Passing 1300

The kids' (Jack & Rudy) first season surpassing 1300 miles of skijoring!

1302.5 miles and counting...

"Ready for 1300 more!" states always happy Jack.
"WOO!" adds always wooing Rudy (as if you expected him to be
saying something else? :)

We visited the Walton Peak area at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning hoping for conditions that could support a 9+ mile skijor. We were not disappointed as there was a fun layer of about 1/2 inch of new snow over snowmobile trails still packed from the past 6 months of use. Laying fresh tracks in May? Yay!

Cool footprints behind fast running Jack & Rudy.

As long as we stayed on the "established snowmobile trails" it was fast & fun. Come along for a video glimpse into the fun. Whee! Also watch perfect Jack & Rudy listen to my "over to the left" instruction about 25s into the clip as I try to find the smoothest path for my skis to travel. Such great partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

But... It is May... What does that mean? Well, there was not enough snowpack to drift off the set trails and into the open meadows. Without enough snowpack, there is not a crust that can support our weight over a meadow of grass & shrubs. Yet, even the set trails are deteriorating in places too. Here is a shot of our "forced turnaround" this morning :)

Yikes, trail ends here! This is actually a hole of open water. The early
morning snow is hiding this fact until the sun comes up to re-expose the water.
"Can we cross to our right?" asks Jack & Rudy.
Unfortunately, no, this water hole extended as far as we could see to the
left and right.

Ok, forced turnaround at the water hole. No problem, let's cruise back the way we came. I love this shot of us gliding back in our "out tracks" - the only tracks we saw all morning were our own.

Whee - what goes out, must come back. Cool "out & back" shot
from this morning :)

But, we did travel roughly 4.7 miles out before hitting the hole that made us turnaround. I knew we had over 9 miles before even checking my GPS. I was giddy that we flew past 1300 miles for the season and was very chatty about this at 'end of run' treats time. What did Jack & Rudy think about my chattiness?

"Yeah, yeah, it was fun - come on dad!" says Jack.
"Are you going to talk FOREVER or dish out the treats?" asks curious Rudy :)

This morning's wonderful outing: 9.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

Young Jack & Rudy have a pretty impressive string of seasons going. 1204.1 miles as 2 year olds, 1253.2 miles as 3 year olds and now 1302.5 miles (and counting) as 4 year olds! We probably have 1-3 more outings we can squeak out before announcing the end of our great 2021/2022 season. Stay tuned...

2021/2022 Season to Date: 156 days on the trails covering 1302.5 miles with 122,000 feet of elevation climbed.