Deteriorating

Deteriorating conditions on one of our favorite trails: Sally Barber Mine.

Dead conditions (down to dirt) on one of our other favorite trails: French Gulch.

But.... We still have toes on snow, so no complaints...

"My toes are happy!" declares satisfied Max.
"My toes are cooool!" exclaims happy Zorro.

Our goal for the day was to skijor up/over Sally Barber Mine and then out/back in French Gulch. I was expecting good conditions on shady Sally Barber and anticipating sketchy conditions on French Gulch. Well, it was below expectations as Sally Barber was sketchy and French Gulch was void of snow and down to dirt. Without a major May snowstorm, French Gulch is closed for the season.

I'll spare you the ugly pictures of French Gulch and instead show you the some sketchy Sally Barber and then good Sally Barber:

(1) Sketchy section of trail with exposed dirt to the left. Max will occasionally let himself drift onto dirt patches as we jog along the trail. Zorro. on the other hand, is a snow hound - he will never let his toes touch dirt if there is any trace of snow.

Zorro and I riding the snow while Max checks the dirt before returning to snow.

While parts of Sally Barber are getting sketchy, we still had some fast & fun "all snow" straightaways. Zoom:

Back to preferred conditions as Zorro the "bouncing z-ball" and Max the "long stretch" sprint
along the Sally Barber Mine Trail.

May means warming temperatures, just ask Max:

"Rolling a snow angel to cool off!" demonstrates silly Max.
"What a silly brother, I would never do that!" suggests Zorro.

It took some creativity but we were able to link together multiple passes on Sally Barber with a few side trail excursions when the snow was better: 7.7 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 132 days on the trails covering 1108.4 miles with 121,500 feet of elevation climbed.