Perfect Conditions

Perfect conditions at Swan Valley Recreation Area to skijor 12.3 miles with a top speed of 23 MPH.

12.3 miles, 1350 feet of elevation climbed & topping 23 MPH; yet here we are at the
finish looking like we have not even started yet! Amazing animals!

Swan Valley has a whole network of snowmobile trails that we skijor. So, it is always a fast day with lots of mileage; but some days are exceptionally perfect. What makes for "perfect" on the Swan Vally snowmobile trails? Well, a 1/2 an inch to 1 inch of fresh snow on top the packed trails. This is just enough snow for me to feel comfortable uncorking the Siberians and it is just enough to tickle their toes into sprinting delight!

The only problem with skijoring Swan Valley - I come home with way too much great video footage of the Siberian skijoring machines. Today I started with 10 clips of incredible skijoring which I narrowed to 4 clips of ultra-incredible skijoring and finally decided on the top 2. Here are frames from the "runner up" clips and then the top 2 of the day...

(1) Number 1 runner up: the amazing cornering machines.

Look at Max absolutely hugging the snow wall as we fly around a tight corner.

(2) Number 2 runner up: flying down the trail over 20 MPH as we zoom right by a SLOW sign.

"Huh? We don't have that word in our Siberian Dictionary!" express the airborne pair.

Ok, now for the first of the video finalists. A short clip from our endless sprint along a narrow snowmobile trail. I thought we were flying from the beginning; but watch at about 16 seconds in when it looks like the Siberians shift into yet another gear! Amazing speed.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Second of the video finalists. This one is a finalist for "work" instead of "speed". This section of trail is mostly flat with slight ups & downs. Yet, I am just standing on my skis as we move across the terrain. Watch closely and you can really see Max & Zorro working like champions to move the human slacker along!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A little "break fun" from the day too when we took a quick 2-3 minute break at our high point of the day:

"Quick break, chomping on snowcones!" says Zorro.
"Did we lose the gas pedal in the snow? Why else did we stop? I'll find it!" digs Max
thinking this must be the only reason we stopped!

"I found the gas pedal! Let's go!" says happy snow covered Max.
"Done with snowcones, let's go!" says happy little Zorro.

A day of perfect conditions covering 12.3 miles with 1350 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 96 days on the trails covering 822.9 miles with 95,650 feet of elevation climbed.