Milestones

Having a blast breaking trail in about 15 inches of fresh powder in French Gulch! Wheeee!

Gliding along in 15+ inches of powder. What impressive sled dogs!!!

This is young Jack's first real season of skijoring, so we will be experiencing a lot of milestones as the season unfolds (recall last winter was just short & easy training runs for Jack). Today had two milestones: (1) Jack's first 8+ mile skijor (8.4 to be exact); and (2) Jack's first extended time breaking trail (we had about 1 to 1.5 miles of what you see in the prior photo). Impressive young Jack (and just as impressive veteran Zorro :)

We are at the tail end of a great storm from the previous few days dumping upwards of 2 feet of snow in and around Breckenridge. Today we decided to take Zorro & Jack for a long run in French Gulch to enjoy all the new snow. There has been so much snow, that we were able to start on French Gulch Road and run in tire tracks until entering the real French Gulch Trail.

Flying along in packed tire tracks on French Gulch Road. Zoom.

Once we transitioned from the road to the trail, we were able to ride in a set of ski tracks for a while and then we eventually out skied all existing tracks. Once this happened, you got the first photo above: breaking trail for over a mile in 15+ inches of powder!

Besides great snow, the biggest attraction of French Gulch is ... MOOSE!!! We did not see a moose this morning, but the "scent of moose" drew Zorro & Jack off trail once into deep snow as they scanned the forest for the source of the moose aroma. No visuals, but still fun to scan:

"Come out, come out wherever you are. We SMELL you!!!!" declare the moose scanning
pair enjoying the deep powder as they scan for moose.

The only drawback to French Gulch - well there are a handful of property owners in the gulch who have keys to the "winter gate" and will occasionally run their evil plows down the trail. Anything that removes snow is evil (except the sun, as it has other uses so we will allow this one snow remover :)

Evil, just plain evil!!!! Why remove snow!!!!!

On to today's video highlight - the evil plow. Come along as we are flying along a "fast packed trail" until we encounter the source of the packness - the evil plow. Love my skijoring partners as they automatically slow as we approach Mr. Evil as we all consider "what to do". All it takes is one gentle "Left" command from me and Zorro & Jack hop into the left powder as we pass Mr. Slow & Evil. Once passed, hop back into the ski tracks on the trail, floor it and leave Mr. Slow & Evil in our dust :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a fun early November snow run: 8.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 6 days on the trails covering 27.5 miles with 2850 feet of elevation climbed.

Soft

The snow was soft all morning; but still so much fun to still be on snow in May!

Just ask Max & Zorro...

"Oh my, we are having the BEST time today!!!!" exclaim the super happy pups at our
turnaround point of the morning.

We are approaching the middle of May yet we found ourselves laying fresh tracks this morning! There was about a 1/2 inch of new snow at the lower elevations and almost 2 inches up higher. What a mid-May treat:

New snow for laying fresh tracks near the middle of May - Yay!

We did an "out & back" on the highest elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. The nordic center has been closed for the season for almost a month, so no more groomed trails, just making use of what is leftover from being groomed & packed for months during the season. I was hoping there would be a solid crust under the new snow at higher elevations; but temperatures never got below freezing overnight. As a result, the trail was pretty soft our entire outing. Max & Zorro were happily trotting or galloping in soft snow; but opening the throttle to sprint would generally cause them to sink too far into the soft snow. Not a problem - my smart partners just adjusted to the conditions. We kept to a gentle trot the entire "out direction" as we were laying fresh tracks in the soft conditions. On the way back, smart Max & Zorro were staying in my ski tracks as that gave a little bit of "pack" to the snow. Whenever we would hit a shady patch with firmer snowpack, they would both transition into a sprint for the short duration of the firm patch and then quickly switch back to a trot or gallop once things softened again. So fun to ride behind them and watch them smartly adjust their speeds!

Shady & firm patch - GO!!!! Wheeee!

Now onto the comical interchange of the morning. Zorro started the fun by hopping off trail to roll a snow angel to cool off (remember temperatures were above freezing):

"Ah, rub a dub dub - feels so good!" demonstrates snow rolling Zorro.
"Looks nice, but you could improve your form a bit." says Max observing Zorro.

Zorro popped up from his snow angel and wanted to start back down the trail. Max, on the other hand, declared it his turn to roll:

"Now THIS is perfect snow angel form!" says completely upside down Max to Zorro.
"Hey, my back has snow all over it, I'm fine with my form and won't watch!" says silly Zorro.

A fun morning although the soft conditions kept us to a modest 7.8 mile outing with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a gentle 17 MPH top speed.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 150 days on the trails covering 1258.5 miles with 133,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Fog to Clear

This morning's short skijor outing went from "dense, near zero visibility" fog to clear and sunny. All in one quick & short 5.8 mile outing!

Can you see anything? Neither could I! Just trust Max & Zorro to keep us on trail.

Take a look at the prior photo. On a clear day would be able to see Rabbit Ears Peak, Dumont Lake Campground, Highway 40 and miles & miles of snowmobile tracks from this exact point on the trail! But, this morning you cannot see anything due to the dense fog. I just put my trust in Max & Zorro to keep us on trail (as they always do).

Quick pause in the dense fog to get my bearings and...

"If you are going to stop then we are going to roll snow angels! Besides, we know exactly
were we are - silly human!" declare Max & Zorro.

Our plan was for a short & quick outing this morning. Given the dense fog, I asked Max & Zorro to turn off the main trail (which was out in the open with zero visibility). So, we hopped up into the trees to follow a snowmobile track winding through the forest. It was more settling to me to see trees instead of absolutely nothing.

Winding through the trees - wheeee!

The goal was to enjoy ourselves winding through the trees for a while and then turn around and follow our same track back to "fogville" and then back to the trailhead. This was what we did, but look at what happened to fogville once we came back out of the trees....

No fog, sunshine and full visibility!

Look to the left and you can see our original track we took to get out of the dense fog and into the trees. Just 20 minutes ago we could not see anything from this exact location. Wow - what a change!

From dense fog to completely clear - all in one quick & short outing!

"I knew where we were the whole time! Silly human!" states Max back at the trailhead
to end the day.

Short & quick day: 5.8 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 88 days on the trails covering 748.0 miles with 79500 feet of elevation climbed.

Moose Gulch

We have officially renamed French Gulch to Moose Gulch as moose sightings are becoming almost guaranteed this skijoring season!

"Can you believe all the moose today?" exclaims happy Max.
"Moose Gulch is FUN!" states happy Zorro.
Max & Zorro are trying to extend our outing following moose tracks deep into the forest. I am
trying convince everyone that it is time to turn around and head back instead :)

Today was a record day for moose sightings as we spotted 5 moose on the outing! Come along for some moosing fun...

Our noses lead us to peek over this snow wall and spot a big male moose in the trees across the
gulch. Moose Count = 1. "We see you!!!" say the intense moose hunters.

1 moose down, 4 to go - onward we go along the trail until...

"Beep, beep, beep - our moose radar says straight ahead!" say my partners as their moose radar
brought them to a halt once again to stare across the meadow.

Time to zoom in on what Max & Zorro are intensely staring at in the previous photo and:

Bingo - moose! Look just below the arrow and you can see the male moose
body and his big basket of antlers against the snow. To the right is actually
another male moose, just more camouflaged. Moose Count = 3.

Continue on in French Gulch until turning around to head back and what to our wondering eyes should appear but a mother moose and little baby too!

"Holy guacamole! 5 moose in one day?!" say the ecstatic pair as they spotted the mother and
offspring in the trees across the way. Too camouflaged for the photo, but we all saw them!
Moose Count = 5.

In between spotting moose, it was flying along the trails to get to the next moose viewpoint!

Zoom we go from one moose overlook to another!

What an entertaining day! 8.3 miles covered with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH (hard to hit our usual 20+ MPH when you keep stopping for moose :)

2015/2016 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 190.1 miles with 19,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Whiteout

We are happy to report that most of today's skijor outing looked like the following photo - skijoring in a whiteout - woohoo!

Are we going up? Are we going down? Do you know where the trail is?
Don't worry, just trust your sled dogs and they take you up, down and around the
terrain through a whiteout!

Even when we got into narrower sections of trail with trees all around, we are happy to report that the GoPro was blurred by snow falling water spots almost the entire outing:

Kicking up powder through an aspen grove as the GoPro is constantly blurred
by snow fall!

We are also happy to report that we had a moose sighting from the trail today (and the human is happy to report the moose was far away in the trees):

"Beep, beep - our noses say this way! And, BINGO - we see a moose moving in the trees!"
say the moose seeking pair pausing to watch the large brown body move away from us
in the trees.

Furthermore, we are happy to report that we found something to do while the slow human stopped to adjust his equipment:

I was looking down to adjust equipment when I fell a tug forward and looked up to find
my pals doing this... "Well, if you are going to stop, then we are going to roll snow angels!"
declare my silly partners.

Finally, we are happy to report that we had a great day kicking up powder in fresh snow in April - wheeee!

"What an April Treat to have fresh snow under our feet!" say the extremely happy
pair looking back when I called out time to turnaround and head back.

Unfortunately, I am unhappy to report that YouTube is broken today as we had a fun video of us kicking up powder in the day's whiteout (the video has been at "0% processed, please wait" for 25 minutes - abort).

A great day laying fresh tracks and breaking trail in April: 7.7 miles with 1150 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 119 days on the trails covering 1030.2 miles with 108950 feet of elevation climbed.

Snow Day

Fresh snow falling on us the entire outing today - yay!

Running back the French Gulch Trail in the track we set ourselves on the way out - wheeee!

Snow was falling all day and the further back in French Gulch we skijored, the deeper it got. What a late March treat:

About 5 minutes from the trailhead and you can see snowflakes falling all around us
and Max's back is covered in snow.

Further we went, the deeper it got as we are now breaking trail in 6-7 inches of fresh powder.

Further = deeper as we enter the last open meadow of French Gulch.

I love the occasional "Hi, I'm having a blast!" glances I get from one or the other as we glide along the trail:

"Hi, I'm having a blast!" exclaims Zorro glancing back at me as we glide along.
"Someone has to keep this group going!" states 'all business' Max continuing to break
trail in 8+ inches of snow.

An approving look from Max at our turnaround point at the back end of the last meadow in French Gulch:

"Wheeee - what a day! Look at the snowflakes all around me!" exclaims happy Max.

We were happily "slowed by snow" today as we were laying fresh tracks to breaking trail the entire 'out direction' of our outing and then running in our own track the 'return direction': 7.7 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 108 days on the trails covering 932.6 miles with 99,050 feet of elevation climbed.

Failed Attempt

We attempted to establish a new trail in lower French Gulch today.

A lot of trail breaking fun; but we failed to establish a good, reusable trail...

Open terrain with a nice snowpack as we establish a new trail across this small meadow.

As I mentioned yesterday, some idiot plowed the lower section of the French Gulch Trail while the upper section of the gulch has incredible & perfect skijoring conditions. Since the snow in the upper gulch and on the sides of the plowed lower is so incredible, we decided to return to this trail today and try to build a new trail up the lower terrain. As you can see in the photo above, we had some success as we set a new trail across a few open areas. But, we failed in establishing a good & reusable trail up the entire lower section. The problem was we kept running into French Creek (the water flow for which the gulch exists) causing us to drift to the right and then we kept running into dense trees causing us to drift to the left. A few times the dense trees and creek touched and we had to climb over logs, bushes and tree wells that made the path something you would not want to reuse. Argh...

After failing to set a new trail parallel to the plowed section, we eventually gave up and got on the main (plowed) trail to run up & down the gulch:

You can still open up the throttle on the plowed section; but it is a few sunny/warm days away
from being un-skiable.

Why are we so determined to keep skijoring alive in French Gulch? Well, two reasons: (1) the snowpack in the upper gulch is wonderful and will last through April and into May. and... (2) Max & Zorro love running French Gulch and getting the scents & sightings of moose! How can you abandon a trail with such moose potential?!!??!?

"Fresh moose tracks off the trail right here!" demonstrates Max with his nose in the moose track.
"Let me see, let me see!!!" exclaims Zorro hopping over to join Max in the moose track sniff.

While we failed to establish a new trail in lower French Gulch, that does not mean we did not have a great time today:

"I had fun!" exclaims happy Max at our turnaround point in the upper gulch.
"Me too! I had a blast!" declares happy little Zorro.

A shorter than average outing (distance-wise) as we spent quite a bit of time trying to find some way to establish a new trail in the deep snow in the lower gulch: 7.3 miles with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 95 days on the trails covering 819.3 miles with 87,400 feet of elevation climbed.

Boreas Tour

Light snowfall most of the day lead to a serene tour up, down and around Boreas Pass this morning.

Cruising to the end of our run at the Boreas Pass Trailhead as the happy huskies
tow me along.

Snow started falling just before we started our run this morning and it kept falling most of the outing leading to a light layer of new snow to lay fresh tracks upon.

The white speckles in this photo are snowflakes falling all around us as we glide up
Boreas Pass.

We made a loop out of Boreas by ascending up the Bakers Tank Trail before descending down the Boreas Pass Road Trail. The Bakers Tank trail is one I will only tackle uphill and the following photo shows why:

Towing the human up the Bakers Tank Trail. Notice how heavily wooded this trail is in this photo.
Imagine trying to come down it at "Siberian Speed" and avoid these trees! Thus the reason we only
go up this trail. I am still going 2-3 times faster than a typical, experienced skier with my Siberian
help; but uphill through thick trees is safe...

It was snowing most of our time on Boreas Pass and then the sun peeked out for the last mile or so; but we were still laying fresh tracks in the morning's new snow - aahh...

Sprinting along as the sun starts break through the clouds.

One or both always flashes a happy glance when we pass Nancy at the end of the day's run:

"Hi mom!!! Having a great day!" says Zorro giving Nancy a happy glance.
"Somebody's got to keep this team going!" states happy pulling, but too busy
to glance, Max.

A peaceful run on Boreas this morning covering 8.1 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 88 days on the trails covering 762.6 miles with 80,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Third in a Row

Today was our first "third day in a row" skijoring in this early 2014/2015 season - woo hoo!

Fully extended, skijoring Siberians! Zoom!!!

In order to accomplish our first "3 in a row" for the season, we had to travel to Buffalo Pass far north in Colorado (at the base of Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area). It is quite the trip to get to (and back from) Buffalo Pass, but it was certainly worth the effort to get our first 3-fer before the end of October!

We experienced very good "October snow conditions" for the majority of the outing - enough snow to occasionally uncork the Siberians, enough snow to keep the human upright & safe and the occasional untouched, fresh powder side trail. Follow along below...

Today's video highlight shows part of one of the many nice stretches to open up the throttle - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Buffalo Pass is open for hunting until mid/late November, so someone with a good 4WD can still drive the main trails. The vehicles pack the trail and make it easy for Max & Zorro to sprint but hard for the human to keep the skis under control (try skiing on ice :-). Luckily there was enough snow along the trail for us to enjoy the fast terrain without sacrificing the human:

Our typical configuration on heavily packed trails: (1) Max & Zorro enjoying the fast track;
and (2) The human riding the powder shoulder (notice the ski tips in powder to the left of
Max & Zorro). Fast for them with powder control for me - perfect!

We enjoyed a few "no vehicles allowed" side trails and got to lay tracks in fresh powder!

Ah, fresh powder for all!
That is Summit Lake at the top of Buffalo Pass in the right foreground.

Unfortunately all the side trails we tried ended pretty quickly with not enough snow to continue on complex terrain...

"What do you mean 'dead-end, turnaround'?!? We have no problem continuing over fallen
trees, boulders and bushes. Humans are wimps!"  say Max & Zorro who questioned my
every "turnaround" request when the side trails got too sketchy for me...

Fun day atop Buffalo Pass covering 7.6 miles with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 7 days on the trails covering 51.3 miles with 6050 feet of elevation climbed.

Lets Go

Today's skijor outing had "equipment issues" at the start which lead to classic "we have no patience, let's go" from Max & Zorro.

"Booooooring, boooring, can we go yet?" asks yawning with impatience Zorro.
"Can we go YET?!?" says wooing Max.

I was having a problem with one of my ski bindings as it had frozen into the closed position before I could get my boot attached for the day. Temperatures at the trailhead were single digits and the binding must have gotten wet and then quickly frozen while I was getting my other equipment ready.

Max & Zorro are typically pretty patient at the trailhead waiting for the musher to get ready. But, patience has a limit and they always let me know when I have gone beyond their limit! After giving me the "yawn & woo" treatment above, Max took it one step further as you see below:

"You're killing us! LET'S GO!" says Max the bucking bronco showing his impatience and
testing if Nancy can really hold him back while I try to get my ski bindings working.
Nice work by Nancy to keep hold of the wild beast :)

Once we finally got started, it was a great day on the trails at Rabbit Ears Pass. We did the same route as yesterday with two modifications. First, we carved the trail in the fresh snow yesterday, so we got to re-use our tracks again today. Second, the temperatures remained in the teens and single digits for the entire evening, night and early morning; so all the mud & puddles from yesterday were frozen ground and ice today - yay!

Zoom, zoom - following the track we set yesterday!

With the improved conditions over yesterday, though, that meant we out-skied our set track and had a couple miles of laying fresh tracks too - wheeee!

Further than we made it yesterday - fresh snow for all!

We did hit one hidden puddle which caused me to stop and clean my skis before continuing. Everyone ready to go again?

"Yep, glad you are back on track!" says happy little Zorro.
"I cannot believe this guy, will we make any progress today?!?" says the 'still impatient with
my behaviors of the day' Max

Quick pause to check the GPS before restarting once more. Everyone ready?

"Yep and I am so happy we finally covered some serious terrain!" expresses happy Max.
"Asked & answered - will you just get going!" states Zorro.

Nice October conditions leading to a 8.9 mile outing with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 6 days on the trails covering 43.7 miles with 5050 feet of elevation climbed.