Cheeeese!

Beginning climb up & out of Indiana Creek towards
Boreas Pass Rd. Shoulders down, powering forward!

Max, Zorro & I spent a lot of time posing for the cameras on the trails today.

We started at the Indiana Creek trailhead and took the steep incline up & out of Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass. This is a 4 mile trek climbing about 1250 feet; and the last mile was breaking trail in 12-18 inches of snow. Quite the power track to start our route. When we connected out of this steep trail onto Boreas Pass Rd, we stopped to take a quick break.

As we were about to conclude our break and start down Boreas Pass, a group of 6 snowshoers came upon us. They were on their way down from a night spent at one of the backcountry huts at the Boreas Summit. We talked with the group for a bit, Max & Zorro flirted with everyone and the group took pictures of Max & Zorro. Fun part of the end of the conversation:

- Showshoer: "So, how long does it take you to get back to the Boreas trailhead [same place they were headed]?"
- Me: "Oh, about 40-45 minutes from here."
- Showshoer: "Wow, no way, we have 3 to 3.5 hours planned for our descent!" [I could sense the skepticism in his voice, but we have done this route many times and 40-45 is true]

I then got Max & Zorro ready to go and said bye to the group and then, "Ok guys, lets go!" Now remember that we had just finished our short break after climbing out of Indiana Creek and then we extended the break for quite a while talking with these folks. Well, the Siberian engines were recharging this whole time. After my "lets go" command, Max & Zorro took off sprinting down Boreas. All I heard from the group was the doubter exclaiming, "Wow! Look at that!" He surely believes our 40-45 minute estimate now ;-)

About 1/2 down Boreas we ran into a group of 8 well-outfitted backcountry skiers coming up the path (well-outfitted meaning they had overnight gear and rations for a long outing). They all stopped and wanted to meet Max & Zorro. So, we obliged and gave them some Siberian love while I explained the concept of "skijoring" to them. As with the snowshoe group, they also wanted pictures of Max & Zorro. They even wanted a picture with me at the end of the outstretched gangline so that they could show friends this crazy guy attached to 2 huskies and prove they were not making it up.

All in all, a fun little outing on Indiana Creek & Boreas with a lot of tourism advocacy with all the groups we encountered.

Vital Stats: 9.1 miles (with about 1 mile of extreme trail breaking); 135m total time; 100m skijoring time (35m of "tourism advocacy"); 19 MPH top speed; 1250 feet of elevation gain.

"Untouched" Boreas Pass Rd - we are about to start down this route and wow
the group of snowshoers with our "take off" speed.