Drift Pow

Powering through the occasional snow blown drifts on the trail this morning.

Drift POW :)

Look at young Rudy powering through the snow drift. POW!!!

This morning's outing had us starting off the beaten path to enjoy the new snow on the trail. We were delighted to find ourselves laying fresh tracks in 3-5 inches of snow on this trail and also encountering the occasional 6+ inch wind blown snow drift to power through.

Come along for the fun laying fresh tracks and hopping through some wind blown deep patches along the way...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We skijor this "off the beaten track" trail with the intent of eventually connecting onto the groomed trail of Gold Run Nordic Center. We had an interesting discovery today as the regular groomer had not been on the trails yet but the mini groomer had. The mini groomer is a snowmobile pulling a groomer sled as wide as the snowmobile. The mini groomer is used for side trails at the nordic center but it has to run on the wide, main trails to get to the various side trails. The result? We found ourselves on the wide, main trail with only a skinny mini groom track. Jack & Rudy were very polite as they gave Zorro the mini groom while the two of them ran in the "yet to be groomed" part of the trail all day. At 10 years old, Zorro has earned the right to have the groom while the youngsters get the shallow powder. Did I really just say "polite Rudy"? Never thought I'd say that :)

Zorro flying along the mini groom while polite Jack & Rudy takes the shallow powder parts
of the trail. So nice to their big brother!

Fun point of the outing... We were flying along when Zorro did his "I smell moose" glance to his left. I know this look from him and was immediately scanning around us for moose.

"Stinky moose to the left! I smell them!!!!" declares Zorro without breaking stride.
The youngsters are not professional moose detectors yet :)

10 or so yards later and there were moose tracks crossing the trail. Notice the moose tracks starting on the right, crossing the trail and going off to the left:

"Fresh, very fresh!" declares track inspecting Zorro.
"I think I smell them too!" adds glancing Jack.
"I'm still going, I don't smell anything!" states oblivious Rudy :)

Despite a lot of "moose intensity" from Zorro and encountering 3 sets of tracks crossing the trail, we never spotted any of the elusive moose. Why stink up the forest if you are going to hide?!?!?

Fresh tracks, drift pows and then a fast mini groom for Zorro with shallow fresh snow for Jack & Rudy: 4.5 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH (I sense 23-24 MPH coming very soon)!

2018/2019 Season to Date: 38 days on the trails covering 202.1 miles with 17,900 feet of elevation climbed.