Wednesday, February 1, 2023

False Start

We had a bit of a "false (or failed) start" to this morning's skijor due to a very distracting stick :)

A few feet from the trailhead and the kids came upon this large stick
across the trail. They picked it up and turned to show it to me proudly!

The 5 year olds, Jack & Rudy, get interested in sticks we occasionally encounter on the trail. Usually they are just small twigs and one or the other will pick it up, trot with it for a bit and then drop it. But, today was a large stick - too big to carry while trotting and big enough to share! I thanked the sillies for showing me their prize and then tossed it off trail to we could get started skijoring for real. Silly kids.

It was a beautiful morning to start the outing on single track side trails as we toured through the forest:

The fun kids zipping along in this fun single track trail.

Today was kind of similar to yesterday. It was -6 F when we got up at home. That's a bit cold for me, so we waited and waited for the temps to start rising. Luckily the temperatures did rise faster than yesterday and we were able to start the outing at a comfortable 0 F. Therefore, we were out on the trails later than usual. The result? Well, we were skijoring the upper loop of Gold Run Nordic Center much later than usual. Typically the morning sun is blocked from this loop by the mountains around us. Not today, though, as the sun had risen high in the sky by the time we got to the nordic loop. But, the cold had kept all the humans at home too as we were thrilled to find ourselves first tracks on the freshly groomed nordic trail despite being out much later than usual. Sweet!

Cool shot of Jack & Rudy flying as we are first tracks on the nordic groom.
Typically we are in "morning mountain shade" on this particular trail.

Come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. This is one of our favorite zoom stretches of trail at Gold Run. Today's video, though, is the first of the season with the sun shining on this stretch of trail. Top speed in this clip? 24 MPH. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually we leave the upper loop and head back to the trailhead. This section of trail is always in the sun and I can almost always guarantee a hover husky shot from Jack & Rudy along this path. Here's todays:

The kids catching air on the groomie zoomie.

Almost done with the morning's skijor and we got to fly by Nancy on the side of the trail near the finish:

"Hi Mom!" says the happy, happy kids towing me to the finish.

Jack & Rudy will flash their happy smiles to Nancy; but no reason to stop, she doesn't have the end of run treats :)

"Bye Mom, we've got treats to get!" says the kids gliding on by to get
to the trailhead finish.

A "later than usual" skijor but the cold kept everybody else inside too, so we had the fresh groomed nordic trails all to ourselves!!! 8.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 76 days on the trails covering 658.5 miles with 59,350 feet of elevation climbed.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment