5 Days of Powder

Today was our fifth day in a row of either breaking trail or laying fresh tracks on trails decorated with new snow!

5 days in a row of daily fresh powder - woo!

Shoulder-to-shoulder breaking trail as we cruise up the main French Gulch trail.

The shallowest we saw in French Gulch today was 6 inches of fresh powder. The deepest we got was over 20 inches of fresh powder. Wow - what a powder day!

About 8-10 inches of powder here. There are actually two sets of cross country ski tracks
on this trail and Max & Zorro have each chosen their own track to ride and break trail.
I alternate which one I choose to ride behind as they carry me up the trail.

Did I mention it got deep??? Is Max swimming or plowing in trail breaking lead?
Notice the "snow wall" from Max breaking trail is taller than Zorro - 20+ inches of powder!

The nice thing about an "out & back" outing is we get to jog back in the trail we worked
so hard to set on the way out.

To add a little distance to our outing, we started on French Gulch Road. This road is plowed to the French Gulch Trailhead, so it had only a 1-2 inch base of new snow. The total outing was fast up French Gulch Road, trail breaking from 6-20 inches out French Gulch, riding back in the trail we set and then sprinting down French Gulch Road.

Wheeee - a fast sprint to the finish on French Gulch Rd.

Given the number of moose we've seen in French Gulch this season, no trip is complete without at least one "moose inspection" point...

"We've seen moose from this exact location before! Where are they?" say the moose
seeking pair intensely surveying the terrain. Amazing how they remember the exact
location of every moose we have seen!

A very aerobic day of breaking trail in French Gulch with a front & back addition of French Gulch Rd to give us some extra mileage: 7.6 miles with 850 of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 68 days on the trails covering 579.5 miles with 68,050 feet of elevation climbed.