Half and Half

Taking a quick break to roll snow angels after carving our own track through the backcountry snow!

We just turned around to start back and Jack & Rudy need to "stop, drop and roll"
first to cool off before restarting. Fun shot of the ski & foot prints we just
carved in the fresh snow before turning around.

It was a great "half and half" day skijoring from Rabbit Ears Pass towards Buffalo Pass and then returning the same route.

The beginning and ending of the outing found us flying along miles of snowmobile tracks. Zoom!

Jack &  Rudy flying along in the snowmobile tracks.

But, to our surprise, we out-skied all existing snowmobile tracks and found ourselves, as you saw in the first photo, setting our own path in miles of untouched snow. What a treat!

Wow, look at the untouched powder cache we found to explore!!! Fun!

Today's video highlight is a glimpse into our fun carving our own tracks in miles of untouched snow. What an aerobic workout!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The only thing that can top "fresh snow"? Well, how about fresh moose tracks! As we were returning, we encountered some moose tracks on the trail that were NOT on the trail on our initial pass by this section of trail. So, somewhere in the 30-ish minutes between our out & back on this section of trail, a moose had entered the trail, walked for a bit and then exited the trail. 

"These are VERY fresh moose prints!" declares smart Jack & Rudy!

Back to the trailhead to enjoy 'end of run' treats with Zorro at the official Rabbit Ears Pass Marker. Typically, you cannot drive to this marker by late Nov until sometime in June. But, with our light snowpack in November,  we were able to drive Zorro to the marker and start/stop here and enjoy our treats at one of Zorro's favorite "points of interest".

"Ah, the rabbit marker! How about some treats?" suggests Zorro.
"Glad old man Z is with us at the fun marker!" adds Jack & Rudy who
each had many training/learning-to-skijor outings with Zorro which
involved pausing at or passing by this fun marker.

A very entertaining outing this morning: fast times on snowmobile tracks, aerobic times laying fresh tracks out/back in the backcountry and then fast times again returning on the snowmobile tracks: 12.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 14 days on the trails covering 103.8 miles with 9800 feet of elevation climbed.