Fresh Tracks Surprise

A surprise treat this morning laying fresh tracks once we got far away from the trailhead!

Laying fresh tracks as we fly by the Kathy's Viewpoint Warming Hut.
The tracks to our left are our own "out tracks" on this same trail.

Today's outing took us to the upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. We have had a little bit of new snow the last few days (1-4 inches per day), making for some nice soft trail conditions. Many others use these same trails, of course, and we found lots of pre-existing tracks on the trail near the start; but still nice & soft conditions:

Zipping along in soft snow with lots of pre-existing tracks.

But, then, we got a real treat. This part of the nordic center has two loops you can ski and both loops share the bottom arc of each oval. The shorter, inner loop has a cutoff at one point to connect this loop back to the lower arc while the longer, full loop continues for another few miles before meeting back with the cutoff. When we got to the cutoff, we were shocked to find NO pre-existing ski tracks. All mere mortals had skied the shorter, inner loop leaving the full loop untouched for me to ski with powerful Jack & Rudy's help. What a treat! We ended up redoing 3 sections of the full loop, laying fresh tracks each way (once to the side going up and once in the middle going down). Here we are near the highest point of the day. Whee!

Once again, laying fresh tracks down the middle with our "up tracks" to
our left.

What did my pals think of redoing all these great stretches of untouched snow?

"We are having a BLAST!" declares the happy kids looking back
as we are about to turnaround and redo a section of trail.

Now let's put it all together in a video to show all parts of the outing as we complete the full loop to re-connect with the inner loop. The clip starts out with us laying fresh tracks down the center of the trail - whee! Then, about 20 seconds in and we come across one other set of ski tracks, so we are now second tracks on the trail in the wonderful soft snow. Then, as the video ends, we hang a right to re-connect with the inner loop and you see lots & lots of pre-existing tracks. So fun to have sled dog power to enjoy the full loop that most mere mortals did not have the power to do :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Any wildlife distractions today? Yep, MOOSE tracks....

"You must stop to inspect fresh moose tracks whenever you encounter them!"
says track inspecting Jack & Rudy.

What a fun outing with a surprise "fresh tracks extravaganza" once we got farther than most humans ski!

"That was so much fun!" declares the happy, happy kids atop
a snow wall awaiting end of run treats.

Today's tally: 10.4 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 70 days on the trails covering 595.8 miles with 58,200 feet of elevation climbed.