Dive

Rudy's first rodent dive of the 2022/2023 skijor season!

"Incoming!" demonstrates Rudy doing one of his patented rodent swan dives.
"Nice form little bro!" adds onlooking Jack.
Rudy may be younger than Jack but he is by no means little :)

We returned the the Harrison Creek Trail at Rabbit Ears Pass again yesterday morning. On Sunday morning, the conditions were "good to great". On Monday morning, I can summarize as follows:

Too many of these.....

Off road vehicle taking hunters into the backcountry.

Led to too much of this...

Yuck! We skijored this section of trail 24 hours early and it was
snow covered and perfect.

Oh well, we expect trail damage from vehicles this time of year. We did find the occasional nice stretches to trot & ski comfortably:

Ah, a really good stretch of trail!

But, the hazards were ugly and frequent. None of Jack, Rudy or I were ever comfortable going very fast as we kept encountering trail carnage along the trail and around almost every blind corner. That's ok, Jack & Rudy settled into a gentle trot the entire outing. It's better to "go gently" than not go at all! Come along for a quick video glimpse into our 7.8 mile skijor stroll:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Turnaround time and, you guessed it, synchronized snow angels from the silly kids:

Turnaround... Roll Around!

Time for the end of run team meeting :)

"Ah, thanks!" says Rudy appreciating my little head/ear rub.
"Me next!" adds happy Jack.

Not the best outing due to deteriorating conditions; but we were on snow in October! 7.8 miles traveled with a top speed of 15 MPH and 600 feet of elevation climbed.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 44.8 miles with 3850 feet of elevation climbed.

Unfortunately, the season is on pause until we get some new snow to freshen up the trails. But, the forecast is for that to happen Thu or Fri! Pray for Snow!