But But

Today's comedy interlude from Max & Zorro, "But, but, the moose went this way!"

Cruising along the trail far back in French Gulch. Just us & a set of moose tracks that
you can see in front of Max & Zorro. 

I have frequently complimented Max & Zorro on their "trail following" skills as they have that incredible instinct sled dogs develop to follow a trail that is not visible and covered in many feet of snow. You can tease them with just about anything to try and pull them off trail - fox, deer, rabbit or other wildlife tracks are no problem. They will pass right by the distracting tracks and keep us on trail. But, here is the exception to Max & Zorro's great "on trail" skills - MOOSE TRACKS! Yep, their kryptonite is moose and fresh moose tracks can pull them right off the main trail and into the abyss as you can see below!

Okay, this is about 20 yards along the trail from the first picture. You can see a set of moose
tracks going down the ravine and into French Creek. The real trail is to the left; but here we
find my pals wandering off trail and following the moose tracks.
"But, but, the moose went this way!" demonstrate Max & Zorro getting distracted by
their only "trail following kryptonite" - MOOSE TRACKS!

Trying to follow the moose into the creek was the only "oops" of the day as we had a wonderful time laying fresh tracks up & over Sally Barber Mine and out & back in French Gulch. "Hey, it was MOOSE TRACKS, quit bagging on us!" say the traditionally perfect skijoring pair :-)

Laying fresh tracks as we crest over one of our high points of the day at Sally Barber Mine.
Fresh snow and a fresh sun starting to take over the morning sky.

Zoom, zoom we go - 3 inches of new snow all to ourselves!

Hauling the human up French Gulch in perfect shoulder-to-shoulder form.

"We continue to contend that moose tracks (and moose themselves, of course) are a perfectly valid distraction to any sled dog!" insist Max & Zorro thinking back on today's outing...

Laying fresh tracks for the majority of the day covering 8.7 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 77 days on the trails covering 667.1 miles with 78,650 feet of elevation climbed.