2014/2015 Opening Day

October 4th was Opening Day for our 2014/2015 Skijoring Season.

Max, Zorro & I were so excited to be back on the snow!!! Go, go go...

Wheeee! We had the occasional "obstruction free, all snow" straightaways like this.
My pals were SO HAPPY when the human could open up the throttle!

Being on skis on October 4th is certainly a treat. But, you have to expect sketchy conditions with frequent ground exposure. Our outing took us to Buffalo Pass in north/central Colorado. This is a common hunting area this time of year, so we were sharing the trails with ATVs and 4WDs that tend to cut through the snow and down to the dirt. So, most of our day went as shown in the video below: (1) wheeee - we found a nice shoulder to trot & run outside of the ATV/4WD tracks; (2) obstacle upcoming, I think I can slide by on one ski; (3) oops, too much exposed ground - cannot get by, too late to stop my accelerator pals -- catch a rock or mud and wipeout...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We had 3 wipeouts like the one in the video during the day. But, the optimist would note that we tend to have roughly 6 wipeouts a season and we already have 3 out of the way - woohoo! :-)

A couple of shots of my "so happy to be back on snow" skijor partners:

The human stopped to assess the terrain before launching down the curvy road.
About ready to go and I asked, "Everyone ready & having fun?"
"Absolutely! I LOVE snow!" answers giddy Max to my question.

Another quick pause point while I make sure the terrain is ok to "open up".
I asked the "Everyone ready?" question again and got this response:
"Quit talking, I'm going!" demonstrates Max.
"I am, you better be - Max is moving out with or without you!" states happy little Zorro.

Our most humorous moment of the day came with an encounter with an ATV driver. When we saw the ATV approaching, we pulled over to the shoulder and stopped to let him pass. As he got even with us, he stopped to ask me if he was on the right trail to the top of Buffalo Pass and how much further to the top of the pass. I gave him a "Yes, right trail and you have about a mile to go." He said "thanks" and then looked at Max & Zorro and tried to startup a conversation about them and skijoring. Here is the reaction he got from Max...

"What? ANOTHER question??? We already gave you directions. You are KILLING me!" says Max
to his attempt to start a conversation. You can see Max lifting his front left leg and swaying his head
to the right in a classic "you've got to be kidding me" motion.

"No more questions - lets go!!!!" demonstrates Max the airborne bucking bronco.
In response to the guy's idle conversation, Max let out an "awoo woo woo" and bucked in
the air to show his displeasure with idleness. The guy looked wide-eyed at Max and said, "Sorry,
I will let you get on your way." Hilarious Max...

The end of our fun, albeit short, run. How was it guys?

"Awesome, just awesome!!! Snow is back!" says approving Max.
"<chomp> <chomp>, snowcones are back!" demonstrates snow-approving Zorro doing his
2nd favorite winter activity of eating snow (skijoring is his favorite activity :)

Tally for the day: a quick 4.6 miles with 850 feet of elevation and a top speed of 16 MPH.