When the Musher is Slow

What to do when the musher is slow hoisting the sled over a "fallen tree obstacle" on the trail?

"Ha, the answer to that is easy." proclaims Max, "You take the chance to roll a snow angel and cool off while the slow musher gets the sled over the fallen tree! As soon as that slow biped gets the sled over the obstacle, then you pop up from your snow angel, do a little shake and start hauling the sled again."

Max demonstrates in the video below - he has such perfect form :-)
[if the video does not load, click here to watch it on youtube]

We took the sled back to Vail Pass on Sunday - hoping the conditions had not deteriorated too much from Saturday. As you can see in the photo below, we did find a trail of untouched snow! We were able to lay fresh tracks down this trail and then return back up this same route.

It is SOOO much fun laying your own fresh tracks!

Now, do not be too fooled by this wonderful picture. For most of the outing we were on over-used ice & occasional exposed dirt (early) and sticky slush & mud (later). The temperatures rose into the mid 40s during our outing - quickly destroying all sections of the trail that had been over-used on Saturday and Sunday. But, we did find this wonderful "untouched trail" pictured above and had about 45 minutes of really good sledding conditions. Even the dozen or so "fallen tree obstacles" were fun given that we were on untouched snow!

Nearing the end of the outing, I needed to move the sled around another obstacle. Zorro joined in the theme of the day: roll a snow angel while waiting for the slow musher:

Max & Zorro rolling a "dual snow angel" while I get the sled over a trail obstacle.

Vital Stats: 8.6 miles; 1000 feet of elevation gain; 14 MPH top speed (too hot & too much slush/mud to get any real speed today).