Freshies

Exploring an old 1800s mining cabin with my pals on this morning's backcountry skijor.

"Cool old cabin!" says happy Jack looking back to me.
"Checking if there is any gold hiding under the snow!" adds Rudy
the miner :)

The forests in & around Breckenridge are littered with old 1800s mining cabins in various states of deterioration and/or restoration. Some, like the one above, have received some restoration help from the local Open Space & Trails Department while others are left to slowly deteriorate. Jack & Rudy always have fun sniffing and exploring around all the cabins.

Today's skijor was a fun day of laying fresh tracks in the backcountry. We started the day laying fresh tracks in about 2-3 inches of fresh snow:

Laying fresh tracks in the morning's untouched new snow.

The further (and higher) we went, though, the deeper and deeper it got. Here's a cool shot of the kids blasting through what was about 4-5 inches of fresh snow:

Fun shot of powder plowing Jack & Rudy and cool view of my right
ski floating over the fresh snow with my left ski slightly buried in snow.

Further and higher.... deeper and deeper...

The powder kids in now what is about 6-7 inches of fresh snow! Wheeee!

Now come along for a wonderful & peaceful backcountry skijor video clip. We are laying fresh tracks in new snow over old snowmobile tracks for most of the clip. You'll also see a line of wildlife tracks in front of Jack for most of the clip - these were either fox or coyote tracks. As the clip comes to a close, the snowmobile tracks disappear and we transition to some nice, deeper snow to continue the peaceful glide. What a pleasant day far away from civilization! You'll also see another deteriorating mining cabin to our left about 15 seconds into the clip; this cabin is in much worse shape than the one in the first photo as it has been left to deteriorate naturally.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along this route, we also get some nice views of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley from us. Today was a pretty unique & interesting view of the ski resort. The tops of the mountains were blocked by low clouds while the base of the mountains was not:

An interesting effect in this shot of the ski resort:
ski runs down low with missing mountain tops up high :)

A fun outing with increasingly deeper and deeper snow - what a way to earn end of run treats:

"Love laying fresh tracks!!!!" says snow loving Jack & Rudy
awaiting treats from atop a nice snow wall.

A very peaceful outing with lots of fresh, fun snow: 8.9 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 81 days on the trails covering 678.0 miles with 65,400 feet of elevation climbed.