Hey

"HEY! We were using that! RUDE!!!" says the snow loving trio to the evil plow.

"RUDE! Just plain RUDE!!!!!" says Zorro, Jack, Rudy and me :)

It was an interesting skijor for us this morning with a bunch of constraints.

First constraint: I had a "jury summons" to appear for jury selection at 9am this morning. What a rude morning constraint to deal with.

Second constraint: The ski resort reported 13" of new snow overnight at we had over 7 inches at home. So the trails would have between 7 to 13+. No way was I going to miss a morning like this because of some rude jury summons.

Third constraint: At 11.5 years old, Zorro is not really up to breaking trail in a foot of snow anymore. But, with the rude jury summons, we did not have time for Jack, Rudy & I to set a trail first and then add Zorro in to reuse what we packed. Rude jury summons!

The solution? Attempt to skijor French Gulch Road. Two reasons: (1) vehicles drive this in all depths of snow to get to trailheads and a few houses back in the gulch; (2) plows get to this road last on the schedule as they need to do the more populous streets first. As we arrived to French Gulch Road at the edge of the town limit, it was perfect. One vehicle had driven up the road with no plows yet. As a result, we were able to skijor up the road in perfect setup. Jack, Rudy and I took one tire track to let the kids haul me up. Zorro, meanwhile, took the other tire track to run alongside us while letting Jack & Rudy do most of the uphill work. A perfect use of young Jack & Rudy along with elder Zorro!

Wheeee - riding the "2 year olds" tow rope up one tire track while
Zorro keeps pace alongside us in the other track.

We did this configuration all the way out French Gulch Road for a little over two miles before we had to turn around to get me home in time for jury duty. Time to turn around and guess what... :)

"Turning means rolling snow angels first!" says the powder twins throwing themselves into
the deep snow first.
"Kids! What else can you say but 'kids'?!?" says onlooking Zorro.

Once turned around, everyone wanted to get in the same tire track for some downhill speed. Unfortunately only two sled dogs can fit in a single tire track. I spent 50 yards or so making sure everyone knew he could use the right track while the other two used the left track (with various 'over to the right' commands and others). But, alas, nobody wanted to run in the right track alone. Instead, everyone quickly settled on the "Powder Jack" configuration. Zorro & Rudy took the tire track and Jack happily ran in the middle powder right next to the track.

Powder Jack! Go, Jack, Go!!!
Impressive shot of Jack kicking up powder while still keeping pace with Zorro and Rudy
in the tire track.

Come along for a minute of impressive Powder Jack as he is able to "kick up powder" while still keeping pace with his in-track partners. I think Zorro & Rudy actually pulled back a little to make sure Jack could keep pace and they could remain in the set track. Impressive powder Jack and polite Zorro & Rudy - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

How long did Powder Jack go? Well, refer back to the original photo above. He maintained Powder Jack until we ran into the rude plow coming up the road. Rude! Anyways, once there was a wide plow lane, nobody wanted to run in the powder anymore. That's completely understandable but all the work then fell upon me to avoid obstacles on the road that the plow had exposed!

My partners making use of the fast plow lane while I ride with one ski in the lane and the
other ski in the side powder. I kept switching my weight between the "fast lane ski" and
the "safe/slow lane powder ski" to keep pace while avoiding hazards. I hate when I have
to do so much work :)

End of a short but very fun morning run:

"That was fun! What a great workout!" says happy Powder Jack.
"Look at patient me awaiting my 'end of run' treats!" adds cute Rudy.
"You have my full attention!" declares Zorro.

The "13 inch snow report" from the ski resort was as of 5am and it had been snowing nonstop since then. So, we were somewhere in the 15-20" range by the time we got home. I made one last check on my rude jury summons (it was still 'on' as of 7am) and, YESSSSS, jury duty canceled as of 8am due to inclement weather!!!! Woo Hoo!

Yay to jury canceled but boo to cutting our run short to be able to make it: 4.2 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 39 days on the trails covering 257.9 miles with 25,800 feet of elevation climbed.