Whoop

Nice shot of the power trio towing me "on by" Nancy on the side of the trail near the beginning of this morning's skijor. Zoom!

On by we go, zoom, zoom, zoom!

The plan for today was to give elder Zorro a short run at the start of the outing and then take young Jack & Rudy out for an extended, long skijor. Everything went as planned!

We started the day in a fast groove as we quickly did a "4 minute mile" with Zorro, Jack & Rudy as a quick loop near the base of Walton Peak. As you see above, it was quite the successful "4 minute mile" as we flew past Nancy before stopping to give Zorro the rest of the day off. Zorro thoroughly enjoyed his fast mile but was also happy to stop early and hang out with Nancy while the kids took me out for a much longer run.

Jack, Rudy & I proceeded to skijor another 9+ miles on the perfect snowpack around Walton Peak. You cannot get a much more impressive shot than the following for April 9th!

Ultra wide angle to showcase the ENDLESS snowpack around Walton Peak!
This snow will definitely hold up through April and probably through
most, if not all, of May! Yay!

The kids and I did a ridiculously fast "out & back" by Walton Peak. Here we are at our turnaround point and look, what is this, Jack & Rudy are upright instead of rolling snow angels!!!

"Hey, we can stay upright occasionally!" says the happy pair.

We spent the entire either making our own path atop the solid spring crust (as you see in the wide angle shot above) or following some of the established snowmobile trails. The main snowmobile trail had been groomed recently (not today, but within the last couple of days). With light usage from snowmobiles (due to both the COVID-19 restrictions and the time of year), we were able to find perfect groomed surfaces on the sides of the established snowmobile trails. Such fun!

Zooming along the left shoulder of the wide & established snowmobile trail.
A few days old perfect groom on the shoulders!!!

I have mentioned over the years that we do not mind fresh snowmobile tracks or snowmobile tracks that have softened in the sun. But, a hard frozen snowmobile track is dangerous to a pair of skis. Why is that? Well, if my ski (or, heaven forbid BOTH skis) fall into the track from a (wider) snowmobile's ski, then my ski can get trapped and I have to fight to get out of the track.

Sometimes seeing this is easier than explaining it. Come along for today's video highlight. We start out happily gliding along the perfect shoulder of the wide trail. But, at about 27 seconds into the video and a snowmobile track cuts perpendicular across the trail in front of us. I was convinced I could glide over this track as I saw it coming. But, alas, watch what happens. The frozen snowmobile track grabs control of my right ski and starts to take me off trail! Yikes! Then two things happen. First, I am able to push and fight my way out of the frozen track AND my perfect partners automatically slow given the commotion behind them until I recover and give them the "OK" to pick up the pace again. Had Jack & Rudy continued at a fast pace, I certainly would have wiped out given the track pulling me left and them pulling me forward. What good partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite the one "whoops" in the video above, we spent the vast majority of the day on perfect terrain. Either making out own path on the crust or cruising the shoulders of the wide trails. Phew!

I mentioned my pals kept upright at our turnaround point. Well, I stopped a second time to get my bearings and, well, you cannot stay upright through TWO stops! Just ask Jack & Rudy:

"Hey, we gave you one upright stop! This one is a stop, drop & roll!" demonstrates
the goofball, snow rolling kids.

Back to the trailhead with Zorro and time to celebrate a fast "4 minute mile" start the day with elder Zorro and a wonderful 9+ additional miles with young Jack & Rudy:

"We ALL earned the treats! Let's dish them out!" says the happy & focused trio.

A fast "Zorro mile" and then an extended Jack & Rudy adventure: 10.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 143 days on the trails covering 979.3 miles with 88,900 feet of elevation climbed.