Exploring

A day of exploring new routes through the forests...

Zooming along laying fresh tracks in 1-2 inches of snow in a snowmobile track.

We started the day along a trail we have run many times before. This trail makes a wide southern semi-circle through the forest and connects to another that makes a wide northern semi-circle through the forest. We typically take these two semi-circles to make a connected loop around the forest.

As we began the initial leg today, though, we encountered a snowmobile track leading into the middle of our usual loop. I paused briefly and suggested to Max & Zorro, "Hey, let's follow this snowmobile track and see what happens." In the worst case, we would just have to turn around at some point and follow the same track back. There had been new snowfall the last night, so there was a 1-3 inch layer of fresh snow on the track. Max & Zorro were in agreement, so we went exploring previously untraveled paths in the forest. The snowmobile track lead us on a gentle and peaceful tour in the forest. What a wonderful day....

A few times we encountered parallel snowmobile tracks. Each such section lead us into deep into
the forest for a while before looping back to the main track (e.g., the snowmobiler had done a
little "out & back" to make these parallel tracks on the occasional side trail).

Occasionally we came to forks in the trail... Which direction to go?

"Left looks fun to me!" suggests Max.
"I'm game with ANY direction!" states happy little Zorro.

After weaving our way on this tour through the forest, we eventually ran into the main road to the trailhead. It was about time to end the day's run, so we zoomed down the road until we met up with Nancy and the Jeep for a ride home.

Zoom, zoom - we see the Jeep just ahead...

A very peaceful day laying fresh tracks as we explored new paths through the forest: 7.7 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 47 days on the trails covering 387.9 miles with 41,950 feet of elevation climbed.