1250 miles

Another day in May laying fresh tracks at Vail Pass!

Zipping along the top of Shrine Pass at the Vail Pass Recreation Area as we have the
day's fresh snow all to ourselves!

One year ago today, we surpassed 1300 miles of skijoring for the season. One year later and today we surpassed 1250 miles of skijoring for the season. Given that the 2013/2014 snow season was much better than the 2014/2015 season, it is pretty amazing that we are only 50 miles behind the pace of last year's epic season!

Back to this morning's outing. We went to Vail Pass early in the morning in hopes of finding the top layer of "snow crust" as solid as it has been our last few outings here. Unfortunately, the temperatures hovered around 30-34 overnight, so there was not a top crust to allow us to make our own path around the meadows atop Shrine Pass. Everything off the main trails was punchy and not something I would let Max & Zorro endure. But, there was 2-4 inches of fresh snow on the main trails without a punchy under layer. So, we stuck to the established paths and went up the Shrine Pass "front side snowshoe trail", down the Shrine Pass "back side snowmobile trail", back up the back side trail and then down the "front side snowmobile trail" - laying fresh tracks for 3/4 of the outing! Wheeee!

The backside of Shrine Pass and laying fresh tracks for miles!

The front side of Shrine Pass and still laying fresh tracks for miles!

As I mentioned, the temperature was around freezing (a little above freezing lower and a little below freezing higher). That's "siberian hot"...

"Rolling a snow angel to cool off!" demonstrates Max.
"Hey bro - you are funny!" says spectator Zorro.

After running a few more miles, Zorro decided Max had a good idea:

"Good idea - rub a dub dub, rolling in the snow tub!" declares Zorro.
"I already knew it was a good idea!" states 'rolling again' Max.
Unfortunately the wide angle of the GoPro was not wide enough to get all of Max in
this dual snow angel...

Making great use of Vail Pass this morning to surpass 1250 miles for the season: 8.7 miles with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 145 days on the trails covering 1250.2 miles with 131,050 feet of elevation climbed.