continued in search of Boreas Pass Road. Another 10 minutes or so of pretty steep incline and we popped over a ridge and onto Boreas Pass Road - we made it!!! From here it was familiar ground - cruising down Boreas Pass Road to the Boreas winter trailhead.

The Route (click to enlarge): Indiana Creek winter trailhead [INCR-TH] up towards Dyersville (passing the SVR shooting range [GUN]) through an open meadow [CLEARING] past the right turn to Dyersville [DYERS] up to Boreas Pass Rd [BORJCT] and down to the Boreas winter trailhead [BOREASHEAD].

Since this was our first tour of this route, we intentionally bypassed Dyersville to conserve our energy for anything unexpected. Next time, we'll probably dip down into Dyersville to get some fun winter pictures of this ghost town.

Vital Stats: 8.4 miles total; 2hrs 15 min travel time; 2hrs moving time; 4.2 MPH moving average (deep and wet/sticky snow accounted for the "less than our typical" moving speed).

Max says, "Onward & upward, let's go - no reason to turn around!"

It was a snowy/wintery day - a glimpse of the conditions: fresh powder, active snow & tons of fun!