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!