Dead Gulch

Cautiously towing the human as we complete a short (and ugly) out & back in French Gulch!

Exposed puddle behind Zorro's right leg.
Exposed ground behind and right of Jack,
Dangerous skiing conditions in French Gulch!!!
Good partners towing me cautiously given the conditions!

We've had a good amount of snowfall the last few days. So, despite warm afternoons/evenings, I expected us to be able to get one last skijor in French Gulch for this season. The plan was to do a short out & back in the gulch with elder Zorro before doing the Sally Barber Mine Trail with the kids. Well, I was wrong. French Gulch is officially DEAD GULCH and is off our list of trails until next season.

Just "how" dead & ugly was the terrain in French Gulch? Well, look for yourselves at the following photo. The middle of the trail is completely dead. Veteran Zorro and "becoming a seasoned veteran" Jack have both figured out how/where to proceed cautiously. Youngest Rudy is baffled on how we can make any forward progress; but will hop behind his brothers' lead and give it a try :)

"Not pretty, but this way is the only way!" demonstrate veterans Zorro & Jack.
"Really? Well, ok, I'll come along but I don't see a way forward!" says youngest Rudy.

Now consider this. The photo above is NOT the section of French Gulch I expected to require cautious crossing. This was supposed to be the "good" part of the trail. Well, as you see, French Gulch is dead for the season.

Well, at least our plan was to give elder Zorro a short run this morning! After a VERY short "out, fail and back" in French Gulch, the kids and I skijored up to Sally Barber Mine. I paused at the mine to roll snow angels:

"Got it! Paused to roll snow angels!" demonstrates the goofball twins
in front of the historic mine.

No, really,  stopped to turn left at the mine but a "pause is a pause" to the stop, drop and roll kids. After getting the sillies upright, it was left and onto the fun albeit narrow Trail of Tears:

Gliding through the trees on a very narrow trail.
It takes a lot of trust in your partners and excellent trail skills from
them to skijor such a narrow trail!!!

After the fun & narrow out & back on the Trail of Tears, it was back to the mine to fly back down to meet Zorro and Nancy. I did not pause this time, so the kids knew what to do :)

Zoom: you go = we go.
You stop = we stop, drop & roll!

The trail may look very nice in the prior and next photos. Well, compared to French Gulch, the trail WAS very nice. But, Sally Barber is one of the most popular trails around Breckenridge, so it gets a lot of traffic, leading to a very uneven and bumpy surface under the snow.

Looks perfect, right?

Now come along for the reality of just how beat up the trail was under the shallow layer of fresh snow. In the video clip you sill see three things that you do not see much of in most of our videos: my skis, my waistband and the carabiner attaching me to the sled dogs. What does it mean to see so much of these three things? Well, it means the trail was very choppy & bumpy under the snow and I am using all my abilities to get in a tuck and work the skis to stay upright! Whew, what a workout on the human's legs!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

It is late April, so not surprising that we had a day atop deteriorating conditions; but still sad to bid French Gulch farewell for the 2019/2020 skijor season: 5.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 156 days on the trails covering 1066.6 miles with 97,200 feet of elevation climbed.