Jack Instigator

It was very "moosey smelling" out on the trail this morning!

This is one of three sets of moose tracks we encountered crossing the trail and
going into the trees. Jack & Rudy paused to smell all 3, telling me they were
pretty fresh. Despite 2 votes from Jack & Rudy to follow this set of tracks into
the trees, I exercised my veto power :)

How do I know the tracks were pretty fresh? Well, I've measured Jack & Rudy's reaction to moose prints in the past. When we've seen an actual moose in the past, I then timed their nose reactions to the tracks left behind. Basically, if they dip their heads in the tracks or stare intensely into the forest, the tracks are at most 24 hours old, typically less if their reaction is very animated. But, despite all the distracting moose tracks crossing the trail this morning, we never got a visual. Darn, I like seeing moose from a distance (as do Jack & Rudy)!

Back to skijoring, we went the the upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center again this morning. When the conditions were good, it was amazing:

Wonderful stretch of trail as snow poofs are coming off Rudy's feet from
the dusting of new snow on the trails.

Even when the trail was less that perfect, it was still very good!

Some saplings poking through to our right, but perfect down
the middle.

Come along for the video view into on of the perfect stretches of trail. Jack & Rudy were zoom, zoom, zooming when the conditions allowed.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Yet, we did encounter exposed ground multiple times along the outing. Typically I can walk slowly in skis over short patches of exposed ground. But, we did encounter one long & steep down stretch of exposed trail. I had to take my skis off to get over this and then put them back on. As I was cleaning snow off my boot sole, I got jerked forward by the impatient kids. Apparently I was taking TOO long to put my skis back on. By the time I lifted my head to see what was going on, I caught this!

Hey! That's unauthorized playing on the trail!
"No it's not! You are stopped SOOOOO LONG that we have to play!" counters
silly Jack & Rudy.

I said my usual, "Hey, stop that. No wrestling on the trail!" I then held short of telling Rudy to stop starting things. You see, Rudy starts 80-90% of the unauthorized antics. But, Jack has been known to start it occasionally. Since I did not see the start of this play session, I kept my accusations quiet. Then, I got home and looked at the video footage. Look what I found!

Jack, yes, perfect Jack was today's unauthorized play instigator!
This photo was seconds before the prior one and my eyes were looking down
at my boots so I missed that sly Jack started it!

Back to the trailhead and everyone has forgot they initiated unauthorized play :)

"What? We were perfect today! How about those end of run treats
now?" says the happy & innocent looking pair.

Unfortunately my GPS turned off in my backpack near the beginning of the outing, so I do not know today's top speed (but it sure felt like 20+ MPH maybe even 22 or 23). I do know the distance and elevation as we did a route we have done many time before: 9.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 19 days on the trails covering 152.6 miles with 14,900 feet of elevation climbed.