The Groom Rules

Fresh Groom! ZOOOOM!

First tracks on a freshly groomed nordic trail. Groomie Zoomie!!!!!

This morning's skijor outing was, as always, a blast! But, I'm going to go through just one fun sequence form the outing as it showcases so much of wonderful Jack & Rudy. Here we go....

To start, we were coming down the main trail and encountered a groomer coming up the trail. We know the groomer drivers from years of skijoring these trails. We slow and approach cautiously. Then, once we are close, the groomer driver will stop and wave us on by (with a big smile on his/her face too). Once I see the wave I let Jack & Rudy pass. They know to pass cautiously without any verbal commands from me:

Cool Jack moving on by the groomer.
Rudy likes to keep a little more distance between himself and the groomer
and has used this snow wall as his passing lane.

What's on the other side of the groomer? Well, a freshly groomed trail! Jack & Rudy did not need any instruction from me to know what to do with the fresh groom. ZOOM!

The hover husking flooring it to catch air on the fresh groom.

Then things got even more interesting. There is a hard left on the trail just past where we passed the groomer. I typically love to take this corner fast with my pals. But as we were approaching the left today, I saw a skier coming up trail through the trees. So, I was slowing Jack & Rudy a bit as we came around the corner to find the skier had a loose dog with her. Not a problem (as long as the dog is nice :) and I was preparing to stop when I noticed Jack & Rudy had other plans. While they like meeting the occasional dog out on the trails, today was different. We had a FRESH GROOM! As a result, Jack & Rudy merely gave the dog a fleeting glance and flew on by. You don't waste a fresh groom to meet a random dog!!!!

"Sorry dude, the fresh groom rules! Later, we need to zoom!" says cool
Jack & Rudy not having a need for this dog when they had a fresh groom!

Once past the dog.... Zoom, the fresh groom rules!

Safely on by so catching air again. Wheeee!

Now come watch the video of all this fun action put together. I love all of it: passing the groomer cautiously, flooring it, declaring "groom over dog" any day and then zooming again. This really show that running and running fast is at the top of Jack & Rudy's hierarchy of activities and interests :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and despite warm temperatures lately, the kids still found a very high snow wall to climb for end of run treats:

"The Groom Rules! That was FUN!" declares the fun kids at eye level
with me!

Fun, fun day: 9.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 123 days on the trails covering 1061.2 miles with 104,100 feet of elevation climbed.