Nice Top Layer

The top layer of crust was just hard enough to support a husky (and a person on skis) as we were able make our own trail far back at Indiana Creek and all the way through Indiana Gulch!

Trotting along the hard top layer (on what is a few feet of snowpack under the crust) as we
approach the abandoned "Father Dyer Cabin" to the right. Wheeee!

After a day of silly antics on the trail yesterday, my partners were back to all business today as we toured the adjacent forest and gulch of Indiana Creek this morning...

Off we go starting up the main Indiana Creek Trail (the creek is in the trees to the right).

We caught the scent of moose early on today and Max & Zorro's "moose radar" was on high alert the entire outing. Eventually the radar was rewarded with a distant moose sighting:

"Beep beep! To the right - moose moving through the trees!!!!!" say the intense moose
spotting pair. It was far away, so nothing to be concerned about; but still fun to reward
your radar with sighting, no matter how far away.

A slight breeze was blowing behind us on the "out direction" of our outing. Suddenly a "scent of moose" clearly blew in from behind us as only the smell of moose can bring Max & Zorro to a halt on the trail!

"Sniff, sniff - aahh, wonderful Scent of Moose!" states Max taking it all in.
"My kind of air freshener!" declares Zorro pausing to fill his nose.

Our normal route at Indiana Creek consists of an out & back in the forest as the gulch containing the creek is often soft and/or water exposed. A few times a year (typically in March or April), the snowpack has covered the creek and the warming/freezing pattern of the day & night has built a hard crust in the wide open gulch. When this happens, we will take the forest route on our "out direction" and then test the crust to make sure it can hold 45 pounds of Siberian (and support a human on skis) and then skijor back in the middle of the wide open gulch. A fun way to make a loop out of Indiana Creek!

Jogging down the middle of the gulch containing Indiana Creek - what a treat!
Notice the storm clouds in the sky: some fresh snow to add to our snowpack is
on the way - yay!

A fun day - see for yourself:

"So much fun, so much fun!" declare my thoroughly happy pair at our turnaround point far
back in Indiana Creek.

A fun morning with a nice top layer down the center of the gulch: 7.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 103 days on the trails covering 890.8 miles with 94,700 feet of elevation climbed.