Flying

Zorro and I had a blast zooming around the fast packed terrain yesterday morning.

The best word to describe Zorro's actions: FLYING!

Wheeee we go behind flying Zorro Zeeeee!
Love this shot of my impressive skijor partner flying along the trail!

We spent most of the morning on the fast packed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center with a couple of side tours on fast packed snowshoe trails. We have not had any new snow for about a week; so, while there was plenty of snow on the trails, they were also well used, packed and fast.

Zorro was really into the outing and was in a fast sprint all morning. If he was not flying, as shown above, then he was hovering instead:

Zorro, the skijor hovercraft, floating above the trail.

In past years, skijoring with Max & Zorro, our top speed was usually in the 26-27 MPH range. I figured we would not hit 26-27 this year with solo Zorro (as most of the fun in going fast is doing it shoulder-to-shoulder with your brother :) yet I expected to hit 24 MPH with just Zorro. Well, yesterday morning was the day, Zorro's top speed of the day: 24 MPH!!  Who knows, maybe he will surprise us all and top 24 all by himself at some point!

Come along for a quick minute of our fast skijor outing. Zorro is really in a fast & fun stride. Pay some attention to the last 10 seconds or so of the video... We come upon a hard left in the trail as Zorro leans into the turn perfectly. I, on the other hand, was not sure I could make the tight turn. The trail was so ridiculously fast packed that I did not know if I could cut my skis into the same tight turn as Zorro. If your volume is up high, you should be able to hear my skis scraping loudly during this turn and I was using all my leg strength to try push and cut the skis into the turn. It may look like the turn was executed with no problem; but the scraping you hear (and the burning I felt in my legs :) tells you how hard it was for me to keep pace with Zorro. Phew!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Done with most of the morning's outing and time to hook up little Jack to end the day. Here is a great shot of our skijor training with Jack: running on a gentle downslope as the gangline is taut from me to Zorro (e.g., Zorro is doing the pulling) while happy Jack is slightly set back as he practices "running as a team" for a short distance.

All smiles as we finish the day as a skijor team.

What a fast & fun day:

"Oh my, I had a ball! ZOOOOM!" says happy Zorro looking back at me during a turnaround
point of the outing.

A day of flying on fast terrain: 7.6 miles traveled with 450 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH. Zoom!

2017/2018 Season to Date: 21 days on the trails covering 142.9 miles with 12,850 feet of elevation climbed.

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