Dives

Laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow atop a fast groomed nordic trail:

Jack & Rudy zipping along over a light layer of fresh snow.

This morning's outing took us to the trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. As you see above, we started the day on a light layer of new snow with light snowfall continuing to fall all morning long. Along the way, though, three interesting things happened. Here we go...

First, those pesky rodents under the snow really got Jack & Rudy's attention at one point. The kids almost did a synchronized rodent dive off the trail and into the snow; but Jack was one second behind Rudy. Here's a fun collage of the 2 seconds of action:

Incoming rodent dive from Rudy in the upper left as Jack is preparing to
follow suit. One second later and we have the lower left with Rudy about
to land his dive while Jack starts his. Finally, one more second later and
we have the right photo with both kids buried in snow after landing
their rodent dives. Silly kids!

Second, a breeze started to develop as we were on the final leg of the outing - nothing to slow Jack & Rudy down, just a bit of blowing snow from the breeze:

Zipping along with some blowing snow going across the trail
ahead of us.

Third and final "interesting thing" was the groomer came out on the main trail while we were skijoring another trail. So, we got to finish the day laying first tracks on the fresh groom as we sprinted along amidst light snowfall and a gentle breeze. Watch as this video clip ends, though, and you'll see us skijoring into a large wind gust of blowing snow!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As with yesterday, Nancy was unable to accompany us to the trail today. Yesterday was Rudy's first ever skijor without Nancy, our handler & driver, along for the trip while Jack has gone solo with myself and Zorro back when he was young. The missing handler had Rudy perplexed yesterday but the smart kid got the routine today :)

"Got it! If no mom, we load in the Jeep for end of run treats!" states happy
Rudy fully with the program after one lesson yesterday.
"As I said yesterday: I accept end of run treats from any location!" adds
cool & experienced Jack.

A wonderful outing on nordic trails: 10.1 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 64 days on the trails covering 538.4 miles with 52,800 feet of elevation climbed.