Rudy Birthday

Today is Rudy's 6th birthday and he THOROUGHLY enjoyed his birthday skijor!

"What wonderful birthday present - a fast & fun skijor!!!!" exclaims ecstatic Rudy.
"Birthday skijor? Lucky stiff!" adds Jack whose birthday is July 20th, so he
doesn't get a birthday skijor. But, he's happy to celebrate Rudy's with him :)

We went to Gold Run Nordic Center to celebrate Rudy's birthday. There are two "dogs allowed" trails at Gold Run but only one has been open and groomed so far this year. But, this all changed last Wednesday as the Preston Loop (our favorite of the two dog trails at Gold Run) finally collected enough snow to open for the season. Jack & Rudy were thrilled to get our first skijor sprint around the Preston Loop today!

Yay, Preston is open - let's FLY to celebrate!!!!

Today's video highlight has to be from skijoring the Preston Loop, of course. Come along and watch the fun, fun, fun. Note at about 26 seconds into the clip and Jack & Rudy slow a bit. In a good snow year this trail continues straight ahead through what is an unmaintained path through the trees. But, we have had a less than average snow year so far (the reason Preston hasn't opened until this week). As a result, the loop has been modified to veer right onto a forest service road. This right versus straight has never existed in Jack & Rudy's skijoring career. Thus the reason they slow a bit. I simply call out "Right" and then "Good boys" as Jack & Rudy get the detour and floor it again. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As you probably noticed in the photo/video above, the Preston Loop is quite shaded most of the way. Once done doing that loop, we connect onto the other dogs allowed trail to complete the outing. This next trail is VERY sun exposed as you can see below:

The flying kids again on a freshly groomed trail with cool snow poofs
flying off their feet.

We were so thrilled to have the Preston Loop open that we skijored around the loop twice. But, before you restart a loop, you must stop, drop and roll :)

"Need to roll and cool our jets before sprinting around the loop again!" declares
the snow rolling sillies.

Next, we concluded the outing by putting smiles on the faces of skiers we encountered (6 in all - this group of 2, another group of 3 and solo skier):

"Hi!!! Bye!!! Made you smile!" says Jack & Rudy to the oncoming skiers
in awe of the fun sled dogs towing me along.

Finally, back to the trailhead for end of run treats to complete Rudy's birthday bash!

"Ready!" says the happy & focused kids.
Wow is that a BRIGHT sun behind the kids!!!

What a birthday treat for Rudy getting to finally skijor our favorite trail at Gold Run: 9.7 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 48 days on the trails covering 401.7 miles with 38,200 feet of elevation climbed.