Nature

Those into "nature photography" and "changing of the seasons" will like this photo.

Those into skijoring will be sad...

Yikes - end of trail! Spotty snow with fast flowing water in between!
"I'd rather see more snow!" says Max.
"In complete denial!" states Zorro.

Luckily, though, we found mostly open & snow covered terrain on our path at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning. This was somewhat surprising given the recent warm temperatures and the path we took that was exposed to sun and lower in elevation. But, we were intent on trying this route one more day.

Nice snowpack along this open stretch. But, notice the bumpiness of the surface...

On to today's video highlight which goes along with the prior photo. A few things to notice in the video: (1) we are bouncing and bumping along this choppy terrain; (2) you can see a lot of my skis in the video (whereas my skis are often barely to not visible); (3) you can see my hand/arms/poles a lot in the video. What does this all mean? Well, I was skiing hard today. The amount of ski you see is from me tucking and driving my legs hard into the snow to combat the bumpiness. In other words, my legs were burning at the end of today's outing! It is so much easier to sit back and ride the skis on smooth terrain :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Why one last visit to this set of trails at Rabbit Ears? That's an easy question: Moose!

Max & Zorro each have their noses planted in a moose footprint while you can see two
more footprints behind them. Moose!!!

I said today's path was "mostly snow covered and open", here's a really sketchy patch:

Skis tight together as we ride the narrow strip of snow. Max & Zorro always stay "on snow"
if at all possible, so I can ride through narrow strips like this knowing they will keep
me on the snow. Great partners!

No moose sightings today, but plenty of fresh smelling moose tracks. As you can see in the last photo, this is our last trip to this section of trails at Rabbit Ears. But, we still have plenty of higher elevation terrain to continue to use at Rabbit Ears! Yay - tune back tomorrow... 9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 154 days on the trails covering 1290.5 miles with 136,700 feet of elevation climbed.