Flying Z

Love sharing the "end of run" treats with my happy & hard working sled dogs!

Such focus! Such happy faces!

I have been referring to Zorro as our "11.5 year old" superstar most of this skijor season. Well, time has passed and he is officially our "11-3/4 year old" superstar. We have been limiting his runs this season as we've seen he still wants to run just not the 8-12 mile distances he did in his prime. We are giving him 2-3 outings of 4-6 miles each week and then he joins in for 1/4 to 1/2 mile finishes on the other days. Yet, every time we take him for the 4-6 mile outing, he is still so impressive! He will backoff the gangline on extended uphill stretches and happily let young Jack & Rudy do the uphill lifting. But, this is perfect as the kids need the extra exercise :)

Today was another "wow" outing from Zorro as he was killing it on the perfect groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. How's the following for an impressive 11-3/4 year old Flying Z?

Flying Z to the right with hovering Jack & Rudy to his left. Zoom!

While we were flying along the wide trails, my partners are so good at taking it down a notch on narrow side trails. They really understand that keeping the human upright is important as they will slow without any verbal commands from me when necessary. Here we are gently gliding along a narrow side trail as we connect from one wide trail onto another.

Perfect! Slowing slightly to gently move the human from one
wide trail to another via this narrow connector!

There is a turnaround point at Gold Run known as "Jumbo Overlook". Zorro always pauses and glances out the overlook as he, Max and I saw a big bull moose from this location once. The moose sighting only happened once and it was years ago; but Zorro still pauses every time we get to this point and glances out the overlook. Jack & Rudy, on the other hand, have no idea this is a moose overlook. Rudy tried following Zorro's lead today while Jack missed the memo :)

"Still looking for that big bull moose from years ago!" says searching Zorro.
"What are we looking for? What moose?" asks Rudy joining in Zorro's glance.
"Sniff, sniff, I'm more interested in this 'point of interest' sign." adds Jack.

No moose in sight, so let's turn around and watch Flying Z again!

Zorro the flying missile alongside fast running Jack & Rudy.

Now for today's video highlight. Come along as we are gliding along a fast straightaway until we approach a left bend in the trail. So, slow a little, lean a lot and get towed around the bend. Finally, the trail straightens back out so off we go flying again.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Another impressive day from elder Zorro!

The usual "all smiles" as my pals tow me to the finish of a super fun run!

Beautiful morning for a 5.4 mile skijor with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 112 days on the trails covering 758.6 miles with 69,700 feet of elevation climbed.