24 Again

Another Day, Another 24 MPH Skijor! Zoom!

Jack & Rudy flying along the fast nordic trails. Zoom!

I have been mentioning that the Colorado snowpack is far less than normal for the end of November. I've been omitting most ugly photos from our blog as it is more fun to showcase the good stretches of snow we do find on our outings. But, today, I had to show the following, yikes:

"Hey dad, wasn't this snow covered yesterday?!?" asks puzzled Jack & Rudy.

Yes indeed, the same patch of trail you see in the prior photo was snow covered just yesterday morning! This photo gives you an indication of the thin (to disappearing) cover we have at lower elevations and/or terrain exposed to afternoon (warm) sun. Yikes!

Now, compare the prior photo to the following. Wow, the difference is night and day! The prior photo was on the most sun exposed and lower elevation of our outing. The following photo is near our highest elevation and least sun exposed section of trail. What a difference! Hard to image we could crawl over ice & rocks at one point and floor it past 24 MPH at another point on the same outing!

Upper & sun protected trail - zoom!

Here we go with a great video clip of Jack & Rudy flying along the beautiful upper trails. While the two kids are really flying this whole clip, pay attention to the last 20 seconds or so as you see the speed demons kick it into another gear and zoooom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Ok guys, we have an option. Go back & forth and back & forth on the perfect section of upper trail or loop around and deal with more of the lower, sun exposed and snow disappearing trail. Typically Jack & Rudy don't like to repeat the same section of trail. They'll give me a "boring, already did this" yawn or woo if I try to repeat too much. But, not today, given the difference in trail conditions!

"Repeat! Yes, Repeat! We love snow!" declares my happy partners
showing me their approval of turning to repeat the good trail instead
of wandering back towards the ugly sections down lower :)

Here's a new one from Jack (just when you thought you had the cracker all figured out :) We encountered some moose tracks on the side of the trail. Rudy did the usual "sniff inspection" of the tracks; but Jack, on the other hand, decided to roll snow angels in the moose tracks today. That's a new one from Cracker Jack!

"Sniff, fresh!" declares Rudy.
"So fresh I need to roll in them!" adds Cracker Jack.
Despite the apparent freshness of these tracks, we never saw the actual moose.

So fun to bring our favorite retired gentleman back into the team for 'end of run' treats!!!

"As usual, I'm front & center!" states elder Zorro.
"We are happy to yield to Zorro!" declares polite Jack & Rudy who
have so much respect for their retired mentor who taught them
how to skijor.

An ugly day on lower and/or sun exposed terrain versus a super fast day on upper & sun protected terrain! 8.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 20 days on the trails covering 155.3 miles with 14,900 feet of elevation climbed.