Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Second Tracks

Beautiful morning to lay fresh tracks up a gentle rise in the trail!

Whee we go laying fresh tracks as I ride the Siberian Tow Rope!
Those are fox tracks to the left of Jack; but not very fresh/recent as neither
kid showed much interest in them.

We were on the upper trails of Gold Run Nordic Center this morning. But, the nordic center closed for the season on Monday; so no more grooming of these trails and we'll need fresh snow (as we had today) to use them for the rest of the season. 

Anyway, we were first on the morning's fresh snow until we rounded a corner and found evidence of moose:

"Whoa, what a deep moose trough!" states Rudy inspecting the deep trough
leading into (or out of) the forest.
"Sniff, sniff - moose came OUT of the forest here, it did not leave to go
into the forest!
" declares track inspecting Jack.

So, which was it? Did the moose leave and to into the forest here or come out of the forest and onto the trail? Well, it turns out Jack was right, the moose came out of the forest here and sauntered along the trail we were about to embark on. As we started along this trail, moose tracks were very evident going the same direction as us for a while.

Big two-toed moose print in the lower left corner of this photo and then
a line of moose tracks going along the left side of the trail. Rude moose
didn't know you are not supposed to step in the classic ski track :)

So, it turns out we were second tracks to a moose for part of this morning's outing, Luckily, we never encountered the moose itself. Come along and watch today's clip as there are moose tracks along the trail during this entire video clip. The tracks are mostly to the left of Jack and are most visible around 10 seconds, 30 seconds and 55 seconds into the clip (but, they are there the entire clip). You better believe I was on high alert as we rounded every corner!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the tracks left the trail and back into the forest, yay! Once clear of moose, it was time to really floor it again :)

Cool shot of the flying kids as we are rounding a gentle left in the trail.
Zoom!

Finally, onto the main trail taking us back to the trailhead. This stretch of trail is very sun exposed and always the first to melt out every Spring. This may have been our last skijor along this stretch for the season :(

Catching air on what might be our last run along this particular trail.

Back to the trailhead to climb snow walls for end of run treats. What are Jack & Rudy going to do when the snow walls melt?!?!?!?

"Coming up for end of run treats!" declares the happy, wall climbing kids.

A peaceful morning laying fresh tracks most of the outing with a short stint of "second tracks to a moose" but luckily no actual moose encounter! 8.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 1132.9 miles with 102,700 feet of elevation climbed.

 

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