Today was a real workout as we found ourselves breaking trail in 5-12 inches of fresh snow for 10.5 of our 10.9 mile outing! Wow - what powder!
 |
| Gliding along Boreas Pass Rd - breaking trail in about 5 inches at this point. Wheee! |
1) Take a non-standard (i.e., seldom used) 8 mile route to connect Baldy Mountain to Bakers Tank on Boreas Mountain. We completely expected to be breaking trail most, if not all, of this route.
2) Drop onto popular (and heavily used) Boreas Pass Rd at Bakers Tank and sprint down "fast packed Boreas" for 3 miles to the trailhead.
So, that was the plan: 8 "hard miles" and then finish with 3 "easy miles". Well, here's what happened:
 |
| Initially all was as expected - breaking trail for 8 miles connecting Baldy to Boreas the long way. |
 |
| Still "on plan", powering through what was supposed to be the last deep section as we connect onto Boreas Pass Rd. You can see an existing track on the road in front of us, this was to be the "easy track" down... |
 |
| On Boreas Pass Rd. The track is a little narrower than you usually find on popular Boreas; but it is still a nice track to follow fast. |
 |
| Less than 1/4 mile after connecting with Boreas and what is this - we've caught a pair of snowshoers trekking down. We'll just pass and continue on the Boreas fast track, or so we thought... |
 |
| Pass the snowshoers and "Whoa! Look at this - untouched 7 inches of powder on Boreas Pass Rd!" It is so rare to find Boreas untouched this far down and so rare to break trail on Boreas this close to the trailheads! I kept expecting to find another set track around every corner; but, nope, we broke trail on lower Boreas in 5-10 inches for over 2.5 of the 3 miles from Bakers Tank - wow, what unexpected fun! |
 |
| Arriving at the Boreas trailhead. All the snow you see in the photo is "blowing snow" as the winds were really picking up. This "track of footsteps" is the "existing track" we found near the trailhead. Not much of a "track", you could really say we broke trail for 10.9 of 10.9 miles and be pretty accurate! What a fun Siberian Trail Breaking Workout! |
Our stats after 3 Iditarod days: 33.5 miles and 3450 feet of elevation climbed.
 |
| GPS report of the top speed and distance covered in today's outing. You know if our top speed is only 15 MPH then we have been in deep snow all day long! |
Brad -
ReplyDeleteI did this hike (back when I was in my 20's): http://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/colorado-trail-kenosha-to-breckenridge.html It was a great hike and went over the top of the continental divide and ended up in Brek. I remember that the trails from the top of the divide down into Brek were pretty wide and mountain bikers were riding on them (it was in the summer) but I'll bet you and your two dogs could do it in one day. :) Nancy could meet you on the other side too.
The trail is 63 miles and has some good ups and downs to it though.
The drive (one-way) is about an hour: http://goo.gl/maps/ZytiG
The trailhead at Kenosha pass: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cocktail_hour/2913489501/
- Steve
We have done the "Tiger Road" to "Georgia Pass" part of this route; but have never continued past Georgia Pass towards Kenosha Pass. Seeing what is beyond Georgia Pass has been on my skijoring to-do list, though...
Deletethanks for the trail pointer,
Brad