Takedown

Today's Skijoring outing was just a hare short of Perfect!

Yes, a "hare"...

We were cruising along the Bakers Tank trail - having a blast going up this heavily wooded trail, swooshing in & out and through the trees. Whee, our skijor team was in perfect form. And then, as we approached a tight cluster of trees ... a snowshoe hare popped out of the cluster and darted across the trail. The silly rabbit was no more than 5-10 feet in front of Max & Zorro. Well, I can get Max & Zorro to ignore fresh tracks intersecting our trails - but FRESH FOOD! Oh my... Off the trail they shot after the bunny lunch. I saw the gangline whip back towards me, forming a lasso - "reverse, reverse" I tried to do. But, I'm not as fast as a bunny juiced pair of Siberians. They lassoed my right ski as they dove to the left and took my leg right out from under me. A perfect lasso & takedown, they'd make a rodeo rider proud...

Aside from the takedown event, the rest of the day was a beautiful 10 mile cruise on Boreas Mountain. Below is a nice video of our finish to the Boreas winter trailhead Yes, we are going this fast after 2 hours!

The Route: (1) Start at an abandoned mine near the Boreas winter trailhead and connect onto the Bakers Tank trail. (2) Skijor up to Bakers Tank on packed powder with 1-3 inches of fresh powder on top. (3) Connect onto Boreas Pass Rd at Bakers Tank and hang a left and skijor up Boreas. (4) Take a quick break and then skijor back down Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead.

The Conditions: Siberian fast track... Boreas Pass Rd had been recently ridden by a group of snowmobilers (even though they are disallowed on this section of Boreas!). Typically Max, Zorro & I are breaking trail on our route; skijoring in snowmobile tracks is as close as we get to "groomed trails". What happens on groomed trails: FAST!

Vital Stats: 10.3 miles; 125m total time; 95m skijoring time (15m hiking over 2 sections of exposed dirt and rocks; 15m of break and wait for loose dogs time); 22 MPH top speed; 1000 feet of elevation gain.

High up on Boreas Pass Rd with a parallel set of snowmobile tracks.
Hop in the tracks and sprint - the Siberian view of "groomed" tracks.

Looking down into the Indiana Creek basin from high up on Boreas.

Pretty shot of the blue sky and surrounding mountains. Beautiful day!