1200 Miles

Look at what the impressive 6 year olds accomplished this morning!

"We are ready for 1200 more!!!" exclaims the happy & proud kids.

Yes indeed, the powerful kids have skijored over 1200 miles 5 seasons in a row now. Quite impressive!

How did we pass 1200 today? Well, on 3-4 inches of fresh snow around the base of Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. The day was very overcast with light snow falling and a bit of fog. As a result, today's photos are a bit dark albeit very  fun!

Laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches of fresh snow over an otherwise
wide & packed snowmobile trail.

Now come along for a quick video glimpse into the day's fun. You'll notice the orange poles along the way in this clip. These are trail markers showing where the packed snowmobile trail is. Today was one of the rare days I really needed the trail markers. As you can see in the video, the terrain looks pretty much the same across the whole field of vision. But, if you drifted off the snowmobile trail packed under the day's new snow, you would immediately sink into "Jack & Rudy high" soft snow! So, we really appreciated the trail markers this morning to keep us on track!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We did an "out & back" route this morning. So, we got to enjoy running in our "out tracks" on the way back:

Whee - Rudy running in my ski track while Jack is in Rudy's foot track.

The one stretch of trail shown in the video above was so fun we actually redid it 4 times (twice each way). As is usual with Jack & Rudy, if I ask them to repeat a trail, they will switch sides to enjoy it from the opposite viewpoint :)

Redoing the section of trail shown in the video but the kids
have switched sides to experience it from the other viewpoint.

Of course repeating one section of trail 4 times meant we turned around 3 times. Well, you know what that meant...

"Turnaround! Roll around!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

5 straight 1200+ mile seasons - that certainly is an accomplishment worthy of end of run treats!

"Focused & ready!" says the happy kids.
No snow walls to climb today, so I had to come down to my pals'
level this time :)

It was a bit blustery and gusty this morning, so we did a quick outing; but enough to surpass our 1200 mile goal: 6.8 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 141 days on the trails covering 1202.1 miles with 119,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Will we reach 1300 miles this season? Well, we do have all of May but we'll see how the snow holds up versus melts. Stay tuned...

Workout

Sometimes looks can be deceiving...

Looks beautiful, huh?

Well, the looks were deceiving this morning. Despite how wonderful the prior photo looks, almost mid-winter like, the snow was actually very heavy, wet and sticky this morning. While we had a great time laying fresh tracks in the backcountry, it was quite the workout to slog through the heavy snow and keep my skis going! Again, not a problem, just a real workout!

Despite being out on the trails early, it was really sticky snow in any sun exposed stretch of trail. 

The kids working hard to move my skis through wet & sticky sun
exposed snow. Looks at those puddle obstacles just ahead too! Eek!

Even with sticky snow, some things always remain the same:

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes snow rolling Jack at our turnaround point.
"Turnaround, woos abound!" sings wooing Rudy.

What else always remains the same? Well, you MUST stop to inspect any and all moose tracks you encounter out on the trails:

"Sniff, sniff, moose was HERE recently!" says the track inspecting kids.

It is always a shame when some of our trails start to melt and dry up. But, it is the end of April, so it is expected. This will probably be our last skijor on this network of trails for this season. Come along for today's end to the outing to see what I mean with lots of exposed ground to navigate through safely. Luckily, Jack & Rudy understand perfectly when to proceed cautiously and how to avoid obstacles! Great partners.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, despite all the melting, the creative kids were able to find the ONLY snow wall in the trailhead parking lot to climb for end of run treats!

"We prefer higher, but at least we found something to climb!" says the
fun & creative kids.

A real workout this morning through heavy & sticky snow; but still a lot of fun: 7.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a modest top speed of 17 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 140 days on the trails covering 1195.3 miles with 118,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Yay Snow

Look at this treat this morning: first on the fresh snow at the very popular Sallie Barber Mine Trail!

First out on the trail to lay fresh tracks in the morning's new snow!
Yay for Snow :)

It is really rare to be first out on this popular trail. But, today was one such rare treat as we were laying fresh tracks all the way up the frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. If you've followed along this season, you know that the comedians, Jack & Rudy, typically roll snow angels to cool off after our initial climb to the historic mine. Not today, though, the fresh snow and cool temperatures made for some very frisky kids out on the trail today. How frisky? Well, here is how the goofballs celebrated the initial climb to the mine:

"I double dog dare you to try and tag me!" says play bowing Jack.
"I triple dog dare myself to try and tag you!" responds never back down Rudy :)
You can imagine what type of twisted wrestling match this turned into!

Once I separated the wrestling nuts, it was time to go down and back up the backside of the mine. As with the frontside, we were first on the new snow on the backside. If you thought the fresh snow was nice in the first photo above, look how nice it was at our high point as we started down the backside of the trail:

Powder plowing - wheeee!

On the return from skijoring down & back up the backside, the kids always like to floor it past the mine on our second pass of the day:

Zooming on by the historic mine.

Then it was time to return down the frontside of the mine trail. As I said, this trail (especially the frontside) is very popular. By the time we were on the return, a handful of other skiers had been out on the day's new snow. With multiple ski tracks across the trail, Jack & Rudy were able to floor it down the frontside:

Zooming along in a handful of ski tracks lightly packing the trail.

Today's video highlight? Well, zooming down the frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. Despite a handful of pre-existing ski tracks, the conditions were still plenty soft and wonderful to let the kids open up the throttle and put the petal to the medal. Come along and see for yourself! Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead parking lot and the sillies found a nice snow shelf to climb for end of run treats:

"Perched and ready!" says the focused & happy kids atop their
snow shelf.

A really enjoyable "mid winter like day" in late April: 8.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 139 days on the trails covering 1188.1 miles with 117,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Late April Powder Day

Look who was enjoying this morning's Late April Powder Day!

"Yay for new snow! We are having a BLAST!" says the happily snow covered
kids at a momentary pause on the trail this morning.

Yes, that's right, it was a wonderful powder day in late April! We found ourselves laying fresh tracks in 5-10 inches of new snow all morning long (5 inches at our lowest elevations and 10 at our highest). Even though the snow was a bit on the wet/heavy side, Jack & Rudy were excited to go snow plowing all day long:

Laying fresh tracks in a beautiful layer of fresh snow!

I love riding behind these two and watching them blast through deep powder. So impressive:

Powder blasting - wheeee!

Typically in April, I like to do "out & back" outings so I see on the obstacles on the "out leg" that I need to avoid on the "back leg". This works great when the out leg is mostly up and the back mostly down. But, with the amount of new snow we had this morning, I decided to do a loop with the kids so we were able to lay fresh tracks almost the entire outing in rolling up & down terrain. The end of the outing repeated one short section to get back to the trailhead, thus, fresh tracks almost the entire outing. Along the way, my fun pals decided to switch positions for a little while. Switched positions, same results :)

POW again as we now have Jack on the left and Rudy on the right.

I've put today's video highlight in slow motion as I love watching these two blast through powder in slowmo. Come along and watch for yourselves. Such impressive powder plows!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

You know what else deep, fresh snow is good for? Well, rolling snow angels with some extra gusto to cause the powder to fly up around you. Just ask Jack & Rudy, this is the best way to roll angels :)

"Rolling with extra gusto to make powder fly up around and on us!" demonstrates
the snow rolling funnies.

What a late April snow treat, right guys?

"Oh, that was FUN! We love fresh snow!" exclaims the happy & focused
kids awaiting end of run treats.

What a fun powder day, especially for this late in April: 7.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 138 days on the trails covering 1179.9 miles with 117,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Crust Again

Another beautiful skijor atop the solid Spring crust at Rabbit Ears Pass!

The hover huskies, Jack & Rudy, catching air as we zip along the solid
Spring crust!

After a successful skijor on the Spring crust yesterday, we returned to the same general area this morning to go crust skijoring again. Yesterday we found an awesome Spring crust around Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. Today, we went the other direction towards Dumont Lake and found the same awesome conditions as you see in the prior photo. Wheeee!

When we skijor the crust near Dumont Lake, we are able to wind our way across vast, crust covered meadows and pay a visit to the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL. The SNOTELs sprinkled throughout the westerns US measure a large range of environmental factors. But, the measure of most to interest to Jack, Rudy and I is the depth of the snowpack Today, this particular SNOTEL reported that the snowpack depth at this location is 62 inches. Nice, a 5+ foot deep snowpack!

Cruising by the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL as we skijor atop over 5 feet
of snowpack to last us for many more weeks :)

We did have one set of obstacles to deal with today - deep & frozen snowmobile tracks. Basically snowmobiles had run through these same meadows when the snow was soft (i.e., in the afternoon) and made deep tracks. These tracks then froze overnight and became today's obstacles. Jack & Rudy have no problem with these frozen tracks, they simply leap over them or run through them. But, me on skis is a different story. I have to cross these deep obstacles at an angle just off perpendicular and push my poles into the snow to give me a little lift. If not, the frozen tracks can grab ahold of my skis and lock me in (which typically leads to a wipeout :)

Jack & Rudy have no problem with the deep & frozen track obstacles as
you see here. Wish I could leap on skis like them :)

But, the tracks are not really that big of a deal, I just have to be conscious of them and make sure I cross at a proper angle. So, come along for today's video fun as we are cruising along the Spring crust amidst a few track obstacles at first before clearing the tracks and finding a nice open straightaway to open up the throttle. I love how Jack & Rudy (especially Rudy) glance back at me after many of the track crossings to make sure I made if over safely. Great partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Springtime is, of course, warm to Jack & Rudy, so rolling snow angels to cool off is in order at any break during the outing :)

Rub a dub dub, cooling our jets rolling in the snow!

Finally, back to the trailhead for end of run treats and apparently I was a little too chatty for Rudy and slow in dishing out the treats!

"Ready!" says happy & focused Jack.
"You going to talk or serve?!?" asks curious, head cocked, Rudy :)

What a fun crust skijor outing: 7.1 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 137 days on the trails covering 1172.5 miles with 116,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Crust

Look who had the BEST time skijoring around Walton Peak this morning!

"We are having a BLAST!" exclaims the happy, happy kids!

Our original plan this morning was to go out & back on the main snowmobile trail on Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. The day started as planned as we went out for quite a distance when I paused at a trail junction to decide whether to go right or left. Well I stopped and...

"Stop, drop and ROLL!" goes the snow rolling sillies.
But, look closely, Rudy is rolling off trail without sinking.

Big Rudy not sinking while rolling? Hmm, I thought, is the crust firm enough to hold us? The crust, you ask? Well, the one highlight of Spring is warm days yet nights below freezing. Each day the top of the snow softens and each night it refreezes. When this nights are cold enough, the refreeze will form a crust firm enough to support our weight. I did not expect the crust to be firm enough to support our weight today; but once I saw Rudy rolling without sinking, I started to rethink that. So, we did not turn right or left at the junction but turned around instead to go test the crust on some open areas behind us.

Along the way back to the openings to test the crust, we were riding the leftover groom on the right shoulder of the trail as the hover huskies came out to play :)

Catching air riding the leftover groom on the right shoulder.

Along the way, both Rudy and my right ski occasionally drifted off the groom and onto the crust to our right. I didn't sink! Rudy didn't sink! Could it be true, the crust was really firm enough to support us? Well, we took on short detour off trail to test the crust and SUCESS!

Whee! The Spring crust can support our weight today!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo and see that, sure enough, the crust was plenty firm to support our weight! What fun! As this clips ends, we reconnect with the main snowmobile trail.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

One of the great things about a firm crust is that you can abandon set trails and go any and every direction you want! While the prior video ends with us reconnecting with the set trail, that was only because we were testing the crust. Once established, we left the set trail quickly after the end of the video clip and proceeded to wander our own path through vast, crust covered meadows for the rest of the outing. Fun!

Yay for the crust as we zoom across vast, crust covered meadows!

What an unexpected crust surprise this morning, right guys?

"Yes, yes, yes, that was FUN!" says the handsome duo awaiting well earned
end of run treats.

What a Spring crust treat this morning: 9.7 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 136 days on the trails covering 1165.4 miles with 115,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Mid Winter in Late April

Look at these awesome "mid winter like conditions" we found this morning in late April!

Laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow atop an otherwise
perfectly flat & packed trail!

How was this possible? Well, the light layer of new snow is thanks to Mother Nature. The trail is the furthest from civilization on what is Gold Run Nordic Center during winter. But, the nordic center is closed and few, if any, make it out to this trail without a groomer helping pave the way. But, I have Jack & Rudy and that is as good as a groomer for me :) So, this particular trail has sat pretty much untouched since the nordic center closed 3 weeks ago.

So, a trail that has been packed by a groomer all winter + a trail too hard/far for most people to get to + a nice layer of fresh snow from Mother Nature. Well, Jack & Rudy knew what to do with these surprisingly great conditions in April. Come along and watch the video highlight to see for yourself:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way we did side "backcountry out & back" to visit one of our favorite old mining ghost towns in this area. This is probably our last visit to this location this season as it is very sun exposed and melting fast:

Whee! Zipping by all the old mining buildings in this cool ghost town.

The tracks you see in the prior photo are our own out tracks. Well, that meant we had to turnaround at some point before coming back through the ghost town. Well, yep, you guessed - turnaround, roll around!

Snow angels with a view from the comedians almost intertwined to stay
on the snow and not hit that dirt in front of us :)

Eventually, though, we had to come back to civilization. As I expected, the trail near and leading to the trailhead had been very tracked up with lots of post holes. But, with the morning's new snow (safety dust, as I call it), we were able to continue at a nice pace over the chopped up trail:

Catching air with the help of the safety dust along a trail full of
deep footprints and post holes.

That was fun, right guys?

"Oh yeah! We liked zooming on the mid winter conditions best of all!" says
my fun pals happily awaiting end of run treats.

Some surprisingly nice conditions for most of this late April outing covering 8.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1155.7 miles with 114,600 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Nice Up High

Turnaround, roll around. Turnaround, woos abound.

Classic Jack rolling his snow angels at our turnaround point this morning.
Singing Rudy offering a tune of woos for his turnaround fun :)

The conditions are pretty nice in the prior photo, right? Just a single set of ski tracks and lots of untouched snow. Well, that photo was at our highest elevation and furthest from the trailhead point of this morning's outing. Here is what we had to endure to get to these "nice up high & far" conditions:

It was tracked up and beat up down lower and close to the trailhead. So beat up that I had to take my skis off and hike down the final hill to the trailhead on the way back! Ugh!

Going gently on super tracked up, choppy and icy trail conditions!

The further we went, the less tracked the trail became, but it was still cautious skiing at the mid elevations of today's outing:

We were able to trot at the mid elevations, but not much faster than that!

Then, as typically happens with my assistance from Jack & Rudy, we out skied just about all existing tracks and footprints. At our highest and furthest from the trailhead section of the outing, it was picture perfect! Only one or two skiers had been out this far before us. Oh my it was BEAUTIFUL up high:

Amazing conditions, especially compared to the mid and low level photos above!

How nice up high? Well, come along and see for yourself. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Today's comedy interlude was hopping off trail at the mid elevations of our outing to search for those pesky rodents hiding under the snow. 

"I think the rodents are down HERE!" declares dunking Jack.
"Really? Well, then, INCOMING!" responds rodent diving Rudy leaping
to join Jack's location.

Once Rudy's dive was complete, the kids started a joint excavation of snow in search for the rodents:

"Dig, dig, dig, where are those pesky rodents?" asks the excavating kids.
Despite lots of searching and digging, nobody came up with a rodent in his mouth!

If you can't chew on a rodent, you might as well accept end of run treats instead, right guys?

"Ok, treats are good; although we'd prefer fresh rodents!" says the
happy & focused kids.

Today's outing was on the short side because I expected the tracked up and hard to navigate conditions at the mid and low elevations. If only we could teleport ourselves to & from the wonderful conditions up high!!! 5.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 133 days on the trails covering 1138.7 miles with 112,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Still Soft

Wonderful mid-April snow conditions at Sallie Barber Mine this morning! Yay!

Start of the outing on soft snow in an array of pre-existing tracks.

We had 6 inches of fresh snow Monday night and another 3 inches Tuesday day. With that new snow amounts, we decided to try out the Sallie Barber Mine Trail for this morning's skijor. It is really hit or miss what you find on this popular trail, especially now that we are into warm April days and subfreezing nights. To our delight, as you see in the photo above, we found a wide swath of ski tracks from yesterday with still very soft snow in and out of the tracks (the snow can get very punchy and/or icy quick this time of year). So, it was a wonderful glide up front side of the trail to the mine this morning!

Once at the mine, the comedians, Jack & Rudy, put on their typical Sallie Barber Mine Skit: rolling snow angels to cool off after the initial climb to the mine:

Rub a dub dub, snow angels at the historic mine.

We then went down and back up the back side of the mine trail. This side is popular with locals and not so much with tourists, so it is always a little less tracked up. But, today was a shock. Only a single set of ski tracks existed on the back side of the mine - wow! If needed, Jack & Rudy can squeeze into a single set of ski tracks. But, I know Jack (also known as Powder Jack) and he prefers to run in the side powder if it is shallow enough for him to keep pace with Rudy running in track. If it is too deep to keep pace on the side, he'll squeeze into the track with Rudy. But, today, the side was shallow enough for Powder Jack to enjoy fresh tracks alongside in track Rudy:

Rudy using the set track while Jack runs in the shallow side powder.
Powder Jack!

As usual with these two, after going down and back up the back side, it was time to fly by the mine as we started the final descent back down the front side:

The Jack & Rudy usual: rolling snow angels on the first pass by the mine
so you can fly on by the second pass :)

Then it was the final descent of the well-used but still very comfortably soft front side of the trail:

Whee! This will be too icy (in track) or punchy (out of track) in a day or
two to safely skijor (for me :)

Today's video highlight? How about a peaceful glide along excellent conditions on the front side of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. Come along for a glimpse into the fun:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, we found nice little snow shelf in the parking lot to climb for end of run treats. But, you had to squeeze in tight and close to fit for the treat handouts :)

The fun kids packed in very tight and close to me to fit for
end of run treats.

A really nice mid-April day on Sallie Barber: 7.6 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 132 days on the trails covering 1133.0 miles with 112,100 feet of elevation climbed.