Brother Dive

Cool shot of Jack & Rudy sprinting along as we are first tracks on a freshly groomed nordic trail!

First tracks with cool snow poofs flying off the kids' feet!

We were not first tracks on the trail all morning long; but every time we were, Jack & Rudy were ready for "first tracks pedal to the metal" :)

Another beautiful stretch of first tracks skijoring. Wheeee!

At one point we were trotting up a rise in the trail when Jack got distracted by a moose or elk bed just off trail (bed as in an indentation in the snow where a moose or elk had laid). Jack hopped in the bed to roll around in the moose/elk scent. At first Rudy merely watched silly Jack...

"Yo bro, what are you doing in that moose/elk bed?" asks mature Rudy
simply watching silly Jack.

If you have met Rudy then you know "mature Rudy simply watching" is a statement never used before :) Sure enough, moments later and Rudy decided to do one of his patented high arching rodent dives ONTO JACK! Yes, apparently brother dives are just as much fun as rodent dives. What a nut!

"Incoming brother dive!" goes swan diving Rudy.
Yes he landed right on Jack! What a nut.

Ok, off trail silliness over and it was back to skijoring. I love this cornering shot!

The fast kids leaning into a right as they whip me around the corner!

Speaking of corners, come along for today's video highlight. This is a beautiful stretch of trail gliding through the forest with a lot of gentle corners winding along the way. None of the corners are particularly tight, so it was just a gentle glide for me as we weaved our way along. Such a peaceful stretch of trail!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We did have a turnaround point during the outing and it was snow angels from Jack (as always) and woos from Rudy today. Sometimes it is woos and sometimes it is angels from Rudy as he likes to be the wildcard :)

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes snow rolling Jack.
"Turnaround, woos abound!" belts wooing Rudy.

Back to the trailhead to celebrate a fun outing with end of run treats from atop a nice snowbank!

"As always, we had a BLAST today!" declares the happy, happy kids.

A wonderful skijor on groomed nordic trails with a silly "roll in a moose/elk bed followed by a brother dive" mixed in for additional entertainment: 10.3 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 53 days on the trails covering 452.5 miles with 43,400 feet of elevation climbed.

Cool

Cool action shot of Jack & Rudy whipping me around a corner on a fast nordic trail!

Love the snow poofs behind the fast kids.
Love the action as all three of us are leaning into a fast & wild left in the trail!

We got a light layer of new snow overnight, so we headed to the backcountry to start this morning's outing. With some new snow, I knew the trails that were slick & icy just a day or two ago would be safe this morning.

Cruising along in a backcountry single track. Wheeee!

We actually spent the majority of today's outing in the backcountry. Nice to use these trails when they are safe with new snow. We were winding through the forest having a great time!

Zipping along, winding through the trees!

Then, to end the day, as the first photo implies, we dropped onto the wide & groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. Once on the groomie zoomie trails it was ZOOM from the cool kids:

Jack & Rudy literally FLYING along the groomie zoomies.

Today's video highlight? Another day topping 25 MPH skijoring! Jack & Rudy love this particular stretch of trail as they know I'll let them fully open the throttle and go, go, GO! Oh yea, perfect trail conditions too as we were first tracks on the freshly groomed nordic sprint track! Come along and watch the fast fun.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Our turnaround on the nordic trails was at a point called Jumbo Overlook. Humans stop here to take in the views. Siberian Huskies stop here to roll snow angels :)

Those snow rolling sillies at it again :)

Winding through the backcountry to then finish on the groomie zoomie nordic trails. My pals really earned their end of run treats today!

"Ready!" declares the happy, focused great kids.

Really enjoyable morning skijoring with Jack & Rudy: 9.9 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 96 days on the trails covering 845.8 miles with 77,700 feet of elevation climbed.

 

TOM

This morning's skijor had a mix of fast & fun skijoring along with a set of Team Organization Meetings...

"Wanna play!" bows silly Rudy.
"No back down here!" replies Jack.

A Team Organization Meeting (or TOM), you ask? Well, a few times a season, I have to stop the team and discuss the objective of skijoring and remind everyone what is not allowed. Not allowed? Provoking, pouncing, dorking and wrestling on the trail. As you see above, we had an outbreak leading to a TOM discussion.

Ok, the discussion went well. Here's a great cornering shot!

Flying around a corner. But, wait, my knee rarely shows on  the camera.
I must be in a serious skiing tuck!

Sometimes skijoring requires some real skiing from me! Come along for a fun wild ride as Jack & Rudy are propelling me along this winding stretch of trail. Anytime you see this much of my skis (or my knees) and/or see Jack & Rudy disappear briefly from the camera, that means I am in a serious tuck trying my hardest to keep upright and in pace with the fun kids! Phew, I made it through this wild stretch upright!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Given that nice video, it seems the TOM went well, right? Well, a little further along and POW from Jack.

Time for another Team Organization Meeting.
But, nice left hook Jack :)

The second meeting went well. Here we are restarted again. Three nice things in this photo: 1) Jack & Rudy are behaving :) 2) the skies have clouded over; 3) it started snowing lightly (notice the snowflake hitting the camera up and left of Rudy).

Yay for a successful TOM!
Yay for snow!

Back to the trailhead and Jack & Rudy were very proud of their antics this morning :)

"I think those meeting went very well!" says innocent Rudy.
"Yea, good discussions!" adds innocent Jack.

A lot of fast & wild skijoring in between two Team Organization Meetings: 9.1 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 16 days on the trails covering 120.2 miles with 9850 feet of elevation climbed.

See

Jack is very proud to announce that he doesn't roll a snow angel at EVERY break point on the trails!

"See, I can stay upright! Sometimes!" states proud Jack.
"Rub a dub dub!" adds snow angel rolling Rudy.

Well, I don't know about that Jack... Today was Jack's 409th skijor of his young life. He had rolled at least one snow angel on 408 straight skijor outings leading up to today. Are you fooled by Jack in the prior photo?

Nope. 409 straight outings with at least one snow angel roll from Jack :)

Our second pause of the day. There's my Jack :)
"Hey, two stops is WAY too many to not roll at least once!" adds goofy Jack.
"Like I said before, rub a dub dub!" contributes silly Rudy.

Outside of the silly kids rolling snow angels, it was a wonderful fast & fun skijor at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. Here's a cool shot of fast running Jack & Rudy with peaks 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Breckenridge Ski Resort in the foreground:

Fast kids! Wheeee!
Peak 6 straight up from Jack. Peak 7 up and slightly left of Rudy.
Peak 8 just left of the tall tree in the upper center.
Peak 9 to the left of 8.

A little further along and hovering Jack & Rudy as Peak 10 of Breckenridge Ski Resort comes into view (the ski runs of the resort span the mountains of Peak 6 through 10).

Top of Peak 10 straight up from Rudy. Wheeee!

How fast and fun today? Well, come along for another wild cornering sprint to the end of this morning's skijor. Jack & Rudy are flying around the corners while I am skiing my hardest and leaning into the skis to keep with them. Then, a fast final descent to the day until everyone slows perfectly to transition onto the narrow "exit ramp" from the trail. Super fun whipping around the corners with Jack & Rudy coupled with an impressive "slow to save the human" ending!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Great shot to end the day. Zorro and Nancy parked at one end of the trailhead parking area and came to meet us at the trail. Retired Zorro was cute & frisky to jog back to the Jeep alongside Jack & Rudy to take us all to our 'end of run' treats!

Jack & Rudy still attached to me, Zorro attached to Nancy.
All three jogging in unison to lead us back to the Jeep.

Another zipping & zooming day from Jack & Rudy: 8.3 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 79 days on the trails covering 634.1 miles with 55,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Cornering

 We had a fast & fun sunrise skijor yesterday morning:

Jack & Rudy zipping along as the sun begins to emerge from behind
the mountains in front of us.

We had a bunch of appointments yesterday, so had to get out early for a skijor outing and didn't have time to summarize and share the fun until this morning. Jack & Rudy got the message that the sunrise skijor also meant a short outing. The result? The two speed demons hit a top speed of 24.2 MPH!

Come along for some more cool sunrise shots:

Approaching Kathy's Viewpoint warming hut as the sun peeks over
the mountains in front of us. Zoom, zoom!

Further along and we are closer to the same mountains as the prior photo but now the sun is still behind the mountain. That is, Jack & Rudy were approaching the mountains faster than the sun was rising!

Approaching the Hallelujah Warming Hut as we have beat the sun rising
to this point on the trail :)

Today's video highlight: as I said, Jack & Rudy were in top "fast form" yesterday morning. The trails were also packed and fast. This meant I really had to ski to take the corners with Jack & Rudy. Come along and see as you'll lose sight of Jack & Rudy on multiple corners as I am tucked and putting all my weight into the inside ski to whip around with the kids! Also, nice form to end the clip as we get to the narrow "end of trail" and it only takes a subtle "Easy, easy" request from me for them to finish gently. Good boys!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

That clip shows just a few of the tight corners I had to drive into to keep pace with the kids. My knees are still feeling the impact of the outing this morning!

All done with the quick outing, let's enjoy 'end of run' sunrise treats with elder Zorro:

Nice shot again of the sun peeking over the mountains.
Nice shot of happy & attentive Zorro, Jack & Rudy :)

A quick & fast run yesterday: 6.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 70 days on the trails covering 558.3 miles with 49,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Powder Aerobics

Happy faces and tight cornering by Zorro & Jack as we complete the first leg of this morning's powder skijor. Yay for April Powder!

Beautiful, synchronized cornering by Zorro & Jack as we round the last left in
the trail to complete Zorro's leg of the outing.
"Outside lane" Rudy is just having a ball - no need for tight cornering
from the outside lane :)

We got a nice deposit of new snow overnight. A real powder treat for mid-April. We started the day with the full pack (Zorro, Jack & Rudy) and were laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches of new snow for the first leg of the outing. 4-5 inches of powder is about Zorro's limit now that he is 11-3/4 years old, much deeper than that and it is too much for his age. But, as you see above, he was all smiles on his stretch of 3-4 inches! Fun shot of the powder trio from early on in the outing:

Zorro kicking up powder!!! Jack too!
Rudy floating atop the morning's fresh snow :)

We did a loop through the forest with Zorro the 3-4 inches of powder and then dropped him off with Nancy to complete his leg of the outing.

For the next leg of the outing, the kids, Jack & Rudy, took me up high into deeper and deeper powder. We went from laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches with Zorro to breaking trail in 8+ (maybe 10+) inches of powder up high!

Nice snot of the powder twins with a nice snow trough
visible behind Jack!

Of course, the kids are also known for their daily entertainment antics. We did have the usual snow angels from both at our turnaround point. But, they added an additional comedy routine at one point along the trail. I have commented in previous entries how Jack & Rudy have both refined their wildlife radar to act differently for moose versus "every other form of wildlife". While veteran Zorro will ignore everything but moose; young Jack & Rudy just have different intensity for moose versus other. At 2 years old, they both still get distracted by silly little rodents, just not with the intensity they would have with a moose. Here we go for the silly kids pausing to stare up the tree at a set of squirrels!

"We'd be WAY more intense for moose; but we are still young and
fall for squirrel distractions!" demonstrates the silly kids.

Ok, done with the rodent comedy, time to get back in the powder. Can you say, "Kicking up Powder?" Whee!

Beautiful shot of the kids doing extreme powder aerobics as
they plow along the trail!

Today's video highlight is, of course, Powder Aerobics. Come along for an impressive glimpse of the youngster towing me along through the morning's fresh powder. What an aerobic treat!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead for 'end of run' treats for all three hard working powder hounds. Look at mature Rudy - he is really getting the concept that "he is third" and waits happily and patiently for his turn! Mature & patient attributed to Rudy in one sentence? Never thought I'd write that!!!!!

"Me first!" says focused Zorro.
"Me next!" adds closely onlooking Jack.
"I know, I know, me third!' says patiently waiting happy Rudy!

A nice "shallow powder run" with elder Zorro followed by some serious deep powder aerobics for young Jack & Rudy: 8.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 145 days on the trails covering 995.1 miles with 90,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Angel View

Slightly blurry "shot from the front" as we end our first leg with Zorro, Jack & Rudy.

Despite being a little blurry, you can still make out all the smiles :)

Whee, whee, whee says the happy three!

We started the day as a full team on the trails of Peak 7. We got a few inches of fresh snow overnight and everyone knows that this time of year you get out early to use fresh snow before it gets tracked up and/or melts. As a result, there were a handful of existing tracks at the trailhead. But, we quickly left the busy main trail and took one of our favorite side trails. Once on the side trail, we were second tracks on the new snow with the trail wide enough for us to ignore the set track and make our own :)

Whee - fresh tracks for all 12 feet!
You can see the single pre-existing track to our left.

We spent most of the first 1/3 of the outing on this lesser used side trail and had a great time flying through the forest and whipping around bends in the trail.

Come along and watch the fun. But, pay attention to all the tight corners my pals take me through. They cut every corner very tight and I have to stay just as tight to keep pace behind them. Just watch how close the camera seems to cut by some of the trees and, remember, the camera is on my chest! A fun time winding through the forest and some good exercise for me to work the skis behind the tight cornering trio!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After having elder Zorro along for the first 1/3 of the outing, we dropped him with Nancy (you'll see her waiting for us at the tail end of the video above). We then took the kids, Jack & Rudy, out for some additional exercise higher up on the mountain. Once we got out of the dense forest, it was a beautiful sun shining morning!

Nice shot of "hovering Jack" and "flying Rudy" as we are back on the main
trail (notice all the pre-existing tracks). Despite existing tracks, there
was still enough powder to tickle our toe in the freshies :)

A little further along and I paused to take in the nice view and check our time out on the trails. Well, a pause is a pause...

Pretty view for me.
The patented "stop, drop & roll" for the goofy kids.

Ok, the kids are upright again, time for some more speed & views further along the trail:

Fast Jack & Rudy as you can make out the tips of the snow
covered Rocky Mountains beyond the trees front
and left of us.

Once we were done exercising the kids, it was time to rejoin Zorro for 'end of run' treats for all:

"Glad you are back! Ready for treats!" says Zorro.
"All smile all around!" adds the happy kids :)

Some nice "early morning fresh snow" for an April 3rd fun run: 8.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 138 days on the trails covering 942.4 miles with 85,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Wild Ride

Getting everyone's attention before dishing out the end of run treats this morning:

"I smell them in your hands - dish them out!" says intense Zorro.
"Ready!" adds happy Jack.
"Oh yeah, end of run treats - I'm in tune now!" says la-la-land Rudy who
is *finally* joining the group for the treats :)

We did a fast & fun sprint through the dense forest trails to start this morning with Zorro. It was a wild ride flying through the forest, whipping around corners, behind my powerful trio on fast packed trails!

Approaching a "left whip" in the trail as Zorro and Rudy are beginning their
"left lean" to whip around the bend.
Hang on human!

All smiles as we come out of another weave in the trail and find Nancy waiting on the side for us. Look at Power Rudy taking the lead as Jack is on the outside of the recent corner and Zorro is lining up to give mom a big smile.

Power Rudy in the lead!!!
Cool Jack just off the lead as he is on the outside of the recent corner.
"Hi Mom - having a blast!" adds happy Zorro.

Here we go for a glimpse of the wild ride whipping around the forest. I am flying behind the power trio trying my hardest to keep the skis in pace with their tight & fast cornering! Whew, what a workout for the human!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As you see in the video, that is where we met up with Nancy to drop elder Zorro from the team and take the kids, Jack & Rudy, out for another spin around the mountains.

The kids and I turned around and climbed uphill fast to get to some pretty views up high:

Nice views of the snow covered Rockies to our right as we
fly northbound along the upper elevation trails.

The youngsters and I did an "out and back" on the upper elevation trails. So, here's the usual turnaround of an out & back :)

"You stopped, we roll!" demonstrates the goofy snow rolling twins.
Nice dual action from Rudy as he is rolling a snow angel while eating snowcones!

Rolling snow angels done and the kids are back upright. Going south now and more nice views from way up high:

The mountain tops you see are the tops of Peaks 7, 8, 9 and 10 of
Breckenridge Ski Resort.
Pretty views up high, pretty sled dogs down the middle :)

A great fast & fun day starting with Zorro weaving through the forest and ending with Jack & Rudy sprinting up high: 9.8 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 134 days on the trails covering 912.3 miles with 83,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Passing 600

Passing 600 miles of skijoring for the season this morning (603.9 to be exact) with a fun shot of Zorro the flying missile with fast running Jack & Rudy on each side of him.

Flying Z - wheeee!

We did an out & back in French Gulch again this morning and let elder Zorro come along for the whole ride. He was having a blast in the light layer of new snow and we anticipate serious trail breaking Friday and Saturday morning so Zorro will sit out most of those runs.

We started out laying fresh tracks in 1-2 inches of snow in French Gulch and eventually got as deep as 3-4 inches.

Fast running trio as we lay fresh tracks to start the day.

I love some of the "cornering shots" I get of the talented trio entering tight bends in the trail. Here is a beautiful shot of fast Rudy on the inside track, then Zorro in the middle beginning a lean left and finally Jack starting a more pronounced lean into the left from the outside position.

Such cornering precision!

Put the first and third photos above together and you get today's video highlight. Come along on part of our "return leg" in French Gulch. As we did and out & back, you see Zorro & Rudy running primarily in the track we set on the way out while Powder Jack does his usual "run in the shallow side powder". Oh, and notice the light snowfall coming down around us. Yay for Snow!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I said we did an "out & back", right? Oh Jack...

"Turnaround is ROLL AROUND!" demonstrates silly Jack at our turnaround point.
"Are you sure HE is the lead dog and I am the youngster?" asks Rudy.
"I've learned it's better not to watch!' adds all business Zorro.

Don't be fooled, Rudy rolled his snow angels too. It was just a rare occurrence that he and Jack were not synchronized in their snow rolling antics :)

Coming to the end of the day and smiles all around:

All smiles as we just came around & through the winter access gate you see behind us.

Finally, our end of run treats. This isn't the best treat shot we've got, but I do love Zorro's smile and frozen beard!

Love cold & snowy days!!!

A nice full run for Zorro out & back in snowy French Gulch this morning: 5.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 88 days on the trails covering 603.9 miles with 55,750 feet of elevation climbed.