Searching

Beautiful shot of Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks as the morning sun is just beginning to peek over the mountain in front of us!

Fresh tracks! Wheeee!

We spent the morning going back and forth between wide trails and narrow trails. We did a stretch of fast & wide as you see above and then a stretch of shoulder-to-shoulder narrow as you see below:

A snowmobile trail winding through the trees. Just wide enough to
run side by side.

We were using each of the narrow trails to traverse between different fast and wide trails. We used the trail above to navigate through the forest onto the wide trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. Once on the nordic trails, we were thrilled to find ourselves first tracks on the freshly groomed speed track!

Flying behind the Jack & Rudy Bullet Train :)

How fast? Well, how about 24 MPH zipping along the fresh groomie zoomie. Come along for a fun glimpse into 24 MPH behind Jack & Rudy. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We then transitioned onto another narrow, but wide enough to be side by side, snowmobile trail. Much to my surprise, guess what we found on this trail? Moose tracks!!!!!

The bottom center of this photo is a moose footprint!
Look at Jack & Rudy flooring it to follow the tracks to find the moose!

I didn't really want to see moose tracks on this narrow snowmobile trail. As you see above, it was a winding trail through the trees. You better believe I was talking up a storm and on full alert to throw myself into the deep side snow if we came upon a moose around any bend in the trail. Why "talking up a storm"? Well, moose will drift away from human noises.

Eventually the moose tracks left the trail. Jack & Rudy went a few more yards past that point and then they stopped and spun around. Clearly we had drifted past the moose and the "scent of moose" was now behind us. Ready for another scary moment? How about Jack & Rudy locked on "scent of moose" but looking different directions!

"Moose to the right!" declares Jack,
"No, moose to the left!" asserts Rudy.

Years ago, Max, Zorro and I accidentally found ourselves between a mother and child moose on the trail. Max found the mother in the trees and then Zorro spun around to point out the child on the other side of us. I literally grabbed Max & Zorro by their harnesses and ran (on skis) to get us back to cover. You don't want to be between a mother moose and her child! Once I saw Jack & Rudy in the photo above, I was swinging my head every direction trying to make sure we were not between a mother and child moose. But, alas, we never spotted any moose. They were clearly deep enough in the trees to not be an issue but close enough for Jack & Rudy to clearly smell!

Well, failed to find any moose, so it was back to fast & wide trails to end the outing:

First tracks on the groomie zoomie again! Zoom!

Zorro would have loved to been out searching for moose with us!

"Just tell me you got some moose meat!" says Zorro.
"If we had followed my lead into the trees, we'd have moose meat!" 
states silly Jack.
"No, I had the right direction to fetch moose meat. Let's go back!" adds
cute Rudy.

A fun day alternating between wide and narrow trails with a little moose searching entertainment along the way: 9.2 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 94 days on the trails covering 764.0 miles with 66,500 feet of elevation climbed.