Closing out 2012

We closed out 2012 the "Siberian Way" - hitting the trails for both a fast & deep skijoring outing!

"Happy New Year!" from Max & Zorro with their happy snow covered heads :-)

We did one of our favorite Indiana Creek mid distance routes today. This is the trail we described recently that almost always starts "packed & fast" and then gets increasingly narrow until we are finally breaking our own trail far back in Indiana Creek.

As planned, it started fast until we out skied the existing tracks and then found the trail untouched and all to ourselves to break trail in very deep snow. Even our tracks from 7 days ago were gone - completely covered by new snow and recent blowing snow. So, it was breaking trail for the 3 of us as it got deeper & deeper - so fun, as shown below:

Breaking trail in deep snow. You can kind of see where the trail is intended to go between the exposed
stumps. Notice the deep trough behind Zorro as he & Max set the path.

Retracing our fresh tracks high up in Indiana Creek. A very nice single track in the deep snow that
Max & Zorro plowed for themselves on the way up to use on their return route.

This route takes us through some very pretty sections of a "trail through the trees". Here's a fun video of us trotting along in the forest:

Trotting in the forest along a somewhat narrow trail through the trees.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As with yesterday, we did a somewhat "short route" today to get on & off the trails before the millions of people in town for the holiday weekend awoke to fill the trails. Stats for the day: 7.2 miles, 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

Fast All Day

Today's skijor outing can be summarized in one word - FAST. If you want to expand beyond just one word, then: FAST ALL DAY! It was a Siberian Sprint day...

Basically every clip we have from today's outing looks similar to this: Max & Zorro sprinting along
the trail. It was "fast all day!"

We went out early to beat the "holiday weekend crowds" and intended to do a short & fast outing before the trails got busy. Oh boy, did Max & Zorro get the intent of the outing!

Our route was an "out & back" on the French Gulch trails with an extension past the trailhead onto French Gulch Road to finish the route. Conditions were (a) snowmobile packed; (b) snowshoe packed; and (c) packed road. Such packed conditions can sometimes cause issues if it becomes too icy from "afternoon melt" followed by "overnight freeze". But, the temperatures have been well below freezing the past week; so, the packed trails were perfect for uncorking our Siberian Skijor Machine and going all out all day.

We have so many "fast video clips" from the outing, it was hard to decided which to publish. Below are three clips of what was a "fast & sprint" outing - what fun!

French Gulch Road - a packed sprint track!

[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

Far back in French Gulch - a packed snowshoe track.

Too narrow to hit a full sprint, but wide enough to open up into a fast lope.

[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

Passing an oncoming car.

Hey - it's a 2 lane road, so just stay in our lane and go on by.

[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

Tally for today's outing: 6 miles, 700 feet of elevation gain and a top speed of 21 MPH. As I said, a short & fast outing - make that "very fast". Woo!

Climbing Machines

Today's skijoring outing had lots of elevation gain packed into short distances - an exercise in Siberian Climbing Machines...

A glance at the 20% uphill grade Max & Zorro towed me up! Woo - what fun!

What is my favorite part of skijoring with sled dogs? Being propelled to 20-25 MPH is fun, but that is not my favorite... Going distances 2-3 times the normal cross country ski route is fun, but that is not my favorite... My favorite is:

Being able to ski (or rather be towed) up ridiculously steep grades that a typical cross country skier could not even attempt - now that is FUN!

Today's outing had lots of elevation to climb, highlighted by one extreme section traveling straight up 800 feet in just under 3/4 of a mile - that's a 20% uphill grade. This short section of trail is not considered part of the cross country ski trails in & around French Gulch - nobody can ski up such steepness. Instead, this section of trail is viewed as a one of the snowmobile trails in the area. But, add two sled dogs to a cross country skier and no terrain is too steep.

The best part is watching and feeling the Siberians tow you up such steep terrain. The common technique to cross country ski up steep inclines is to fan your ski tips out and walk in a "duck like" manner - very slow and very strenuous. My agreement with Max & Zorro is "no duck walking" - if it is steep, then you two pull me up. I'll assist by driving the poles hard and pushing forward on each ski, of course; but the Siberians get it and put their drive and shoulders into any steep uphill terrain we encounter. Such fun to "ski uphill"!

It was overcast and 5 degrees below zero when we started at the trailhead today. Needless to say, we did not encounter anyone else out on the trails... Photo highlights below:

Cruising along in 1-3 inches of fresh snow. We had the trails all to ourselves today, so were happily
trotting in 1-3 inches all day long!

Um.. It was 5 BELOW zero and look who needs to roll a snow angel to cool off at our midpoint break!
Crazy Siberian!

Trotting along a mild downhill grade as we all begin to lean into a tight right turn...

Out of the turn and into a straight away - opening up into an 18 MPH sprint. Woo!

Stats for the outing: 8.8 miles, 1650 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

Birthday Fun

Guess what Max & Zorro got me for my birthday today... 9 miles of skijoring fun!

Those two sure know how to throw a birthday bash :-)

In our deepest snow of the day as we were on the final climb out of Indiana Creek and onto
Boreas Pass Rd.

They had a great idea to do one of our favorite routes: (1) start at the Indiana Creek trailhead and do the steep skijor climb up to Boreas Pass Rd; (2) do a little sprint up Boreas Pass Rd before taking a quick break; and then (3) jog, trot & sprint all the way down Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead. It was a bit windy when we connected onto Boreas, so we did not sprint too far up (part #2 of the route). If it was a little less windy, we typically turn this into a 10 mile outing; but I decided it's my birthday so I can cut it short into 9 miles - a few "questioning looks" from the Siberians when I declared the break earlier than normal, but they were quite cooperative with my birthday request to get back downhill into the trees where the wind would not be as strong.

It is always an interesting mix of trail terrain on this route... Indiana Creek is seldom used - apparently only us Siberians think it is fun to break trail up steep terrain. Conversely, Boreas Pass Rd is a heavily used route - so you often encounter many people when you go up or down this trail. Fun photos from the outing below:

Climbing up Indiana Creek with about 3-4 inches of fresh snow on existing tracks.

We just connected onto Boreas Pass Rd and Whoa - look what happened!
Zorro rolling an impromptu snow angel on the trail. Zorro never rolls
impromptu angels (Max often does). I guess Zorro is saying, "Whew, that
was a steep & deep climb out of Indiana Creek - I need to quickly cool
off before continuing!"

High up on Boreas - 1-2 inches of fresh snow on the heavily packed main trail. If you step
off the main tracks you sink into 8+ inches of snow!

Most of the way down Boreas skijoring on a packed trail as we encounter a group of skiers.
Those going uphill are always so jealous of my Siberian partners as they said, "Wow, we could
certainly use some of their help too!"

Total stats for today's outing: 9 miles, 1350 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 16 MPH. What a fun birthday outing!

The Side Effect

"Hi! We found some great powder to
skijor in today!" exclaims happy Max.

The side effect of beautiful snow covered trees.

The trees look so beautiful and serene when they are covered in fresh snow. A calm winter wonderland as we skijor around the trails. But... the side effect is a doozy! Combine wind gusts with snow covered trees and what do you get? A snow dump - right on top of you. Brrr. Below is a sequence of images for the handful of "wind gusting snow dumps" we skijored through today.

Surrounded by snow covered trees and here comes a gust of wind.
"Not so bad!" we all think at this point....

Starting to become a whiteout of snow. Zorro pausing a bit, Max still powering forward.

Whiteout... Zorro almost stopped to ride out the dump of snow, Max still powering forward...

"Suck it up kid - this way!" calls Max as Zorro listens and continues forward in the whiteout.
Note the theme in all photos - Max still powering forward. I have never seen whiteout, wind
driven or natural, cause even a pause in Max's frame of mind.
"It's just snow - let's go!" says Max.

For most of today's route, we were treated to wonderful fresh snow on a mostly unused set of trails, as shown below. But, boy, did those "wind blowing snow off the trees" whiteouts send a shiver through the human!

How we spent most of the day: either laying fresh tracks in a few inches of untouched snow
or breaking trail in much deeper snow - surrounded by snow covered trees all along the trail.
So peaceful until the occasional wind gust dumped the tree snow on top of us!

Stats for today's outing: 6.8 miles with 1650 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH. Not a particularly long outing (distance-wise) but a lot of elevation and a lot of breaking trail!

White Christmas

Max & Zorro plowing through the powder
as we approach our finish at French
Gulch. And, yes, that is a Santa Hat on
my head! (click for a larger view)

Oh boy did Santa deliver! We got a dump of fresh snow late Christmas Eve and into this morning and we awoke to a White Christmas Treat!

No time for presents, we had to get to the trails to be the fresh tracks in all this new snow. It was worth it - we were breaking trail in 6-12 inches of fresh powder for most of the outing today! The outing had 3 sections of trail conditions:

(1) Traveling up the "Barney Ford" side of the Sally Barber Mine trail. This section was an untouched winter wonderland with us breaking trail the entire route in 6-10 inches.

(2) Traveling down the "French Gulch" side of the Sally Barber Mine trail. This section had an existing set of parallel ski tracks - darn, someone beat us to the new snow on this section of trail! Oh well, existing tracks mean "go fast", even if it is just a single set of new tracks (see the video below).

(3) Traveling out & back in French Gulch. Oh boy, no existing tracks again - breaking trail in 8-12 inches the entire route.

Clearly Max & Zorro were good boys this year as Santa delivered a real Siberian Treat for us to skijor in today.

Breaking trail uphill towards Sally Barber Mine.

Still breaking trail as we crest up to meet Sally Barber Mine. Pretty snow covered trees with blue
sky starting to break through on the horizon.

What? An existing pair of ski tracks on the down trail from Sally Barber to French Gulch!
Well, guess we'd better sprint then if we have existing tracks (even if there is still quite a bit
of powder). This is the same section of trail where we hit 24 MPH last Saturday. What a
difference a few days and 12 inches of new snow can make!
[watch on youtube if no video show below]

Back to breaking trail and laying fresh tracks in French Gulch.

Whoa - chest deep for both Max & Zorro! Wheee what a Christmas Present!!!!

Totals for today's outing: 7.1 miles, 900 feet of elevation gain, top speed of 16 MPH and breaking trail in 6-12 inches for over 5.5 of the miles! What Fun!

6 Grades of Trail

Today's skijor outing covered 6 grades of trail conditions - from the packed sprint track to the deep trail breaking track. All in one fun outing!

I love this shot of Max's tail around Zorro as they both inspect the untouched deep terrain far
back in Indiana Creek. It is almost like he has his arm around his little brother as they ponder
which direction they'd like to continue breaking trail :-)

One of the fun things about skijoring backcountry trails is that we almost always "out ski" the existing tracks of normal cross country skiers. No matter how packed & used the conditions are at the trailhead, we know we will skijor much further than the poor cross country skier that does not have Siberian Power hooked to their waist. Today was a great example of this situation as we transitioned through 6 grades of trail conditions as we went further and further up & out into the Indiana Creek backcountry trails....

1) The Extremely Fast & Packed Track

Near the Indiana Creek trailhead. A wide swath of existing packed tracks. This is a sprint trail for Max
and Zorro as we hit 18 MPH on this type of terrain.

2) The Fast Track

No longer a "wide swath" of tracks, but packed and 2-3 sets of skis wide. Still a sprint track for Max
and Zorro as you can see in this photo.

3) The Double Track

On to a "double track" - each side of the trail has existing tracks that are 1 set of skis wide. The middle of
the trail is deeper powder. Max & Zorro will typically take one track each so that they can match speeds
(if one of them takes the middle of the trail, the powder will slow that one down and they cannot keep an
even pace). I switch which track I ski in as I alternate following Max or Zorro.

4) The Single Track

Now in a "single track" - most cross country skiers have exhausted themselves and turned around far
before this terrain. There is just a single set of ski tracks on the trail and if you step off the existing
track you will sink into very deep powder. A single track is too narrow for Max & Zorro to skijor side
by side, so they take turns being in lead in this "single file skijoring" setup.

5) The Deep "Breaking Trail" Track

Nobody else made it this far into the backcountry except the 3 of us. Breaking trail in about 10 inches
of beautiful untouched snow at this point. Starting to get a real "Siberian Workout" :-)

6) The Even Deeper Track

Further you go, the deeper it gets. Continuing uphill in 12+ inches of untouched trail. It always amazes
me how Max & Zorro know how to follow the "real trail" under all this snow. We have hiked this in the
summer, so I have the trail marked on my GPS; but I never have to look at the GPS, just trust Max and
Zorro to use their "sled dog senses" to go the right way!

What a fun day transitioning through all 6 phases of trail! Stats for the day: 7.4 miles, 900 feet of elevation gain and a top speed of 18 MPH.

Control Day

Today's skijor outing was an exercise in "operating under control" - a tough exercise for the Siberians!

Zorro doing his favorite activity at our midpoint break - chomping down on snow cones!

Why an "operating under control" day - well two reasons:

1. Our intended route went through a few ups and downs in elevation - the total elevation climbed was 1700 feet spread over 3 different inclines and declines.
2. The trail had been recently packed by a snowmobile and was very icy and slick.

We like to joke that Max & Zorro's "maximum speed" is their desired "active speed". Think about the implications of that - if you let them hit 20+ MPH, then they want to continually hit 20+. But, if you keep them under wraps in the 10-12 MPH max range, then they tend to continue operating in that range. Once I saw the trail conditions (packed & slick), I knew I would have to work to keep the Siberian speeds under control when we hit the steep & icy elevation declines in our route. That meant I could not let them feel 20 MPH - I had to keep them happy trotting in the 10 MPH range on the flat and downhill sections. Thus the phrase "operating under control" day :-)

We did hit a top speed of 16 MPH (oops); but, in all, it was a very successful day keeping the skijoring vehicle under control on sketchy downhill conditions. Good Boys!

Most of the trail looked like this today - hard packed by snowmobiles and very icy & slick
conditions for the skis.

A narrower downhill section of trail, approaching a tight right turn. Note Max & Zorro trotting
happily in the icy & slick snowmobile track. I, on the other hand, have my skis in the narrow
section of powder on the shoulder of the trail. Keeping myself in powder on downhill grades is
the only way to keep the downhill speeds under control. If I put my skis on the icy
snowmobile track, then there would be NO slowing down and the Siberians would launch!

We did find a few sections of trail untouched by the snowmobiles; but not very many...

Total stats for today's outing: 8.4 miles, 1700 feet of elevation gain and a top speed of 16 MPH.

24 MPH

We hit our top speed of the season today - skijoring 24 MPH on the Sally Barber Mine Trail!

Sprinting along the trail! The GPS recorded us at 24 MPH on this section of the trail!
Our top speed of the 2012/2013 season to date. See video of the sprint below.

Our last 3 outings have all involved extended sections of breaking trail in a foot (or more) of deep snow. Today we decided to do a 180 from this recent trend and uncork the Siberian Engine on the short & easy Sally Barber Mine Trail.

As soon as I saw the trail, I knew it was going to be a fast day. A hard packed surface and 2 huskies primed to launch into some serious speed. We started at the Sally Barber/Barney Ford trailhead and jogged quickly up to Sally Barber Mine. We then sprinted down the other side to the French Gulch trailhead. I encouraged Max & Zorro to "let it loose" and boy did they ever! We then reversed and skijored back up to Sally Barber Mine and, once again, sprinted down to return to our starting point. I knew our top speed was over 20 MPH and was thrilled to find the following report on the GPS:

A short & fast day on the Sally Barber Mine Trail.
A short 5.5 mile outing...
A FAST 24 MPH outing!

And, here it is - what it looks like to be on skis behind a 24 MPH skijoring machine! Note: if you are wondering why it seems like I have one ski (right) behind Zorro and the left ski out from behind the skijoring engine - well, that's my safety technique. Whenever these two get going really fast, I will keep one ski behind the sprint engine and put the other ski to the outside - this way I can swerve (at 20+ MPH) to avoid any hazards.

Woo - hitting our top speed of the season! Fun!
[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

Stats for today's "short & fast" outing: 5.5 miles, 750 feet of elevation gain and top speed of 24 MPH.

Where Are We

Handsome Max inspecting the left fork in the trail.
"Do we go this way? Looks fun!"

Today's skijoring outing found us breaking trail in 5-15 inches of untouched snow for over 9 miles of our 10.4 mile outing! We also climbed 2150 feet in elevation during this trail breaking excursion!

Normally, that much distance breaking trail would be the highlight of any outing - normally... The real highlight of today's outing was "Where in the world are we?!?"

Our plan was to skijor the network of bike trails near French Gulch. This is a popular network in the summer for biking & hiking. We had run these trail many time in the summer, but never explored for skijoring until today. Oh boy do things look COMPLETELY different when covered by snow! We got lost 3 different times during our excursion. Luckily I have a GPS with us on our outings. Each time the environment started to look very unfamiliar, I would check the GPS and find us way off the intended route. "How on earth did we miss that last turn?" I asked Max & Zorro who responded, "Turn, what turn - but look at all the fun snow this way! Let's Go!"

Naturally, all the photos we have from the outing have the same theme "Whee and Deep!"

Breaking trail on the right trail for once during the outing! :-)

No idea where we are in this shot; but Max says it looks promising to go up this way.
Oh boy do things look different in the summer! :-)

Look - a trail marker next to Zorro! Woo Hoo, we are on the right track (for now).

Too deep to "plow", Max & Zorro need to hop through the snow on this portion of the trial.
A nice shot of Max's airborne back legs as he lands his front after hopping in the deep
snow to make progress.

We found tons of untouched trails on the outing today - we just need to figure out how to connect them properly next time!

Tally for the day: 10.4 miles, 2150 feet of elevation climbed - woo!

Winter Wonderland

Another day - another trail to break. It is a lot of work (and fun) "paving the backcountry trails" for all others to use :-) 

High up on Boreas Pass Rd. No existing tracks - time to carve out a set of tracks for others to use!

We have been in a Winter Wonderland the last week, with new snow every single day! Today's outing had 3 segments of Siberian skijoring fun: (1) laying fresh tracks on 2-6 inches of powder on the more popular trails on Baldy Mountain; (2) breaking trail in 6-12 inches of powder on the lesser used trails connecting Baldy to Boreas Mountain; (3) laying fresh tracks on 2-4 inches of powder along the popular Boreas Pass Rd. We had snow falling the whole outing and beautiful snow covered trees all along the trails - a Winter Wonderland...

Connecting Baldy to Boreas in 8-10 inches of fresh powder. Max in front breaking trail. You can
see the trail we are setting goes about 1/2 way up Zorro's body - deep & fun!

Zorro taking lead as we connect onto Boreas Pass Rd at Bakers Tank (the red water tank ahead and to
the left). Happy huskies prancing down the trail!

I thought it was cold out (snowing, 0 degrees, wind blowing = brrrr).
Guess it was just me... Max doing his patented snow angel roll to cool off and Zorro chomping
down on snow cones to cool himself. Does a Siberian ever get cold?

Tally for today's outing: 7.8 miles, 1100 feet of elevation climbed and breaking trail in 6-12 inches of fresh powder along some of the backcountry trails.

Passing a Snowplow

It has been dumping snow for 24 hours (and snowing on & off for 7 days straight). Oh my, what powder days we are having....

Breaking trail far out in Indiana Creek. "More than shoulder" deep for both
Max & Zorro!

Zorro brings you today's main topic for the skijoring outing: "Have you ever tried to pass a snowplow?"

First, a little background about passing a snowplow.... It happens to all of us driving out on the roads during a large snowstorm. You get stuck driving behind a snowplow. The road seems "just fine" to you (behind the snowplow) and you keep thinking, "Why is the snowplow going so slow, the road seems just fine?" Eventually you get cocky and proclaim, "That's it, too slow, I'm passing!" and you pull out from behind the snowplow to pass it. As you get out from behind the plow, making your move to pass, it hits you - unplowed road! "Whoa!" you exclaim, "that's nasty out here, I'm getting back in behind the snowplow and let him do the work!" So, you pull back in behind the snowplow and resume following slowly. Until... It happens to all of us, eventually you say again, "The road seems just fine (back here), why are we going so slow?" and you attempt to pass the snowplow again. Deja vu... "Whoa! No wonder the snowplow is out, the road is terrible unless you ride behind him!" This pattern repeats itself: follow, frustrate, attempt to pass, fail, follow, frustrate, attempt to pass, fail, ... If only we could understand: the snowplow is doing all the work, that's why it is going so slow!

Now, back to Zorro and today's outing. We found ourselves breaking trail in 6-18 inches of fresh powder for the entire outing, with the majority of the outing spent breaking trail in 12-18 inches. When the snow is this deep, we adjust into a "single file" skijoring line with Max and his long legs out front breaking trail, then Zorro following in Max's trail and then me getting the trail set by Max and Zorro. Well, the "passing a snowplow" effect happens to Zorro every time we are in this setup. I can just hear Zorro's thought process: "Geez, Max sure is going slow in front, what's the deal? ... I think I'll pass and show him how to go fast!" Zorro then pulls out to the right or left to pass what he perceives as "slow trail breaking Max" and then Zorro exclaims, "Whoa! It is DEEP out here, too deep for me, I'm hopping back in line and letting tall Max break trail!" But, of course, Zorro is like all of us snowplow followers - it is only a matter of time before he says, "What's the deal going so slow, I'm passing" then quickly followed by, "Whoa! Deep! Back behind Max!" Today's skijoring video is Zorro in 4 (of his many) attempts to pass Max the snowplow only to find the snow too deep and he hops back in line behind Max to let him use his long legs to break trail.

Zorro's attempts to "pass Max the snowplow". Watch as each time he eventually

gets into more than "Zorro shoulder deep" powder and he the proceeds to give

up passing and get back in line behind Max the snowplow - hilarious :-)

When will we ever learn: the snowplow may seem like it is going slow, but, duh - it is doing all the work!


Now, to be fair to Zorro... Max is our "primary snowplow" as he is most equipped to break trail in 12+ inches of snow with his long legs. But, Max does get tired doing such strenuous work, so Zorro does take his turn in deep trail breaking lead. When we break trail for extended distances, our time spent in deep trail breaking lead tends to be: (1) Max 70-85%, (2) Zorro 15-25%, (3) Brad 0-10%. Yes, I have to move my sorry butt to the front sometimes to earn my keep (this typically only happens when we get into 3+ feet of snow). And, for the record, Max is the worst snowplow follower of all of us! He sticks his forehead right into Zorro's behind and tries to speed him up! Max's "passing tactics" are also quite hilarious. He has been known to go right over the top of Zorro, once he is rested, to take over his proper place as trail breaking lead. It like he's saying, "Oops, sorry little VW bug (Zorro), didn't see you there, hope you do not mind this big snowplow (Max) driving over the top of you!"

Tally for today's outing: 6 miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain. A "tiny outing" by our typical standards; but breaking trail in 6-18 inches the entire outing and 12-18 inches for about 75% of the outing! Woo - now that's Siberian Work!

Snow Day!

A great skijoring snow day today!

We love it when the weather forecast underestimates reality. The forecast was for on & off light snow today. It was snowing lightly when we woke up this morning and then, WOW, it started dumping around 8am and has not let up. Naturally, Max, Zorro & I said, "To the trails, we've got to get some of this fresh snow!"

Cresting over a small incline in French Gulch. Look closely, all the "spots" in the photo (against
the trees in the background) are snowflakes. The picture does not do justice to how hard it was
snowing as it is hard to see white against white; but it was really coming down!

We got an early start to the trails near Sally Barber Mine since this is a popular trail around Breckenridge. The fresh falling snow along with a 2-4 inch base of new snow had everyone juiced and ready to go. Here is a nice clip of Max & Zorro cruising along in a "skijor sprint":

Sprinting on the trails near Sally Barber Mine. No need for the human to

help, just ride the skis and watch the fun Siberians!

[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

Below is a great show of "snow covered Zorro" waiting for me to finish adjusting my equipment.

"I'm soooo happy to be covered in snow from head to tail! Are you done futzing with your
equipment yet, I am ready to GO!" expresses fun little Zorro.

And another shot of the trail and the active snowfall:

Both Max & Zorro with snow covered heads & backs having a great time in the fresh powder.
As with the first shot, the speckles in this photo are snowflakes.

With all the snow falling today, we can hardly wait to see what we find on the trails tomorrow!

Today's Outing: 9.6 miles, 1000 feet of elevation climbed and top speed of 17 MPH - Woo!