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...

Huts

Beautiful shot from one of our favorite "view stretches" of trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning.

The views to the right are simply stunning from this stretch of trail.
Oh, nice view of Jack & Rudy catching a little air in the morning's fresh
snow too :)

This morning found us enjoying a light layer of new snow on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. Along the way, we pass by 2 warming huts where you can stop, go inside and warm up. Hmm, what do Jack & Rudy think of stopping to warm up? 

"We are speeding up if you are even thinking of stopping! What on earth is
a warming hut for?!?!?!" declares the kids flying by the Hallelujah Hut.

Further along and here comes another warming hut. Any need to stop?

"We are ALREADY warm! Speeding up!" declares the speed demons as we
fly by the Kathy's Viewpoint warming hut.

Ok, put the following two photos to their video counterpart. Come along and watch what Jack & Rudy think of a warming hut - something to zoom on by, twice :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

So, no need for those silly warming huts, anything that we do need to stop for?

"YES! Roll snow angels to cool off!!!!!" go Jack & Rudy.
Yep, the Siberian Husky version of warming hut :)

At our highest elevation point of the outing, we found a wonderful stretch of trail with a couple inches of fresh snow all to ourselves!

Fun snow poofs coming up from Jack & Rudy as we enjoy the best snow
of our outing at the highest elevation.

Back to the trailhead and, despite recent melting, the kids are still able to find snow walls to climb for end of run treats. I don't know what we'll do when these walls finally melt and I have to kneel down again :)

In close for the treats!

Gorgeous morning! 9.5 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1201.3 miles with 109,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Yep, surpassing 1200 miles for the season! Yay! Do I see 1300 (or more) in our future. Most likely, stay tuned....

Passing 1200

Jack & Rudy's third season in a row surpassing 1200 miles of skijoring for the season!

1200 and counting....

Nice shot of the kids propelling me along this nice shelf about 1/2 way
up Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass.

Third year in a row for over 1200 miles of skijoring - impressive. Jack & Rudy have skijored 1204.1 miles as 2 year olds, 1253.2 as 3 year olds and are now at 1200.5 and counting as 4 year olds. I think we have the snowpack to surpass 1300 miles this season, that would be Jack & Rudy's record! Of course our "pack record" is 1433.5 miles done by Max & Zorro in 2016/2017. I don't think we'll reach that 1400 mile record; but not from lack of trying :)

Anyway, back to today's outing. We did a quick 7 mile run on the Spring crust around Walton Peak atop Rabbit Ears Pass. It was a very warm morning (with temperatures rising), so we had to get out early and do as much as possible before the snow got too soft. We started the day following power lines through the trees. It's always fun to follow power lines as they carve a nice opening between the trees:

Zipping along the power line opening!

We then did a bit of climbing up Walton Peak to get on a firmer crust higher up. Success!

A nice, firm crust a few hundred feet up in elevation!

Finally, we returned on this cool "shelf trail" on Walton Peak. As you see from the ski tracks in the video, this shelf is no secret and is used frequently by backcountry skiers to access Walton Peak. Come along for the video fun skijoring this great shelf. You'll notice we are "just in time" completing the day's outing along this shelf as the snow is beginning to get soft but still "just firm enough" to support Jack & Rudy. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, towing me 1200+ miles a season is a real workout and the kids enjoy their well-earned snow angels to cool off at any break along the way :)

Ah - rub a dub dub!

Impressive kids! Zorro taught them well!

The fun pack: retired mentor Zorro and impressive Jack & Rudy all
awaiting 'end of run' treats :)

As I mentioned, a quick outing today to get out & back before it got too warm: 7.1 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 142 days on the trails covering 1200.5 miles with 112,400 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Passing 1200 Miles

Young Jack & Rudy's second consecutive season with over 1200 miles skijoring! Impressive!

1200 miles and counting!
"Ready for 1200 more!" declares the happy kids.

We skijored the trails around Harrison Creek and Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning. The day started on well packed trails that had been groomed within the last 48 hours.

Zooming along the groomie zoomie trail!

Then, after getting a little higher in elevation, we found this incredible endless meadow with a solid crust! It was quite surprising as temperatures were near 40 (F) all morning long! But, the increase in elevation and partly cloudy sky kept this crust perfect for us!

The hover husky twins catching air along a perfect crust
in this endless meadow!

Come along for a fun glimpse into this awesome meadow. Jack, Rudy and I were having a blast making our own path around & across this vast meadow. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As expected, the goofy kids rolled snow angels to cool off at our turnaround point. Talented Jack showing he can roll snow angels and eat snowcones at the same time!!!

"Aahh!" demonstrates Rudy.
"Yum!" adds rolling and eating Jack.

Finally, a great shot with Zorro to end the day. He and Nancy met us a bit up trail to join us for a short stroll back to the Jeep. Zorro was "feeling the 1200 mile" accomplishment as he joined in the group for a fantastic jog with the group back to the trailhead. Go Zorro Go! 

"I remember all my 1200 mile seasons! Nice job kids!" declares
Zorro celebrating the accomplishments with the kids.

Another great long skijor for late April! 9.7 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 147 days on the trails covering 1202.4 miles with 103,000 feet of elevation climbed.

1300 miles, you ask? Probably not... Despite how great today's photos look, the snowpack really is melting soon. But, we'll see how many more outings we can get...

Pros

Young Jack & Rudy's first season with over 1200 miles skijoring (1202.1 miles as of this morning). Woo Hoo!

The flying kids surprising me and pulling out a 1200 mile season!

I expected 1000 miles from the kids this season, I entertained thoughts of 1100, but I never thought we'd surpass 1200! Keep in mind this is Jack & Rudy's FIRST season skijoring without training wheels (i.e., we held them back for training and growth in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons). Wow, these youngsters have grown into quite the professionals!!!

We returned to the same groomed track as yesterday near Walton Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass. We figured the trail could not deteriorate too much in 24 hours and we got to the trail early in the morning. What did we find? PERFECT (especially given that it is May 27th)!

We started the day doing a short & fast lap with elder Zorro. Catching air with the threesome:

Whee - the triple hover huskies.
Look closely at the shadows to see that all 12 feet are off the ground in unison!

As usual, all smiles as we completed the initial leg with Zorro to then drop him off with Nancy:

All smiles, all power! Wheeee!

After dropping Zorro, the kids and I went out for an extended run with the goal of surpassing 1200 miles for the season. The groomed trail from yesterday was still in excellent condition; but we could not leave the set trail as the conditions "off trail" were too bumpy to ski safely (for ME especially). So, I was wondering how I was going to convince Jack & Rudy to repeat the same trail multiple times. Well, all it took was a little flirting to keep them entertained.

We encountered a handful of other kindred spirits doing laps on this same perfect trail. There were about 8 people doing laps with us on the same trail. Few enough people to keep our social distance but enough people for Jack & Rudy to have a ball play "chase, follow & pass" with all the other skiers :)

Flying along as we flirt with and entertain an oncoming skier.

But, here is the most impressive story from the morning. One of the other skiers we encountered was wearing a "U.S. Ski Team" jacket. As I watched this guy skate ski, I said to myself, "Wow! He is GOOD! That jacket is real!" Seriously, this guy flew over the trails with absolute perfect and effortless looking strides. He looked just like what you watch in the Winter Olympics!

Now, here's the real impressive part. We got behind this pro for 4 laps on the trail (out, back, out and back). Whenever the trail was flat, Jack & Rudy would match his pace. Whenever the trail had an uphill grade, Jack & Rudy would close the gap on the pro!!! Whenever we hit a downhill dip, he would open up space between us as downhill skis are faster than dogs can run. But, with the flats & uphills mixed in, we kept pace with a member of the U.S. Ski Team for 4 laps! He even looked back at us a few times (on the uphills) and smiled and shook his head in disbelief that he could not shake us. He was lapping all the other people on the trail repeatedly while Jack & Rudy simple kept pace. Wow, these kids are impressive!

Uphill grade so we are closing the gap on the U.S. Ski Team pro in front of us!!!!

Now on to today's video highlight. We have a fun "combo video" for your viewing pleasure today. Come along as we start the clip with Zorro as the team tows me to the finish of Zorro's leg of the outing. Then the video transitions to fast Jack & Rudy propelling me along the beautiful terrain as we also come upon a skier to "on by" in the oncoming direction.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Besides showing they are professional athletes this morning, Jack & Rudy had other talents to showcase:

Deer prints in the trail (look next to my right ski for one of the prints).
"Smells DELICIOUS!" states print inspecting Rudy.
"We roll in deer prints, right?" demonstrates goofy and always rolling Jack :)

Finally, reconnecting with elder Zorro to dish out the 'end of run' treats to all my hard working partners:

"Happy and READY!" says the focused trio.

Quite an impressive day from Jack & Rudy as they showcased their professional endurance skills as we flew on by 1200 miles for the season: 8.9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 175 days on the trails covering 1202.1 miles with 110,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Moose

A Moose Encounter on the trails this morning! Eek!

A moose crossing the trail. Max & Zorro want it! Silly boys!

It was dumping snow our entire outing this morning. I feared that the entire fun moose episode would be lost to the GoPro being covered with snow & water spots. But, luckily a moose is big enough to show itself despite the blurred camera :)

What happens when Max & Zorro see a moose while skijoring? Well, watch today's fun video to see. Notice the snow spotted camera and snow dumping all around us. But, pay most attention to the following: 5s into the video Zorro notices the "fresh moose tracks" on across the trail. 6-7s into the video, Max & Zorro see the moose and launch off trail to the right. 9s in and you see the moose walking away! 15s in and I let Max & Zorro tow me back towards the moose as I wanted to make sure it was not circling back to us! Turn the volume up high and you'll hear a little of Max's "moose scream" - it is very loud but the waterproof case on the GoPro is sound suppressing. After we established the moose was not coming back, she decided to cross the trail and that is the photo above.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After letting the moose wander off into the trees, we cautiously approached where she wandered off into the trees. Once established the moose was long gone, I let Max & Zorro follow the tracks for a few steps. I love the following photo of Zorro:

Zorro is standing in the moose track. Seriously, he has each of his four legs in a moose post
hole and, thus, he is suspended on the snow. I can just imagine his short legs dangling in
the post holes :)

Oh yeah, we went skijoring this morning with heavy falling snow all day long. I kept wiping the GoPro clear while it would collect snow spots within seconds of each clear.

Camera blurred again as you can see all the active snow against Zorro and the trees.

The secondary highlight of today's outing: we surpassed 1200 miles of skijoring for the season - woo hoo! But, this milestone was completely overshadowed by the moose encounter! 9.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 143 days on the trails covering 1200.8 miles with 127,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Passing 1200

Surpassing 1200 miles of skijoring for the season this morning.

1200 and counting...

Beautiful morning as we crest over Shrine Pass at the Vail Pass Recreation Area.

Temperatures dipped below freezing overnight long enough for the morning crust to be absolutely perfect. I was not expecting the crust to be firm enough to hold us for a long outing and arrived expecting us to do a short 6 mile run before the conditions got too soft. Oh boy was I (happily) wrong. The crust was firm and perfect, so about 20 minutes into the run I quickly stopped to text Nancy that we were "going for 1200 on perfect conditions" and would be longer than planned. A perfect day for a long run in late May - yay! Here we go...

Catching air as we fly along the crust with great views all around us:

Zoooom!

Funny story... I had a dream last night that there were moose outside our bedroom window, Nancy opened the window to talk to the moose, one busted the screen and stuck its head in the house. Well, the dream was a foreshadow as we encountered moose tracks on the trail this morning. Only moose tracks (or bear tracks) can distract Max & Zorro from skijoring and pull them off trail...

"Moose went this way - let's follow!" announces moose following Max.
"Sniff, ah, very fresh!" declares track sniffing Zorro.
You can see the tracks in the snow to the right of my ski and the moose clearly turned left
here to go up in the trees (as Max & Zorro are pointing out :)

Our turnaround point of the day was at a trail junction far back in the wilderness of Vail Pass:

"Turnaround? Na, I say we go left!" states 'keep going' Zorro.
"You two discuss directions, I'll roll snow angels to cool off!" demonstrates silly Max.

I needed to pause a second to adjust my equipment. Everyone having a good time?

"Why yes! Thanks for asking!" says happy Max listening to my 'wait' command.
"Well.... I WAS until you said 'wait'!" declares 'keep going' Zorro.

Oh boy did this morning surpass my expectations! 9.3 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 143 days on the trails covering 1200.7 miles with 131,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Will we hit 1300 miles... hmmm... stay tuned...

May POW

Kicking up Powder in May as we cruise by 1200 miles for the season!

May POW!

Powering through 10+ inches of pow, pow, powder - wheeee!

We had an interesting outing this morning as we toured Sally Barber and French Gulch. The Sally Barber trail had snow on it 2 days ago and, as the saying goes, "snow sticks to snow." The French Gulch trail was mud 2 days ago and, well, snow dies in mud. 8-12 inches of snow fell overnight leading to the following: (1) snow sticks to snow so Sally Barber found us breaking trail in 8-12 inches! (2) snow dies in mud so most of the new snow died on French Gulch and only the last 1-3 inches were able to finally collect above the mud. What a difference in what happened to our 8-12 inches of new snow!

The only "bad news" of the day was the fussy GoPro. It has happened 3 times this season that it shuts off partway into our outing and refuses to come back on and record. It has a charge and it has enough memory; but it just refuses to operate. After I get it home and charge the battery & erase the videos, it magically starts working again. As a result, I have barely any footage of our outing this morning...

Snorkeling along the Sally Barber Trail - May POW!

Finally, a quick video of us "kicking up powder" as we work hard to plow through the morning's fresh powder - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Working hard to break trail (with some footage) on Sally Barber then going fast to lay fresh tracks (with no footage) on French Gulch: 8.1 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 140 days on the trails covering 1206.0 miles with 126,950 feet of elevation climbed. 1200 miles and counting...

2014 Finale

A 9 mile run up & down Boreas Pass this morning to close out 2014.

Our final tally for skijoring January through December 2014.

In general we track our skijoring progress by season (i.e., 2014/2015 season lasting from October 2014 to [hopefully] June 2015). But, it is always fun to look at the past year on December 31st and see what we did for the calendar year. The previous photo gives our skijoring stats for the 2014 calendar year: 149 days on the trails covering 1264.5 miles with 139,700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 26 MPH. Also, we were "on snow" for 9 of the 12 months of 2014 (only July, August and September were downer months).

Back to today's final outing of 2014. It was a beautiful bluebird day on Boreas Pass. Absolutely stunning views with 100% blue sky all around us! Here are a few of the highlights:

(1) Mid Boreas had a nice packed track allowing me to glide behind Max & Zorro and take in the views:

Snow covered peaks all around us with crystal clear blue sky!

(2) Lower Boreas was its usual packed, wide & fast track:

Zipping along as Breckenridge Ski Resort comes into view on the mountains on the other
side of the valley from us.

(3) Even Upper Boreas was wide enough to zip along:

Just barely "2 Siberians Wide" as we glide along shoulder to shoulder.

Today's outing covered 8.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

It is always fun to look at the "year in review". Here is our breakdown for 2014:

Month	Days on Trails	Miles Traveled	Elevation Climbed
Jan	24	204.1	23,850
Feb	20	169.7	19,450
Mar	20	179.2	20,150
Apr	20	179.2	19,400
May	15	119.4	12,200
Jun	1	7.4	900
Jul	0	0	0
Aug	0	0	0
Sep	0	0	0
Oct	7	51.3	6050
Nov	19	149.6	16,400
Dec	23	204.6	21,300
Total	149	1264.5	139,700

2014/2015 Season to Date: 49 days on the trails covering 405.5 miles with 43,750 feet of elevation climbed.

1200 - We Made It

We surpassed 1200 miles of skijoring for the 2013/2014 season today!

1200 miles - woo hoo, we made it!!!

"We did it, we did it - 1200 miles!" express my happy & satisfied skijor partners!

We woke to a small layer of fresh powder with snow still falling and decided to skijor Swan Valley as we would be sure to get the mileage to surpass 1200 miles for the season. We did a loop around the South Fork area of Swan Valley and were laying fresh tracks in 1-3 inches of fresh snow all day.

The trails look so beautiful with fresh snow as Max & Zorro tow me through the
day's fresh layer.

Today's video highlight goes along with the theme of the previous photo - a fun glide through the forest behind my sled dog pals - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I could pretend the previous photo & video were the condition of the trails all day; but that would be pretending. Spring really is here and, while the new snow hid most of the "spring damage", it was still visible on & off...

"Quick, lean to the left - puddle damage to the right!" say Max & Zorro as we came over
a slight hump to find this unwelcome obstacle on the trail.

"Whoa - look at that huge creek breakup!" state the left glancing pair as they slowed to
make sure the terrain was safe as we approached this huge section of breakup in the
middle of the trail!

We knew we needed at least 9.6 miles to pass 1200 today; boy did we cut it close: 9.7 miles with 950 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 138 days on the trails covering 1200.1 miles with 138,200 feet of elevation climbed. Woo hoo - 1200 miles and counting....