Oh May, Oh My!

Oh my what a great outing on Rabbit Ears this morning. Oh May, Oh My!

A stretch of groomed trail in late May! Wow, what a surprise! Zoom, zoom, zoom!

So much excitement from the outing, I do not know where to start... How about with the surprise groomie zoomie? We were skijoring our favorite "late season" trail at Rabbit Ears Pass when we came upon a groomed trail intersecting our path. Many of these trails are groomed regularly by the local snowmobile club; but that happens "in season", not late May. Well, apparently the club decided to take the groomer out for one last late season groom. Nice!

The photo above is from sprinting the groomie zoomie and the video below combines a group of excerpts from the outing. Interesting thing to note in the video: you might notice one of Max or Zorro "backing off" the gangline during parts of the sprint. This is the two of them alternating carrying the load vs resting while sprinting. We all wanted to make full use of this surprise groomie zoomie; but it was a warm May morning. So, what better way to make sure we can go-go-go than to occasionally have one back off the gangline to rest while sprinting with the other keeping the human in tow (and alternate this behavior). Smart guys!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

So, I mentioned "so much excitement" above. We have the groomie zoomie I already mentioned and here is the next item of excitement: Bear Tracks! We encountered a clearly fresh set of bear tracks going across the trail and into the trees. I know they were fresh by Max & Zorro's interest in the tracks:

"Sniff, sniff - bear tracks! Oh my!" declare the track sniffing pair. The tracks did not come out
as clear in this photo as I expected as they were clear as day to all 3 of us. So, I have put some
arrows next to some of the tracks to help identify them.

The next item of excitement... The snowpack at Rabbit Ears is incredible for late May and the snow is solid enough for sprints if you get out early in the morning.

Great snowpack for late May. Great early morning conditions for a skijor sprint.

Finally, what great views you get from atop Rabbit Ears Pass:

Looking down upon the rest of Colorado. 

A surprise groomie zoomie, bear tracks and great snowpack. Oh May, Oh My: 9.1 miles traveled with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 141 days on the trails covering 1183.8 miles with 129,900 feet of elevation climbed.