Ears

The ears, the ears - the Rabbit Ears dead ahead :)

Cruising along the trail as "the ears" come into view.
The two rocks atop the peak (Rabbit Ears Peak) ahead and slightly
to the left of Rudy are "the ears" for which Rabbit Ears Pass is named.

Yesterday was a very fun morning galloping around Rabbit Ears Pass following snowmobile tracks up, down and around the terrain. Here's a fun photo for you... Look to the bottom center of this photo and to the right of my left ski. Is that a "two toed print" and, if so, why have Jack & Rudy run on by such a treat?

Look at that nice two toed print in the bottom center of this photo!

Okay, don't worry, Jack & Rudy have NOT lost their sense and drive for wildlife. We had just come up this section of trail and thoroughly inspected (i.e., sniffed) these prints to establish two things: (1) not very fresh as the kids gave them a little sniff but did not snap to attention as they do with fresh smelling tracks; (2) it's only an elk, not a moose (a moose print would be at least twice the size of this) - yawn, just a silly little elk :) Just kidding, Jack & Rudy would have been VERY excited if this elk track was fresh. Elk tastes (and smells) almost as good as moose!

Here we go for today's video fun. Come along for a glimpse into yesterday morning's gallop atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Pay close attention and you'll see Rabbit Ears Peak (and, thus, the ears) come in & out of view in front of us. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Quick pause early in the day's outing at the official forest service marker of Rabbit Ears Pass:

"Interesting, doesn't smell like rabbits!" declares sign inspecting
Jack & Rudy.

Another quick pause while the human gets his bearings for our location & time on trail to decide what direction to go next. Well, I stopped, so.... oh those silly kids:

"You stop, we roll around! Wheeee!" declares the always snow rolling
twins.

Despite the beautiful snow photos/videos above, the truth is the entrances to the backcountry are still very thin and 1-3 warm days away from being unusable! Boo!

Exposed ground to the left but thin cover for my skis to ride to the right.
Jack & Rudy are in a snowmobile track as the shoulder I am skiing was
to punchy for them to run. What thin cover!!!

Back to the trailhead to practice "full attention" with Zorro as we await end of run treats:

"Yes, you have our FULL attention!" declares the focused trio.

A nice romp around Rabbit Ears yesterday morning covering 6.8 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH. 

But, we are still waiting for winter (i.e., "the snow") to truly take hold this season. In the meantime we are living storm to storm with too much melting in between storms. Pray for Snow!

2021/2022 Season to Date: 10 days on the trails covering 72.5 miles with 7100 feet of elevation climbed.