Cat Tracks

We spent the majority of today's skijor running in soft & fresh snowcat tracks.

Zipping along in one track from the snowcat as you see the other track from the cat
to our left.

Our plan was to get onto the (usually) groomed trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. We have received upwards of 4 feet of snow the last few days. As a result, everything (groomers, plows, you name it) is having trouble keeping up with the super snowfall. We started the day on snowcat tracks like you see in the prior photo and expected to do a little jog in the cat tracks before getting on the main trail of the nordic center (expecting it to be groomed to zoom). But, once we got on the nordic trails, it was still cat tracks, not groomed trails. When there is SO much snow, the groomer makes a first pass as just a snowcat to clear the trail and then makes a second pass to groom. Well, we were out before they had a chance to make the second "groom pass". Oh well, still a fun time had by all!

Flying along the cat tracks on what is normally the super fast groomed trail of Breckenridge
Nordic Center. Pretty views and pretty snow covered trees all around us. The sun is finally
out after 3+ days of snow.

For today's comedy interlude. The careless human was admiring the pretty snow covered forest and accidentally let his ski tips cross. This dropped me to my knees and we had to pause while I got back up. Any stop, planned or unplanned, gets the same reaction from goofy Jack:

"Planned or unplanned - we stop, I roll!" demonstrates goofy snow rolling Jack.
"What's going on back there? Why are we stopped?" asks curious Rudy.
"This is not planned, I am ignoring you until we restart!" says veteran Zorro knowing this
is a completely unplanned and unnecessary stop in the action :)

But, if the stop is planned, Zorro is happy to give me his full attention. Here we are at our turnaround point of the morning.

"This is planned so I am happy and you have my attention!" says veteran Zorro.
"I'm about to drop & roll...." adds happy Jack.
"No stoppage should be planned!" declares 'keep going' Rudy.

For the last mile of today's outing, we finally caught up with the groomer's second pass. So it was fast & groomed to end the day. But, with so much snow, even the groomed track is "soft in the center". Think about a snowcat with a groomer attached. The "most packed" part of the groom with be where the two tracks of the snowcat have also packed the surface. With so much snow, the groom outside of the tracks is very soft. So, watch closely as veteran Zorro is on the hardest surface of the cat track under the groom. Jack & Rudy spend most of the run on a cat track too (Rudy on the right track and Jack alternates between them). But, occasionally Jack or Rudy drifts into the soft middle and you see them sink for a few steps before smartly hopping back to a cat track under the groom. Zorro is such a smart veteran, he never drifts into softness and it was a great lesson for the youngsters to identify and stay on packed cat tracks under a groom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Overall a very fun outing playing in cat tracks with a little groomed zoom to end the day: 5.3 miles traveled with 450 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 66 days on the trails covering 354.0 miles with 31,700 feet of elevation climbed.