Deep to Fast

From this...

Breaking trail in roughly 2 feet of fresh powder! Pow!

To this...

Topping 20 MPH on French Gulch Road with 2 feet of snow on the shoulders, but not
down the middle!

We got about 2 feet of fresh snow overnight and headed out to French Gulch to skijor the fresh snow. French Gulch Road had not yet been plowed, so we could not get to the usual trailhead. We simply hopped out of the car where the unplowed road started and proceeded to skijor the unplowed road.

Skijoring the unplowed road is the first photo above. I was thinking, "So deep, we'll be lucky if we traverse 2 miles in this!" Then, after about 15 minutes of breaking trail, a car came buzzing down the road. Clearly this car had gone into French Gulch before the overnight dump of 2 feet. I was amazed this little car was actually making it down the road. I think "downhill" coupled with very soft & fluffy snow is how it was able to make it...

"Wow, look at him blazing through 2 feet of snow!" we all said.

Once this car went by, though, we had a set track to run! This is what you see in the second photo above - Max & Zorro each taking one tire track while I alternate which I glide behind as we suddenly transition from "breaking trail" to "breaking 20 MPH". What a day of extreme opposite conditions!

Only time for a short run; but the car allowed us to actually accrue more miles than anticipated for a short outing: 5.7 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 35 days on the trails covering 260.7 miles with 26,750 feet of elevation climbed.