Rare

Rudy could taste the 'end of run' treats before I started handing them out!

"Slurp, I can taste them with anticipation!" declares slurping Rudy :)
"You have our FULL attention!" adds Zorro & Jack.

This morning we did a "split skijor" where I went out with young Jack & Rudy first before joining with Zorro to end the day's run. The plan was to do the Sally Barber Mine Trail with the kids and then join with Zorro to go out & back in French Gulch.

You can view Sally Barber as having 2 sides. There is the lesser used west side that does not get much traffic and there is the well publicized east side that gets lots and LOTS of use from both locals and tourists.  To get the most out of our initial run with the kids we went up, down and then back up the lesser used west side before coming down the east side to meet with Zorro. We found 2-4 inches of new snow on the trail so were laying fresh tracks up the west side and then reusing our tracks down and back up - fun!

Reusing the track we set on the way up to open up the throttle on the way down - zoom!

After going up/down/up the west side, we were stunned with what we found on the popular east side: another 2-4 inches of fresh and untouched snow!!!! It is RARE to ever be first tracks on the popular side of Sally Barber. I swear people usually get up at dawn (or before) to be first tracks. It helped that the temperature this morning was around 10 degrees F with a strong wind bringing the wind chill well below zero. But, still, fresh tracks on the Sally Barber east face is extremely rare!

Whee - a rare treat laying fresh tracks on the popular side of Sally Barber.

The previous picture does not do complete justice to our "fresh tracks" run, so how about a video. Come along as we lean to the left, then lean to the right before taking off along an open straightaway while laying fresh tracks all the way - yay!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Done with Sally Barber and we hooked up with Zorro to lay fresh tracks out French Gulch before returning back to the trailhead. I guess the subzero wind chill kept everyone except the Siberian Huskies (and their crazy human) off the trails this morning :)

Flying Z in the middle with sprinting Jack and Rudy on each side of him.

Today's comical interlude. We were gliding along the trail when suddenly Jack & Rudy did a synchronized "rodent dive" off trail and into the deep snow. I don't know what they smelled or heard, but it was tempting enough to launch off trail and into the deep snow!

Nice "rodent swan dive" from Rudy.
Nice "rodent cannonball dive" from Jack.

The result of synchronized swan & cannonball dives off trail? DUNK - buried in snow searching for rodents. Luckily neither came up with anything in their mouth :)

"DUNK - we smell and hear rodents under the snow!" says the head dunked hunting pair.

The rarest of treats - laying fresh tracks on BOTH sides of Sally Barber Mine with the kids and then laying more fresh tracks as we added Zorro in French Gulch: 8.1 miles traveled with 750 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 28 days on the trails covering 182.3 miles with 18,650 feet of elevation climbed.