Found One

Me riding the "middle powder" while Jack & Rudy sprint in the right set track in French Gulch this morning. Wheeee!

Nice & soft powder down the middle of the trail for me to ride in skis
and feel safe letting Jack & Rudy open up the throttle to zoom.

We skijored out & back in French Gulch this morning and also redid a handful of really nice stretches of the trail. The theme was pretty much the same all day: set tracks on each side of the trail with a very thin layer of snow (too thin for me to ski fast) but ample snow down the middle of the trail for my skis to glide safely.  So it was me in the middle with the fast kids in the set tracks all morning long:

Similar to the first photo but even more nice "middle powder" the further
and higher in elevation we got in French Gulch.

French Gulch is known for one super exciting thing: an active moose population!!!!! Along the way, Jack & Rudy clearly caught the scent of moose and had to climb this super high snow wall to peek into the gulch which houses French Creek to look for moose. I was a little apprehensive at this particular search for moose. Why? Well look for youself:

That is a mighty high snow wall the kids have climbed to peek over. I could
not see what was on the other side and was sure hoping a moose head would
not pop up from just the other side!!!! Luckily one did not!

Then, a little further along and much more pleasant search for moose. I could see into the gulch this time. I followed Jack's stare across the gulch and into the trees on the other side. At first I saw nothing but, then, as we were about to continue on I did spot a moose moving in the trees. That Jack sure is an accurate moose locator!

Too camouflaged to show up in this shot as the moose was in the trees.
But, I did see it moving exactly where Jack is staring.
Found One! Way to go Jack & Rudy the moose locators!

We were going so fast in French Gulch that we were approaching the trailhead way ahead of schedule for Nancy to pick us up. Luckily, this is the same trailhead for the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. So, we hung a left on this trail and went halfway up to the mine before turning around to fly back down.

Zooming on the awesome Sallie Barber Mine Trail.

Today's video highlight comes from the Sallie Barber extension we did to extend the outing. We start out on a flat stretch of trail with Jack & Rudy towing me along in a gentle trot. Then we round a corner into an open and down pitched straightaway. Watch as Jack & Rudy know what to do with such a nice straightaway as they takeoff in a super sprint. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead and the morning clouds had just burned off for us to enjoy end of run treats in the sun:

"We love searching for moose!" says the happy kids awaiting their
handouts from me.

A fun romp in French Gulch with a distant moose sighting then a nice extension out & back on Sallie Barber: 9.2 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 80 days on the trails covering 669.1 miles with 64,300 feet of elevation climbed.