Bird

Cresting on the trail at the historic Sallie Barber Mine this morning.

Zipping on by the mine. Wheeee!

We had a blast skijoring up the frontside of the mine trail, then down & back up the backside of the mine before finishing down the frontside. The backside is usually pretty quiet and Jack & Rudy love to floor it along this stretch of trail:

Zooming along the quieter backside of Sallie Barber.

For today's extra entertainment, check out the following photo. Look straight up from Jack's right ear and that black blob against the snow is a bird crossing the trail ahead of us. This bird was either very brave or very suicidal. If it had crossed any closer to Jack & Rudy it would have become bird food! Notice the ears up and full attention Jack & Rudy are giving this potential bird food :)

"Bird food dead ahead! It's flying at 'mouth level'!!!" declares the
focused hunters.

Now come along for the video of the bird crossing. We start the clip cresting on the trail at historic Sallie Barber Mine and then continuing along. But, watch very closely at about 18 seconds into this clip. You'll see a bird fly low across the trail in front of us. Notice how aerodynamic Rudy's ears are tucked against his head to start the clip, but his ears come up at about 17 seconds (this would be when he first detected the bird) and remain up until we get by where the bird crossed (that is Rudy hunting). But, once past the bird crossing, he tucks his ears back in for fast aerodynamics. Funny kid!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The frontside of Sallie Barber Mine is a very popular trail, so we often get the chance to flirt with and fly on by oncoming skiers. Love to put smiles on everyone's faces :)

"Hi! Bye! Made you smile!" says cruising on by Jack & Rudy.

Another great skijor outing, another end of run treat powwow at the trailhead :)

"Do we get that bird for treats today?" asks curious Rudy.
"Yea, how about bird food for end of run treats today?" suggests Jack.

Sallie Barber is one of our shorter outings by Jack & Rudy's standards, but still a ton of fun to skijor now & then: 7.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 98 days on the trails covering 862.0 miles with 79,200 feet of elevation climbed.