Motivation

Great views in the backcountry between Rabbit Ears Pass and Buffalo Pass.

Nice views to our right as we cruise along the fun shelf
deep in the backcountry.

Today's skijor excitement centered on following moose tracks for over two miles. We came across the tracks in the trail far from the trailhead. Only a single snowmobile had been out this far before the moose and then us. But, given how far we were into the backcountry, the snow was also very deep. As a result, the moose was postholing in the trail quite a few times. 

Moose posthole footprint right under my ski tip.
Another posthole print directly in front of my ski.
Jack & Rudy running hard to follow & find the moose!

Now that you've seen the postholes in the prior photo, you'll appreciate today's video highlight. Come along as Jack & Rudy are running HARD despite the effort it takes to deal with the moose postholes. The moose tracks were clearly very fresh and provided intense motivation for Jack & Rudy to fly through the choppy and occasionally deep trail. Wheeee! 

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We never found the moose as the tracks left the trail after about two miles of following. A little past where the moose left the trail, it was time for us to turnaround. Well, following deep moose tracks for 2 miles means you need to roll snow angels and cool off at turnaround time :)

Rolling in the snow to cool the jets after some intense
moose track following.

Arriving back to the trailhead and all smiles from the happy sled dogs!

"What a fun day!" says the happy kids.

Finally, our end of run ritual, sharing "end of run treats" as we celebrate a fun day.

Such happy pals!

We've been waiting for the snowpack to enable us to get in some long runs. Well, today was it! It was the perfect decision to go north from Rabbit Ears Pass towards Buffalo Pass and find some really great snowpack! 13.1 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 15 days on the trails covering 111.1 miles with 9150 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Groom Patch

A great morning for a 13 mile skijor, right guys?

"Wonderful indeed!" exclaims the super happy Jack & Rudy.

Wait, what's that in the snow behind Jack? Yes, it is the indentation of a snow angel Jack rolled before hopping up to flash me his beautiful smile :)

We had a wonderful day following both narrow & wide snowmobile tracks for over 13 miles this morning. Come along for the photo and video highlights.

Here is a cool shot of us racing along a winding snowmobile track as the morning sun is rising over the trees around us!

Hello Sun! Welcome to the fun outing!

The Harrison Creek Trail has a quick rise in the beginning and then you spend a lot of time running along a high elevation shelf with the rest of Colorado below you:

Cruising along the upper elevation shelf with nice views to the right.

Packed and soft trails lead to some nice speed and maneuvering from my pals :)

The hover huskies floating into a gentle left corner along the trail.

Today's video highlight is a fun mix of conditions. We found a short, but pristine, section of groomed trail. Come along as Jack & Rudy "floor it" on the groomie zoomie. But, eventually the groom ends and we transition to somewhat bumpy snowmobile tracks. A good test of my skiing abilities to keep pace once we hit the bumpy terrain! Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I already said, a beautiful morning for a 13 mile skijor!

"Glad you came back! Glad you exercised those kids!" declares Zorro.
"Ready for 'end of run' treats!" shares Jack.
"Oh yeah, treats! Here I come to join in!" says 'last to the event' Rudy :)

12+ miles of fun snowmobile tracks with a short groomed sprint track mixed in along the way: 13.2 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 31 days on the trails covering 244.9 miles with 22,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Perfect Fast Day

Perfect conditions for a fast, fast, fast outing in Swan Valley today!

13.4 miles, 1550 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH

"What sign? Did you see a sign? I didn't." say the airborne sprinting pair.

To go along with the previous clip, here is a fun video of us flying by the SLOW sign. "Slow, Schmo - what a silly word!" demonstrate Max & Zorro. What is really impressive is that this is video is our sprint to the finish; that is, we are hauling this fast after already having run 13+ miles - impressive Siberians!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The trails were fast all day long. Up, down or flat - it did not matter as Max & Zorro were into FAST all day long!

Putting the shoulders into an uphill sprint. "Have to haul the human, he is too slow
on his own!" say Max & Zorro.

Zoom - need I say more?

"What's with all these weird yellow signs? That 'SLOW' word must mean 'go fast', so we
will!" say Max & Zorro as we fly by another SLOW sign along the trail.

A very fast 13.4 miles with 1550 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2013/2014 Season to Date: 75 days on the trails covering 650 miles with 76,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Fun Dog Sled Chase

A great time skijoring around Swan Valley Recreation Area today, highlighted by a fun game of chase with one of the dog sled tours from Good Times Adventures.

Sprinting along the trail when we intersect with a dog sled tour from Good Times.

And, here is the video of the fun intersecting with the dog sled tour. Notice about 10 seconds into the video that I have to put on a full snowplow to prevent us from catching and overtaking the dog sled. Yes, this is 2 Siberians with a human on skis catching an 8 dog team! It was a fun game of "chase" for about 30 seconds until the dog team turns left and dumps the tourist off the back of the sled. Oops, did we cause them to go too fast and dump the amateur musher (hehehe :-)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The theme of the day was "fast, fast, fast"! We took the last two days off and had been breaking trail for 5 days straight before that. So, this was our first outing on packed trails in over a week. Max & Zorro were juiced to zoooom!

"What 'SLOW' sign?" say the uphill sprinting pair - wheee!

A great "uphill start video". Notice Max is yawning and complaining about the "slow human" at the start of the video just as I say, "ok, let's go" and my partners immediately turn and start a beautiful uphill sprint!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Top speed for the day was 25 MPH. This photo shows what 25 looks like from behind :-)

It was a very fast day all over the trails covering 13.2 miles with 1800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH. This brings our 2013/2014 season to date to 69 days on the trails covering 592.7 miles with 69,850 feet of elevation climbed.

Encountering the dog sled tours from Good Times is always a real highlight for Max & Zorro. The black guy with the dark mask right in front of us is one of our buddies we ran with on a sled team last year!

"Hello friends! Wanna race?" say Max & Zorro to their buddies from Good Times.

Fast & Pretty Day

It was a "fast day" with lots of pretty views skijoring around the Vail Pass Recreation Area.

Nice views of the snow covered Rocky Mountains all day.
It even looks like Max & Zorro are taking in the scenery :-)

We did a 13 mile tour on the Vail Pass snowmobile trails today. The trails were packed but not icy - just a perfect day to go fast up, down & across the terrain...

Having a great time galloping along the top of Shrine Pass - whee!

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(1) It was fast uphill:

Sprinting up the fast trail on Lime Creek Rd.

(2) It was fast downhill (as always):

Hitting some nice speeds along a down section of Lime Creek Rd.

(3) It was fast along the straightaways:

Sprinting across a flat section of Shrine Pass Rd.

Basically, it was a fast day with tons of great views of the Rockies... Our outing totaled 13.1 miles with 1650 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH. A beautiful outing...