Butt Brake

Scanning the terrain for rabbits at the official Rabbit Ears Pass Forest Service Marker :)

"Where are the rabbits?!?!?" asks scanning Jack & Rudy.

Little did I know what a foreshadow the prior photo was. Foreshadow of rabbits, you ask? Nope, foreshadow of moose! Oh my! Come along for yesterday morning's moose encounter...

Flying along with Jack & Rudy. Nothing but normal, fast skijoring
at this point...

Ok, enough foreshadow, now onto the real excitement of yesterday morning's outing. I'll give a few frame shots first to set the event and then you can watch it in real time on video.

We were cruising along a nice snowmobile packed trail when suddenly Rudy started scanning the surroundings and Jack started dipping his nose in/out of the ground (mostly in). I noticed moose tracks that Jack was dipping into. Given their intensity, the tracks were fresh (thanks to Jack for pointing that out) and the moose were still "in the area" (thanks to Rudy for pointing that out).

Ok, so moose in the area, I was on high alert to stop/avoid any moose. But, we then come around a corner and three things happen to throw me off: (1) we encounter 3 moose slowly exiting the trail; (2) there is exposed ground all over the trail (if my skis hit this, I'll wipeout); (3) Jack & Rudy see the three moose and are juiced to chase! Yikes...

"MOOSE!" declares intense Jack & Rudy.
I have put arrows to the three. One was still on trail and the other two were
exiting up the side and are very camouflaged against the brown landscape.

Zoom of the prior shot. Trust me, we were much closer to the moose than these photos imply!

Yikes!

Ok, moose + moose juiced Jack & Rudy + exposed ground all over the place. What did I do? Well, I used the old, reliable Butt Brake (planted my butt on the ground) to stop the developing catastrophe! Turns out I planted right next to some moose prints :)

My knee (left), moose print (right). But, at least we are stopped!

Now, come along for the video counterpart. We are cruising along nicely on this trail. But, then, watch at about 50s into the clip and you'll see "Rudy scanning" and "Jack dipping" as I get plenty of warning from my pals that there are moose in the area! Then, about 1m28s into the clip and you'll see the 1 moose on trail and 2 off trail moving. Around this same time and you'll see the "oh no" trifecta: 3 moose, juiced Jack & Rudy and too much exposed ground. Shortly after, I plant the Butt Brake to bring the event to a close. Note that I also call out "wait" to Jack & Rudy as we all come to a halt with my butt. Phew!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We need to report this event to Zorro!

"Any chance you have 'moose meat' for 'end of run' treats today?" asks Rudy.
"Yeah, moose meat for all!" suggests Zorro & Jack!

I do not need it often, as Jack & Rudy are excellent at listening & obeying my verbal commands, but every once in a while, the Butt Brake comes in handy! 6.6 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 21 MPH and three moose on the trail!

2021/2022 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 178.2 miles with 16,800 feet of elevation climbed.