350 - miles, rabbits, pounds...

Cruising up Indiana Creek. Fun, tight trail weaving
through the trees.

We surpassed 350 miles skijoring for the season today!

We encountered (at least) 350 rabbit tracks on the trail & crossing the trail all day long. Active day for the snowshoe hares!

Not sure which of these events was more impressive. The guy with 2 legs on skis was pretty impressed at passing the 350 mile mark. The guys with 4 legs were more impressed by the number of rabbit tracks on the trails today. Once I started counting the tracks, I got to 350 before we were done (and there was probably 100 or more before I started counting).

We did one of our favorite routes today: start at the Indiana Creek winter trailhead; tour up & about in Indiana Creek until connecting with Boreas Pass Rd; skijor down Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead.

I skijor with a very "sticky" set of cross country skis. This is usually a good equipment choice as it is highly advisable to have a ski that can help you keep speeds under control when you are attached to two Siberian Sprinters. We had a very heavy, wet & sticky snowfall on Tuesday that was fresh on the trails for us Wed morning. Sticky skis + heavy/sticky snow = STUCK :-)  Seriously, it was quite the exercise event (for all 3 of us) to keep my skis going on the trails today. A few times the stickiness between the skis and snow was so much that I had to high step jog (while on skis) to keep going with Max & Zorro. When the skis were gliding, it was still a rough surface requiring a lot of husky pulling and human pushing. Max & Zorro must have thought I weighed 350 pounds today with the stickiness they were pulling against!


The sheer volume of snowshoe hare tracks was truly amazing. They were crisscrossing across the trails all day - on both Indiana Creek and Boreas Pass. They would occasionally go along the trail for a short stretch before diving off into the trees again. I started counting the tracks halfway up Indiana Creek as a joke - I could not believe it when I surpassed 350 tracks on our way down Boreas!

Vital Stats: 8.9 miles; 2h 25m total time; 2h moving time; 4.5 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed; 1,200 feet of elevation gain (and loss). Like I said, very rough & sticky conditions - tough to get your speeds up when the skis won't glide!

Snowshoe hare tracks - you cannot believe how many of these tracks were
on the trails today! 

Max & Zorro inspecting some rabbit tracks. To the right (going between the
2 trees) you can see a ton of snowshoe hare prints in the snow.
Normally we do not stop to sniff tracks; but I needed a breather from
skiing in the heavy snow, so I let Max & Zorro enjoy some snowshoe prints.

Taking a break after we climbed out of Indiana Creek and onto Boreas Pass Rd.
This is a picture of our path down Boreas. As you can see - zero tracks, it was
up to Max & Zorro to power the human down this sticky trail.

Max & Zorro, "Whew! That human was quite a haul uphill today!
Must roll around in the snow to cool off before starting down."

Thank Dog

Breaking trail in lower section of Indiana Creek.
Note the "forest service road" marker sticking about
3 inches above the snow in front of us.
These are 3-4 foot markers in the summer...

Sunday ... FUN day - what a powder day!


What untouched powder! The forecast called for a light dusting, instead we got a real treat of inches and inches of new snow. Max, Zorro & I hit the trails to cruise up Indiana Creek, connect with Boreas Pass Rd and sprint down to the Boreas Pass winter trailhead. Here's what we found:

Untouched powder! Zero tracks at the Indiana Creek trailhead (not even car tracks coming to the parking lot). About 4 inches at the trailhead, as deep as 18 inches as we made the climb to Boreas Pass Rd. An then... Boreas was untouched too!

We met up with a group of 8 backcountry skiers on Boreas who had spent the night at Section House and were on their path down. On their route up yesterday, it was well-packed and the path was clear. They woke to a ton of new powder on the upper sections of Boreas and were struggling to make their path down. On meeting the group, one asked me, "Do you know the path down [to Boreas trailhead]?" I responded, "Yes, that's where we are headed from here." His response, "THANK DOG! You can break trail for us and lead us down!!!" They had been seriously struggling to make progress themselves (they were quite shocked when I told them they were barely over a mile from Section House and had over 5.5 miles to go). Deep powder? Trail covered? No problem - hop in behind the Siberian Huskies and we'll lead the way :-)

This was quite the exercise day for Max & Zorro: (1) Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass Rd is 3.5 miles with an elevation gain of 1,300 feet - we broke trail in 4-18 inches of powder this entire route! (2) The initial 4.5 miles down Boreas Pass Rd was untouched terrain again - breaking trail in 4-18 inches of powder again! That is 8 miles of breaking trail in 4-18 inches of powder (and, remember, they are under 2 feet tall themselves) - amazing Siberian Skijoring Machines!


Vital Stats: 9.3 miles; 2h 15m total time; 2h moving time; 4.7 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed. Remember: breaking trail for 8 of the 9.3 miles - that's an impressive 4.7 MPH given the conditions and terrain!

A shot of the "no trail here" terrain in front of us in the lower sections of Indiana Creek.
The entire day had us breaking trail with powder up to 18 inches in the upper elevations!

Skijoring vs Cross Country Skiing...

Cruising up upper, wind-blown Boreas - about 1-2 miles
from the Summit. Zorro, looking back, says, "Hey deadweight -
I thought I felt you slacking! Stop taking pictures, put that
camera away and drive your poles with us!"

On Saturday Max, Zorro & I did our furthest outing of the season: 13.5 miles of skijoring fun!


We skied ~6.75 miles (& 1,300 feet of elevation) up Boreas Pass Rd to Section House, at the Boreas Summit, and then back down the same route. Section House is one of the backcountry huts in Colorado that offers overnight lodging for the backcountry ski enthusiasts.

I am often asked what is the difference between Skijoring with Siberian Huskies and traditional Cross Country Skiing. Yesterday's route sums it up:

1. The route up Boreas Pass Rd to Section House is rated as a 4-5 hour cross country ski tour. Max, Zorro & I did the up section in 1.5 hours!
2. Many people find the need to bunk at Section House for the night to rest before taking one of the "down routes" the next day. When we reached the summit, I was snapping photos and changing some of my gear - after about 7 minutes of "break", Max & Zorro broke out into a full wrestling match. 7 minute break and they were restless and ready for more, so we started back down!

How best to summarize Skijoring with Siberians vs Cross Country Skiing.... relentless, endless & quickness - hang on! ;-)

Vital Stats: 13.5 miles; 2h 47m total time; 2h 30m moving time; 5.5 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed.

Yes, only 17 minutes of "stopped time" on this long tour: (1) 7m break at the summit; (2) 4m getting the stupid human out of chest deep powder after he made a "skiing mistake" and flew off the packed trail; (3) 6m of dealing with 8 different sets of loose dogs on Boreas.

Yes, a mild max speed of 12 MPH - not much sprinting, just 2.5 hours of constant Siberian cruising!

At the Boreas Summit - looking to our left at Section House.
A bit windy, but beautiful blue skies... 

At Boreas Summit - looking to our right at a "railroad relic" from the days when Boreas Pass Rd was a train route.
This is a 180 from the previous "blue sky" shot - the skies show the storm that is headed our way!

Another shot from the Summit - looking backwards from where we took a break.

Max, at the Summit, rolling around in the snow to cool himself off.
A few minutes of this and he & Zorro were "full rested" and ready to go!

Deep Powder Day in Indiana Creek

About 1 mile into our route - about a foot of powder
and it only got deeper the rest of the route!
Notice no tracks/trail in front of us -
we were "blazing trail in 1-3 feet of powder"!

Woke up to some fresh (and still falling) powder this morning - this got Max, Zorro & I itching for the trails. Little did we know what had been developing an extra 1,000 to 2,000 feet in elevation (over our base elevation of 9600 ft) up in the neighboring wilderness!

Our plan: go enjoy 4-6 inches of powder in Indiana Creek (we had 3-4 inches at home).

The reality: after the first mile, we never saw powder less than 1 foot and it was up to 3 feet in places (remember Max & Zorro are under 2 feet tall - so these 3 foot areas were quite the exercise event)!!! After the first 1/4 mile, all previous tracks were invisible - we were blazing trail, in deepening powder, for most of the day! The snow was coming down so hard in Indiana Creek that our own "up trail" was invisible most of the return trip down! Wow - deep powder day in Indiana Creek!


The Route: Indiana Creek winter trailhead up Indiana Creek trail (powdered over existing tracks for the first 1/4 mile to the winter gate on the jeep trail); no tracks after the winter gate - increasingly deep powder from the winter gate to the Spruce Valley gun range; 1 foot of fresh powder after the gun range - it never got less than 1 foot the rest of the trip, hitting 3 feet in areas; continue up Indiana Creek towards Dyersville; take a break at the Indiana Creek/Dyersville junction; return back down the same route.

Vital Stats: 5.1 miles; 95m total time; 85m moving time; 3.6 MPH moving average; 12 MPH top speed. Remember 1-3 feet of fresh powder most of the route: Max & Zorro say, "You try moving your 'under 2 foot body' through this much powder faster than 3.6 MPH!"

Approaching the Dyersville junction. Snowing, snowing, snowing!

Zorro checking the conditions: head covered in snow, powder up to his mid-body - "perfect" he says ;-)

Max taking a break under a tree at our high/turnaround point.