1400 Miles

The 5 year olds, Jack & Rudy, first season surpassing 1400 miles of skijoring this morning.

1406.0 miles to be exact and still going! 

"Ready for 1400 more!" declares happy Jack.
"YES, 1400 MORE!" belts wooing Rudy.

While we surpass 1000 miles of skijoring almost every season, our pack has only surpassed 1400 once before and that was with Max & Zorro in 2016/2017. Well done Jack & Rudy, well done!!!

Today's outing took us to the upper terrain of Harrison Creek at Rabbit Ears Pass. After a steep initial climb, these trails flatten out in some vast upper elevation meadows that typically have the best snowpack at Rabbit Ears this time of year. Today was no exception:

Out-stretched as we round a corner on wonderful conditions up high!

Along the way, we had a short stretch of very distracted driving by Jack & Rudy in front of me!

Distracted by wildlife to the left, but not breaking stride.

It is only moose or elk that can distract Jack & Rudy this much along the trail. But, a couple of seconds after the prior clip and it was distractions to the right this time:

Distracted by wildlife to the right without breaking stride again.

Now come along for the video counterpart of the prior two photos. Watch as Jack & Rudy are distracted to the left, then distracted to the right, then distracted to the left, then distracted from behind, then distracted by prints on the trail, then left again, etc. etc. But also notice that we continue onward skijoring without breaking stride. Pretty impressive that they maintained forward momentum despite tons of distractions!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

You better believe that I was whipping my head left & right too just in case something was close by. But we never actually saw any bodies. Yet, given Jack & Rudy's level of intensity, they could clearly smell moose or elk nearby. I am suspecting it was elk since they travel in much bigger herds than moose and that would match the number of times they are distracted in every direction.

Once we were past the "scent of elk (or moose)" both kids promptly threw themselves on the ground to roll snow angels to cool off from such intense activity :)

"Must cool off after sprinting amidst elk aroma!" declares the silly kids.

Back to the trailhead and time for end of run treats. This was also the trailhead we started at yesterday and the snow wall for end of run treats is still there :)

Atop the snow wall for "eye to eye" end of run treats!

Some sketchy terrain near the start but VERY nice up high: 8.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 160 days on the trails covering 1406.0 miles with 127,400 feet of elevation climbed.