Fresh then First

Jack & Rudy "kicking up powder" as we cruise along a relatively untouched trail in the morning's new snow!

Rudy kicking up powder in the existing track.
Jack kicking up powder in the untouched snow out of track.

I had a great plan for the morning outing and was hoping I got the timing right. Our route had us starting on ungroomed trails. The plan was to eventually drop onto the trails of Gold Run Nordic Center and do one lap on these fast trails. We then dipped into the ungroomed forest for a side tour before returning to Gold Run for another lap on the nordic trails. My plan for Gold Run was to be "fresh tracks" and then "first tracks". Did we succeed?

Well, here we are on the first lap at Gold Run. What did we have? Well, Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks in the morning's new snow atop the nordic trail. Yay for fresh tracks.

Fresh tracks zoom.

We then turned off the nordic center for a bit before returning to the same nordic trail. What did we have? Well, Jack & Rudy laying first tracks on the freshly groomed trail. Yay for first tracks. The following photo is basically the exact same location as the prior. Fresh tracks in the prior, first tracks in the next.

First tracks zoom.

This was exactly what I was hoping to time right this morning. One lap before the groomer and then one lap after the groomer. The groomer runs "in the morning" but not on an exact schedule, so I was pretty much estimating when to be out to get the trail before and after the groomer. 

What perfect timing! Come along for today's "fresh then first tracks" video. The first 20 seconds is Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks along the nordic trail. The last 40 seconds contains the same stretch of trail as the first 20 plus a lot more of this stretch of trail. In the last 40 seconds, though, we are now first tracks on the newly groomed trail. What a fun "fresh then first" outing!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

In between the two laps, Jack & Rudy took a quick moment to cool their jets by rolling in the snow :)

"Gotta cool the jets before repeating that fast lap!" demonstrates
the silly snow rolling kids.

I love it when a plan comes together so perfectly!

"Cool! I taught you well!" Zorro is telling me :)
"Wow did you time that perfectly!" states happy Jack.
"Dude, I'm impressed!" adds chilling Rudy.
Love all the snowflakes you can see against my coat/hat too!

A perfectly timed fun, fun day: 10.1 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 110 days on the trails covering 899.2 miles with 77,500 feet of elevation climbed.