Planet Z turned Red

A beautiful day skijoring up, down & around Baldy Mountain today. Almost perfect....

We had fresh snow on all the trails today. 3-5 inches on the lesser used trails and 1-3 inches
on the more popular trails.

A near perfect day except for one extended blip when Planet Z turned Red!

We coined the phrase "Planet Z" our first year skijoring because almost every "Siberian incident" on the trails was started by crazy little Zorro (who, to his defense, was only 2 years old at the time). As we would ski along the trails, every once in a while crazy little Zorro would decide, "I am having so much fun that I must bite my brother and try to knock him off the trail!" Don't ask, why that sounded like a good idea is known to only Zorro, thus the phrase "Planet Z" when he would get one of his crazy moments.

Back to today... I got a foreshadow this morning when Max started a wrestle match with Zorro in the backyard after breakfast. I should have paid more attention to the foreshadow. Well, anyway, as we were cruising around Baldy Mountain today, we got to a fast stretch of trail near the Iowa Mill mine. This section of trail is usually a sprint track for the 3 of us. But, no, guess what happened... Planet Z turned Red (meaning it was red Max performing Planet Z puppy behaviors)! Oh Max, what happened to my perfect mature lead dog??? :-)  The evidence:

"Hey little bro - I'm feeling frisky! Wanna play tackle football?" starts Max with innocent Zorro.

"I'm from Planet Z - off the trail you go!" exclaims Max as he reverts to a silly puppy and
takes his brother off the tail! Meanwhile, the poor human on skis is trying to control the
gangline and quickly cut the skis into a stop.

Ok, we are all stopped for a Team Organization Meeting and Max got a lecture about
unnecessary puppy behaviors. The meeting just ended and Max is giving me such an
innocent look - "Ok, sorry, I got it. No more Planet Z." (I thought he said :-)

Restart down the trail and about 1 minute later, look who is back: Planet Z turned Red again
thinking about taking his brother off the trail. So much for the Team Organization Meeting...

After the second outburst from "Planet Z turned Red", we stopped for a second and much longer Team Organization Meeting. Basically I told Max, "we are not restarting until you stop giving your brother that mischievous look!" Thank Dog, eventually Max came back to Earth and we were able to leave Planet Z behind. What a silly redhead today!

Back to the trail after our second (and finally successful) Team Organization Meeting.

Oh, it is so good to have everyone back on Earth and off Planet Z!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Tally for the day: 7.4 miles, 1400 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 19 MPH, 2 Team Organization Meetings and a rare visit from a Red Planet Z...