Wily

3 happy fellows arriving at the trailhead to conclude this morning's awesome skijor outing :)

1, 2, 3 - smiles all around!

We started the morning doing a little backcountry tour in Dry Gulch. But, after two technical backcountry skijors in fresh snow the last two days, I decided to reward the kids with some fast nordic groomed trails for most of today's outing. As you see above, the nordic trails were perfect. As you see below, the backcountry start was pretty darn nice too!

Zipping along in Dry Gulch before dropping onto the groomed
trails at Gold Run Nordic Center.

Along the way, we had a short pause at an intersection of trails. Jack & Rudy often like to hop off trail into the deeper snow to roll snow angels at pauses at the nordic centers. Today's pause started as expected:

Jack rolling a snow angel off trail in the fluffy snow as Rudy looks like he
is about to start rolling an angel too.

But, the silly redhead Rudy then got other ideas. Suddenly, jumping Jack instead of rolling a snow angel seemed like the more interesting activity to Rudy:

"Incoming, I'm going to tackle & bury you in the snow!" says Rudy.
"You think?" peeks Jack back.

Then, as Rudy was launching his tackle, wily Jack spun around, causing Rudy to miss his attempted tackle and then Jack landed on top of Rudy instead! It was one of the most impressive & skillful wrestling moves I've ever seen!

"Nice try kid, GOTCHA!" goes wily Jack.

Jack is only 5 months older than Rudy, but sometimes it seems like 5 years when you watch Jack manipulate Rudy :)

After the previous episode, we were then flying along one of our favorite speed sections of trail at Gold Run Nordic Center when Jack appeared to "egg Rudy on" to go faster. Watch at around 22 and 29 seconds in this clip and I swear (older) Jack is baiting Rudy with "Let's go kid! Don't make me flip you again!" glances! Funny.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, for the prettiest shot of the day. We were first tracks on the freshly groomed main trail as we neared the end of the outing. Perfect!

Catching air on the fresh groomie zoomie!

Back to the trailhead and I know what is thought is in the head of each:

"Haha, he won't try to blindside tackle me again! I showed him!" says wily Jack.
"You KNOW I'll try it again (& again & again)!" suggests instigator Rudy.

A beautiful morning for a 9.3 mile skijor with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 69 days on the trails covering 535.3 miles with 50,800 feet of elevation climbed.