Takeoff!

On your mark, get set... GO! (see photo below ;-)

Max & Zorro clearly heard today was going to be a short sprint day. Here we
are at the takeoff - (1) Notice Zorro's tiny little waist as he lunges forward with
all his might to "Get Going!" and the harness reacts to his force - (2) Notice Max's
back right leg launching as he leans into his shoulders to get a good push! And OFF
we went!

Today was intentionally a short outing in Indiana Creek. Clearly Max & Zorro got wind that the plan was for a tiny little 90 minute outing - so they pushed extra hard and packed the 90 minutes into 75...

We explored a new twist on Indiana Creek on this outing. After starting up the Indiana Creek trail from the winter trailhead, our typical route involves either (a) cutting a left and shooting up the side of the gulch to connect to Boreas Pass; or (b) cutting a right and shooting up to crest at the high point between Indiana Creek and Pennsylvania Creek. Today, though, we instead bypassed both of these lefts & rights and continued to hug and follow Indiana Creek all the way. This route took us on a gentle 900 foot climb deep into the gulch until we ran out of "human skiable terrain".

The Siberians wanted to keep going, but eventually we hit a point surrounded by steep avalanche prone terrain or heavily wooded, low branch terrain. Max & Zorro's take, "What's wrong with this heavily wooded path? We see 3 foot high openings amongst the branches!" You try explaining to them that I am much taller than 3 feet...

The last 1/2 to 3/4 miles of the "out direction" found us out-skiing all existing tracks and breaking trail in about 10-15 inches of untouched powder. We were then able to happily sprint through 10+ inches on the return path down. A Siberian Good Time!

Vital Stats: 6.6 miles; 75m total time; 65m skijoring time (10m for a break at our high point and waiting for misbehaving loose dogs back at the trailhead); 23 MPH top speed; 900 feet of elevation gain.

Stopped at our "turnaround point" - Max & Zorro see no problem with
continuing forward into the thick trees. I looked every direction and saw
heavy branches 3-4 feet off the ground with no path to continue. Darned
human always makes us turnaround!

A look back at our final ascent along Indiana Creek before we ran out
of skiable terrain. Having a blast galloping through 10-15 inches of
untouched powder!

I "set the ski poles" as we were to take a break before turning around. Love
that feeling of driving your ski pole into the snow and watching it proceed
to sink 2/3rds of the way down!

Zorro the headless Husky exploring the depths of the snow at our break point.