Distraction

Zipping around a corner on a fast packed trail as Breckenridge Ski Resort comes into view across the valley.

Zoom, zoom.... Hey, look at the nice view... zoom, zoom :)

In our skijor setup I refer to Max as the "lead dog" and Zorro as the "wheel dog". Why is this? Well, if you know their personalities, then you know Max is good listener and responsive. Zorro, on the other hand, is also a good listener but response sometimes depends on whether he is focused on something else or not :)  Yet, "go" is always on Zorro's mind (thus his "wheel dog" label :)

But, Max does have a kryptonite: moose! Listening and responding are tossed out the window for moose. Anyway, back to this morning... We were galloping along when suddenly, without any warning, Max backed off the gangline and hopped off the trail to our right.

"Hey - moose tracks to the right! Forget skijoring, forget listening, forget everything except
for MOOSE!" demonstrates silly Max.

The prior photo is all I caught of Max's distraction as Zorro & I were still going forward. By the time I could snowplow to a stop and call out to Zorro, we had glided past Max and he was up in the snow behind us! Now, those tracks you see to Max's right in the previous photo might not look that large; but they were. It appeared as a moose walked up to the edge of the trail and then backed up.

Still not convinced they are moose tracks. Well, once Zorro & I stopped, he quickly looked back with a "What did I miss, why'd you stop?" to Max. He took a few steps back and then noticed what had distracted Max and, of course, this was now a distraction to Zorro. Must inspect moose prints and he hopped up the snow wall, off the trail, to inspect...

"Yes! Yes! Moose tracks, very fresh too! Smells delightful!" says silly Zorro giving the
moose prints a thorough investigation (Zorro is also know for doing things very
thoroughly :)

So, an interesting distraction along the trail today as we got to witness Max's kryptonite. We did do some skijoring too:

Back to normal form as we fly along the fast trail.

A lot of skijoring this morning with one major "moose print distraction": 9.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 104 days on the trails covering 864.2 miles with 92,500 feet of elevation climbed.