Front

Nice "shot from the front" of the happy kids towing me to the finish on yesterday morning's skijor outing.

Smiles all around!

Every once in a while it is nice to get a "video from the front" from Nancy on the side of the trail as we finish a skijor outing (instead of the usual view of Jack & Rudy from behind from the camera on my chest). Of course, we fly on by, so it is a quick view from the front :) Today's clip starts out with me being the tiny black dot in about the center of the video. Watch as the dot (i.e., me) keeps getting bigger as we approach. It is not until about 19 seconds into the clip that the tiny Jack & Rudy dots are even visible in front of me. We keep growing as we approach until we cruise on by. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As for the entire outing, it was interesting conditions, to put it nicely :) It was too warm (temps slightly above freezing) for us to abandon set trails and use the spring crust, But, it was also too cold to soften the stale snowmobile tracks that had frozen the night before. Since we could not use the crust, we had to stay on the set trails with frozen snowmobile tracks. The potential problem with this? Well see the photo below:

My left ski is STUCK in a frozen snowmobile ski track.
So, my left ski cannot be used for control (speed or direction) until I drive my
poles into the ground and jump (on skis) in the air to get my ski out.
All of this is done while moving behind fast running Jack & Rudy!!!

Did I mention it was warm? Did I mention it was also too cold to melt or soften the stale snowmobile tracks?

Warm, check. Must roll snow angels to cool off.
Frozen tracks, check. Even Rudy's back right leg is stuck in a track just
like my ski in the prior photo :)

How did we deal with these tough conditions? Well, I spent most of the outing hugging the right and left shoulders of the set trail trying to find some untouched corduroy to give one of my skis (and legs) a break. There was never enough shoulder for both skis/legs to get a break, so I alternated directing Jack & Rudy to the left and right shoulders to take turns resting one leg then the other.

Hugging the left with Rudy.
"Ah, thanks!" says my left leg getting a break while the right has to take
one for the team riding in frozen snowmobile tracks.

Tough outing on my legs, but my partners made it doable with great listening skills! Time for end of run treats to celebrate teamwork:

"We'll come up to you for treats so you can rest your knees!" says my
polite snow wall climbing partners :)

A shorter than usual outing, but the conditions made it feel long! 7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 133 days on the trails covering 1184.4 miles with 107,400 feet of elevation climbed.