Almost a Moose

Fun day on the fast packed French Gulch Trail!

Zorro & Jack hovering in the shade as Rudy is an out-stretched sprinting machine
in the sun. Zoom!

We did an out & back on the French Gulch Trail this morning. Not much excitement on the way out, just a peaceful run on a fast trail. But, on the way back we encountered a set of moose tracks on the trail. "Whoa!!!! These weren't here on the way out!" I said. "We know - LET'S GO!" said my moose seeking partners!

The red arrow points to moose tracks going our direction on the trail (and you can see
more following straight ahead). These were not here on the way out! My pals noticed,
of course, and wanted to kick the skijor machine into another gear to find the moose!

After encountering the tracks, I was on high alert. I slowed as we approached every blind corner (as much as I could slow behind the moose juiced trio) expecting to find a moose on the trail at any moment. My pals kept urging me to uncork it and let them go. What a bunch of moose goofs!

Come along for today's video fun. We are on a fast packed trail with fresh moose tracks. I am trying my hardest to keep speeds under control versus the moose trio who are trying their hardest to catch the moose. Suddenly we come around a bend and, low and behold, look what we encounter: A big Newfoundland, not a Moose. Almost a Moose, just a Newf :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We know this newf and his owner. From past experience we know that we cannot pass him when he is alone on the trail (he'll jump in the middle of our team tethered to me and we will get into a tangled mess). But, once his human gets with him, we can all pass safely.

Almost a Moose - just a Newf!
The last frame from the video above as we are stopped to wait for the people behind the
newf to catch up so we can all pass safely.

I have been waiting for conditions to announce Rudy's latest advancement. He was born on December 29 (2017), so we evaluate him at the end of every month and decide if he's grown to advance further in his skijoring career. Well, we decided on March 1st, that he was ready to go 10 minutes longer in his outings (40 minute outings instead of 30). but, it then proceeded to snow 4+ feet since that time, so we have (happily) not had conditions to open him up to 40. Well, today was the day to turn Rudy loose on fast packed French Gulch.

The only problem? The lower and middle sections of French Gulch get plowed and the upper section does not. As a result, there is a snow wall transition from the middle to upper terrain. Well, add 4+ feet of snow to a plowed/unplowed transition and you get an insurmountable snow wall for the transition! As we got to the wall, Jack & Rudy were all for giving it a try. Zorro was waiting for my decision until he saw his brothers going and then he joined in too:

Climbing the 7+ foot snow wall (4+ new added to the existing wall).
"Follow me!" declares Rudy the explorer.
"Oh boy, Zorro's coming too!" adds Jack looking back to Zorro.
"Boing - here I come too!" demonstrates Zorro launching himself up the snow wall.

At the top of the wall and everyone is waiting for me. The wall is easily over 7 feet high as I was looking up to them. Silly Siberians, it would take me FOREVER to take my skis off and climb this wall (and then we'd be in 4 feet of deep snow).

"A little deep, but passable!" declares Rudy buried in deep snow atop the wall.
"Looks navigable to us!" add Zorro & Jack.

Despite the encouragement from all three, I did not climb the wall with them and called them all back instead. In order to get Rudy his first 40 minute skijor, we did a section of the packed trail 4 times instead of 2 (out, back, out, back).

What a fun day: (1) Almost a Moose, just a Newf; (2) An Insurmountable Snow Wall; and (3) Young Rudy's first 6+ mile skijor!!!

6.3 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 67 days on the trails covering 360.3 miles with 32,200 feet of elevation climbed.