Powder and Moose

Fresh powder to power through all morning long in French Gulch!!!!

The powder kids, Jack & Rudy, towing me through 3-6 inches of fresh
powder all morning long.

While most of the morning was spent laying fresh tracks out & back in French Gulch, we were in well established moose territory as well. Less than 5 minutes into our outing and Jack & Rudy had to pause to scan the huge meadow to our right for moose. I could clearly tell their noses caught the scent of moose so one must certainly have been nearby. We all scanned the meadow intensely but never found a body to put with the scent...

"We smell MOOSE!!!!!" declares the moose trackers.

With Jack & Rudy catching the scent of moose that early on in our outing meant they were juiced all day long. They kept glancing to our right (into the meadows where the moose hang out) as we were gliding along. Then, at one point, Jack declared, "We MUST go off trail HERE!" There was an opening in the trees and I did not see any moose, so I entertained Jack and said, "Ok, we'll drift off trail for 10 yards or so." Well, we came around one tree and BINGO there was a moose indeed. Oh boy that Jack is a professional moose tracker.

Look straight up from Jack's head and you'll see the moose with its two big
ears up looking at us.

Ok, that was fun and a nice safe distance from the moose. I let Jack & Rudy stare at the moose for a few moments and then I started to back us up. But, as I was backing us up, Rudy let out one of his patented moose screams and holy moly a bigger moose (the mother) appeared from behind a large bush to put herself between her kid and us! I had no idea the mother was even in the area, she was behind such a big bush, until she suddenly appeared!

Yikes, here comes mommy!
You can see the indentation in the snow in front of Jack & Rudy
where we stopped to view the original moose before starting to back up.

If you think the prior photo is shocking, here is a zoom of the same image!

Oh Rudy, why did you scream!!!!!
Way closer than comfort! I QUICKLY reach down, grabbed Jack & Rudy
by the harness and backed us up as fast as I could!

Once mom saw we were backing up, she turned as well and sauntered over to her kid. Phew! 

Ok, moose event over, back to skijoring. We did an out & back in French Gulch and the trail is wide enough that we could lay fresh tracks both directions. Fun!

Blasting through powder on the way back with our "out tracks" to
our left.

Ok, how about a fun powder video. Come along and watch as Jack & Rudy are plowing through the day's fresh snow. In this simple minute video alone, the snow ranges from about 3 inches to about 6 inches in depth. What a fun powder plowing day.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead for some well earned end of run treats.

"Please tell me that is moose meat!" says inquisitive Rudy.
"I'll take ANY meat!" adds focused Jack.
Sorry Rudy all I had was our usual end of run pork, not moose meat :)

A fun powder day with an intense moose encounter: 8.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 54 days on the trails covering 461.1 miles with 44,200 feet of elevation climbed.