Glancing

All smiles with an almost "connected" Zorro & Jack as we run to the finish of this morning's skijor.

Such happy kids!!!! I just love the smiles and connected bodies of Zorro & Jack.
Rudy has a nice smile going too; but the "connected joy" of Zorro & Jack is priceless!

Elder Zorro took the day off from most of the outing but, as you see above, he thoroughly enjoyed his short sprint to the finish once he joined the team.

As for the kids, Jack & Rudy took me on a 9.4 mile tour of Sally Barber and French Gulch. They have really learned the pattern of the Sally Barber Mine Trail. We climb from the back side and then pick up the pace as we crest at the mine. As long as there are no obstacles around the corner (such as moose or loose dogs), then they know I will let them uncork the skijoring engine down the front side of the trail.

Cresting at the mine and starting to open the throttle as all is clear around the corner.

Here we go with the "crest & go" Sally Barber Mine video for today. The conditions today really show the "trail preferences" of Jack versus Rudy. Notice that Jack is almost exclusively in the soft & hardly used snow on the right of the trail while Rudy is almost exclusively in the hard packed and heavily used left of the trail. This has become their personality - Rudy likes the fast & hard packed whereas Jack likes the soft shoulders. As long as the shoulders are not too deep to keep pace, Jack will tend to run on this terrain.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After going up/over the Sally Barber Mine Trail, we went out & back in French Gulch. What is French Gulch known for? Well, MOOSE of course. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that youngest Rudy's "moose detector" is really maturing and becoming fine-tuned like Jack & Zorro. As a result, I now have to start paying attention to things like the following from Rudy!

That looks like a "moose detecting glance" to me!!!!

A month ago and I would have ignored such a glance from Rudy as he was equally distracted by a leaf as a moose. But, not today, I had to quickly scan the gulch to our left based on this moose alarm from Rudy. Despite the glance, we failed to see any moose although I am convinced there must have been some nearby based on Rudy's glance.

No more "scent of moose", so time to floor it on the fast packed French Gulch Trail. Love aerodynamic Rudy in this shot - look at those ears pinned to his head to avoid any drag!!!

Rudy missile alongside sprint-tucked Jack.

You knew this was coming. We did an "out & back" in French Gulch so we had to stop and turnaround eventually. Oh those silly kids!

Jack & Rudy are getting very good at rolling conjoined snow angels.
Where does Jack end and Rudy start?

Back to adding Zorro in to finish the day. A couple steps closer than the first photo and we still have the happy, smiling trio:

Smiles all around! Look at those happy sled dogs!

An entertaining 9 mile tour with Jack & Rudy and then a fun finish to the outing with Zorro: 9.4 miles traveled with 750 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 81 days on the trails covering 559.7 miles with 52,050 feet of elevation climbed.