It's Begun!

Jack & Rudy catching air, in mid-season form, on our third outing of the early 2025/2026 season!

"We don't need time to get back in shape, we were born to do this!" demonstrates
the fun kids already in mid-season form!

We can FINALLY say that the season has fully begun! After some great (and MUCH needed) snow the last 2 days, are trails are finally in good condition and terrain is starting to become skijor-able! Yay!

Our route today took us up the front side of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. If you've followed through the years, you know that Jack & Rudy typically roll snow angels after the initial climb to the mine. Today the lace on my ski boot came loose. I thought I'd pause at the mine to let them roll while I retightened my boot lace. Well, Rudy apparently thinks I'm supposed to stand and watch the snow angels, not tend to my own business; so he let me know it :)

"WOO! What are you doing back here? You are supposed to be focused on ME!"
declares wooing Rudy coming back to get in my face loudly!!!
"I can wait for a shoe tie!" says patient, happy Jack in the background.

So we got woos (Rudy) and smiles (Jack) while I fixed my boot. I then expected snow angels once I was paying attention again. Well, not today, the frisky kids had other plans.

"Let's wrestle at the mine!" suggests the silly kids play bowing to each other.
If you know "dog language" you'll note that Jack (yes, perfect Jack) is the instigator
in this photo. Rudy, of course, never backs down from a play challenge. Silly kids!!!

We then went on to check the back side of the trail. This side is much steeper and rockier. But, I saw other ski tracks going down the trail, so we tried it. Well, skiing by yourself down a steep & rocky trail is MUCH different than skijoring behind two strong sled dogs on a steep & rocky trail. After a tumbling wipeout (of me, Jack & Rudy had no issues :), we abandoned the back side and returned to skijor down the front side of the trail. This did give us a chance, though, to fly on by the mine on the second pass:

Whee! Flying on by Sallie Barber Mine.

Now here we go for today's video highlight along one of our favorite curves into a long straightaway on the Sallie Barber Mine Trail. I mentioned yesterday that my gopro died, so I'm now using an old & cheapo camera while I shop & buy a new, higher quality camera. The result, you'll notice this video is very "bouncy" compared to what I usually show. Well, cheapo cameras do not do "image stabilization" of videos, high quality cameras do. So, we'll have bouncy clips until I replace the dead gopro. But, we'll take it to be on snow!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and, being only the third outing of the season, there are no snow walls yet for Jack & Rudy to climb for end of run treats. I look forward to the snow walls as much as them - they love to climb them and I love to not have to kneel down. Soon, my pals, soon...

"As usual, you have our full attentions!" says the happy kids awaiting
end of run treats.

A fun little jaunt on the front side of Sallie Barber this morning: 4.3 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 3 days on the trails covering 15.8 miles with 1800 feet of elevation climbed.

Real Snow, Bad Camera

Finally - REAL (and deep enough) snow to really get our 2025/2026 skijoring season underway!!!

Whee - laying fresh tracks up Boreas Pass in about 4-5" of fresh snow!

This is only our second outing of the 2025/2026 season due to lack of snow across pretty much all of Colorado. But, significant snow FINALLY arrived last night. So, we got out just after sunrise to truly enjoy this late start to the season.

While the snow was PERFECT, the GoPro camera was NOT! I knew my camera was nearing its end of life and today was the day it gave out. Every time I turned on the video, it would run for 10-20 seconds and then beep, say "low battery, powering off" and shutdown. I'd then turn it back on, see that the battery was over 90% charged, turn on video again only to have it shutdown in 10-20 seconds again. Boo!

At our turnaround point, the camera had clicked off and I missed capturing Jack & Rudy rolling dual snow angels. So, I got myself centered on them, clicked the video on once more and asked "Who wants to roll snow angels again?" I knew I had only 10-20 seconds for my pals to respond. Well, here's what I got:

"You don't have to ask me twice! Rub a dub dub!" goes always rolling Jack.
"Nope, you get a big WOOOOO for asking me to perform!" responds talkative Rudy.

I kept trying to turn the video on every 10 minutes or so, hoping the camera would come back to life. But, that did not happen, I never got more than 20 seconds of video at a time (often closer to 10 seconds). Bummer....

Quick shot of the return leg before the camera shut off again.
Those are our "up tracks" to our left. We were laying fresh tracks
all the way up & down Boreas. Too bad the camera didn't cooperate!

Back to the trailhead and at least Nancy's iPhone video worked for end of run treats:

"Ready!" says always happy Jack.
"You have my FULL attention!" adds intense Rudy.

We finally got snow - yay! But we had a bad camera - boo! I'll be switching to an old backup camera in hopes of getting real footage on our next outing!

Today's tally: 8.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 2 days on the trails covering 11.5 miles with 1300 feet of elevation climbed.

 

2025/2026 Season Opener

Let the 2025/2026 Skijor Season FINALLY Begin!!!!

Whee, we are back on skis & snow!!!!!
Smiles all around!

After a ridiculously dry October and start to November in Colorado, we FINALLY got our skijor season started this morning. This is the latest start we EVER had to a skijor season (and we've been doing this since 2010 - first with Max & Zorro and now with Jack & Rudy). My goodness, we typically get at least one and usually multiple outings in October and we've even had a few years with September starts. Jack, Rudy and I were starting to wonder if it would ever snow this season!!!!

To get the season started, though, we needed an assist from the snow making machines on Breckenridge Ski Resort. While we did get some new snow overnight, it was not enough to skijor without an assist. So, we went to one of the closed runs at Breckenridge where they are making snow in an attempt to open new terrain. Well, snow is snow - we'll take natural or man made at this point to get the season going!

Zipping along a ski run of mostly man made snow with an active snow gun
making snow to our left. Any snow is good snow!

It was actually pretty fun to skijor amidst the active running snow guns. We were galloping (Jack & Rudy) and gliding (me) in and out of active, man made snowfall. Wheeee!

A somewhat blurred photo from snow guns spraying snow down
upon us. Fun!

Now come along for a video view into the fun as we skijor along a this ski run amidst active snow guns. 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite a much later than usual start to the season, some things remain the same with silly Jack & Rudy.

First, snow angels MUST be rolled at any turnaround point of the outing:

"Rub a dub dub, turnaround roll around!" goes the snow rolling goofs
already in "mid season snow rolling form" :)

Second, everyone is at full attention and all smiles awaiting end of run treats:

"We'd NEVER forget about end of run treats! Dish them out!"
says the happy & focused pair.

We needed an assist from the ski resort snow guns, but the 2025/2026 season has FINALLY begun: 3.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 15 MPH.

Pray for Snow - we need MUCH more!!!!!