Comedy, Go, Catch

Fun "shot from the front" of the happy kids towing me to the finish of today's excellent skijor outing!

Wheeee! Smiles all around!

Notice anything special about the prior photo? Well, Jack & Rudy are first tracks on the groomed corduroy! Sure, there are a couple of snowshoe tracks to our left, but we are first tracks on the center of the freshly groomed trail!

We spent most of today's outing at Gold Run Nordic Center (with a little bit of the outing on backcountry side trails). At one point along the nordic center trails, the groomer does a little cul-de-sac turnaround. This is at the highest elevation point of our outing. So, I typically pause at the top of this cul-de-sac for two reasons: 1) to let the goofballs roll snow angels to cool off after towing me up; and 2) for me to get ready for the Jack & Rudy missile to LAUNCH me back down the trail! So, here we are at the top of the cul-de-sac:

Cooling our jets, rub a dub dub!

Now for today's "comedy, go & catch" video clip. The clip starts just after Jack & Rudy had got up from their snow angels. Jack & Rudy had turned around to GO but I have us paused while I adjust some equipment before restarting. So, if your volume is up, you'll hear Rudy protesting (by wooing) about how long I am taking. Then, as I rotate around you'll see what Jack is doing with my extended pause: rolling snow angels as he always does (once I re-paused us, he stopped, dropped and rolled AGAIN). 

Next, all it takes is one "Ok, here we go Jack." from me and he pops up from his snow angel and launches down the trail. Now watch the fun as we top 24 MPH in what I knew was a chase. "What chase?" you ask, well about 1m 8s into the clip and you can start to see groomer lights ahead of us until we finally catch the groomer and have to slow down. Jack & Rudy love playing catch the groomer!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

For the curious, we know the groomer drivers from skijoring these trails for years. When the trail eventually gets wide enough for us to pass, the driver will pause and wave us on by. On today's encounter, the trail was not wide enough yet for us to safely pass. So, I'd slow Jack & Rudy for a bit to give the groomer a little head start and then we'd catch right back up again. Slow, Run, Catch - repeat, repeat, repeat :)

Catching the groomer again after slowing to give it a head start.

As I said, eventually the trail gets wide enough for us to pass. The driver always stops and we safely trot on by. The driver and I always exchange smiles and waves as we pass!

Wide enough to pass - here we come!

For us to have encountered the groomer where we did, meant it had already groomed the main trail at Gold Run. So, once we passed, we connected onto the freshly groom main trail around a couple of corners. Well, Jack & Rudy know what to do with a fresh groomie zoomie:

Zoom go the hover huskies. Wheeee!

Finally, a really nice high snow wall to climb today for end of run treats!

"That was so FUN!" says the 'catch the groomer' pair.
Sorry my head is unseeable in the bright sun, but we are here
for Jack & Rudy's happy faces anyway :)

A fast, fun and short day playing catch the groomer at Gold Run Nordic Center: 5.4 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 31 days on the trails covering 234.9 miles with 22,400 feet of elevation climbed.