25 Siberians - What a Party!

Approaching the finish at the trailhead.
Look at all the fun dog sled equipment
and Siberians spread around the lot.

Today's skijoring outing was a Super Siberian Sledding Party!

We joined up with a group of mushers from Sno-Magic Siberians and Iceberg Siberians to skijor with them on their sledding outing. In all, we had 25 Siberians at the trailhead raring and howling to GO!

We broke down into 3 sets of "6 dog sled hookups", 1 set of "5 dog sled hookup" and one set of "2 dog skijor hookup" (Max & Zorro). Then, one by one, we sprinted off up the trail to have fun in the winter wilderness.

Overall, Max & Zorro kept a pretty good pace with the 5 and 6 dog sets. We could not keep exact pace uphill, but we did maintain a pretty good pace. The 5 dog hookup that started behind us took about 3 miles to catch and pass us; so you could say we were able to keep a pretty good pace with less than half the Siberian power! On the downhill leg, we were able to match the pace of the 6 dog set in front of us for about 3/4 of the way down; then we dropped back a bit in the last 1/4 as everyone was clearly tiring (Max, Zorro & Brad).

This was a fabulous training outing for Zorro as we had to do 4 "on by" events with the other teams. Max is perfect at ignoring other dogs and going "on by". Zorro, on the other hand, needs some practice at this activity. Since most of what we run into in the backcountry is misbehaving loose dogs, we do not get much "on by" practice. We were not 100% in our "on bys" today, but I'll give Zorro a B (and Max an A+) - practice makes perfect and Zorro is improving!

Vital Stats: 9.8 miles; 75m skijoring time (we did not take any breaks - a 4.9 mile sprint up and an immediate 4.9 mile sprint down the same path); 21 MPH top speed; 750 feet of elevation climbed on the uphill leg.

Arriving back at the trailhead. Happy faces
after an exhilarating 10 mile run.

Some of the Siberians who went out with us today. Max & Zorro are currently
getting their "hot dog" treats after finishing the outing. These 3 Sibes look on
wondering "Hey, what are those two getting!?!"

A fun shot of sleds and Siberians spread around the trailhead after we all
finished the outing.