Wonderful

It was a wonderful morning for a 9+ mile skijor in mid-May atop Rabbit Ears Pass today!

Jack & Rudy catching air as we zip along in a somewhat recently
groomed sprint track.

The groomed track we found this morning was the same track we skijored on May 10. But, the track had been extended into a full groomed loop today (it was a one way trail on the 10th). If you are wondering where these "magical groom tracks" atop Rabbit Ears come from, well it's the US National Nordic Skiers. We see them every year up here and have stopped to talk to them a few times. I'm proud to say that these professional skiers are impressed with our skijor team and the pace Jack & Rudy run :)

Anyway, back to today. Once I saw they had extended the groomed trail into a loop, we did the full loop and then started for a second pass on the loop. As Jack & Rudy typically do, they switched sides to fully enjoy the same trail twice :)

Second pass with Jack on left, Rudy on right (notice they are switched in
the "first pass" photo above).

Notice that large pool of exposed water to our left. Yikes. Also, if you look closely you can see an exposed channel of water to the far left of the prior photo. Evil summer is showing signs of coming :(

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Here we go zipping along the groomed track on our second pass.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We actually did the loop 1.5 times to start the day. After doing 1/2 the loop on the second pass, we exited the trail and went skijoring around the base of Walton Peak.

Zipping along the edge of Walton Peak. Wheeee!

After doing an "out & back" on Walton Peak, we returned to the groomed loop to finish our second pass around the loop. If you think the exposed water in the second photo is shocking, wait until you see what we had to cross to connect from Walton Peak back onto the groomed loop...

Yikes! Connecting the groomed loop to Walton Peak will not be possible
in another day or two!

Notice in all the photos above that there was pretty heavy cloud cover this morning. The clouds and a mild breeze helped keep Jack & Rudy from getting too hot (temperatures were just above freezing). But, the sun did break through the clouds for one short stint. Well, here's what Jack & Rudy thought of this event.

"Sun and above freezing -  never been so hot!!!" declares the goofballs
rolling snow angels to cool off :)

Back to the trailhead and the kids found a very nice & high snow wall to climb for end of run treats!

The snow climbers are taller than me to get end of run treats!

A really fun morning on the wonderful groom loop with an out/back to Walton Peak: 9.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 155 days on the trails covering 1365.6 miles with 124,500 feet of elevation climbed.