Season Opener

Yes, the date on this blog entry is September 23rd...

Yes, the title of the blog is "Season Opener"...

The Colorado mountains got a wonderful blast of early season snow last night and into this morning. Snowfall could be measured in the 3-5 inch range at elevations above 11,000 feet! "Woo Hoo!" we all exclaimed, "We have to find terrain for a Sept 23rd season opener!'

"We've had a whole summer off! We have snow! Here we GO!" demonstrate an excited
Max & Zorro as they lean into the harnesses to take off at the start of our outing.

Ok, so it was not the best of conditions (3-5 inches of wet snow on warm ground/mud), but it was useable snow in September! No complaints from any of us... Given the wet/slushy nature of the trail, we used the dog sled instead of the skis today. Highlights from the wonderful early season start:

Zooming along Shrine Pass Rd. Warm ground + hot Siberian feet meant we left tracks down to
the mud most of the outing. But it was slick enough for the sled to glide - wheee!

Happy Siberians at our quick turnaround break at the midpoint of the outing.

Everyone was in their "midseason form" as Max is rolling his patented snow angels to cool off
while Zorro chomps down on snow cones to cool off. It was like we had no time off at all!

Look closely... That is a deer just ahead and to the left on the trail! Add a little
"deer juice" to the Siberian Engine and you really go!

We headed up to Shrine Pass in the Vail Pass Recreation Area for today's outing. This kept us at elevations over 11,000 feet most of the day and delivered a wonderful September 23rd treat!

Stats for the day: 6.2 miles with 750 feet of elevation gain and a top speed of 15 MPH. A nice little run to get the season going!