Abort

What is that ahead of us in the middle of the trail (where I've placed a red arrow)?

Yikes! That is a coyote in the middle of the trail!
Note Jack & Rudy have noticed the coyote too! Eek!

No, I do not have a better picture of the coyote. I put on the brakes as soon as I saw it and turned us around (with some complaints from my pals :) Only 4 things scare me on the trails and cause us to abort the path we are going: moose, coyote, mountain lion and bear. Nicely, bears are hibernating most of the skijor season; but we have encountered bear tracks often in April & May as they are waking up. But, luckily, we've never had an actual bear sighting on the trails. We've seen mountain lion tracks only once (phew) and never an actual lion itself (double phew). We encounter moose frequently; but these are the least scary of the scary animals - moose want nothing to do with humans (or dogs) and they are not a danger if you simply keep your distance. Coyotes, well they bother me! So, it was abort this trail and turn around as soon as I realized this was a coyote on the trail ahead of us!

Before the coyote, we found ourselves on a wonderful, recently groomed trail along the shores of Dumont Lake. Jack & Rudy know what to do with a groomed trail: pedal to the metal and catch some air:

The hover huskies catching air. Wheeee!

Notice anything different about the following photo? Well, we are skijoring on the left hand side of the wide trail. Normally, we skijor the "right side of the road" on wide, multi-use trails as basic rules of the road apply to snow as well. But, today the left side was a pristine corduroy groom while the right side was snowmobile tracks. Who wouldn't ski a corduroy over a snowmobile track if you have the chance? Note that this is a wide open stretch of trail and I would be able to see any snowmobile well in advance and move back to the right side of the road :)

Riding the left side of the road. Rebels :)

Come along for today's video counterpart to the prior photo. We start out on the right; but once I see the "left corduroy" I only need to say "over the the left" for Jack & Rudy to slide over with me. We drift left twice (both times I ask) and then eventually drift back to the right side of the road once the corduroy appears over there as well. Great listening from my perfect partners and great understanding to automatically drift back to the right when the conditions warrant it!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

With our initial planned route aborted due to a coyote encounter, what to do now? I know, let's go skijor over Dumont Lake! The lake is, of course, frozen in the winter. A couple of times a year, I'll route us onto the lake when I see fresh/recent snowmobile tracks crossing the lake too. The total weight of our combined team is only about 250 pounds; if the ice can hold a snowmobile, it can hold us!

We skijored out to the middle of the lake before turning around to come back the same way. Did I say "turn around"? You bet...

Our first ever "snow angels on a frozen lake" from the goofballs.

Done rolling snow angels and time to really turn around. Fun shot of us cruising over a frozen lake:

No trees anywhere near us because we are on frozen Dumont Lake! Wheeee!

Finally, back to the trailhead with my fun pals:

"Ready for end of run treats!" declares my cute little pals!

Some nice wide, partially groomed trail skijoring and then a trip over the lake after the coyote abort: 8.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 121 days on the trails covering 1072.8 miles with 97,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Coyote

Third day in a row skijoring the incredible late May spring crust atop Rabbit Ears Pass!

Flying Zorro with sprinting Jack & Rudy alongside.
Love shots of the Flying Z!

Today was quite the wild and exciting outing. It started out fast & perfect as you see in the prior photo. But, the day was sprinkled with wildlife encounters! Come along for the highlights.

We were cruising along when suddenly we encountered moose tracks! If Zorro stops to inspect then you KNOW the moose tracks smell very fresh (Jack & Rudy are still perfecting their moose freshness detectors and they fall for all ages of moose tracks :) Fun thing to notice in this photo - there is another set of moose tracks to the right (look behind Jack). The moose tracks we are sniffing are postholes in the crust but the tracks behind Jack are on top the crust! Clearly the postholes were a mother moose and the tracks on the crust a baby. But think about how solid the spring crust is if it is supporting a baby moose!

"Yes kids, these are FRESH!" states intense Zorro.
"So deep and so aromatic!" add the kids burying their noses in the moose postholes.

Despite the freshness, we did not see the moose. So, we continued skijoring for a ways and look what we came across again - more moose tracks! Only a single set this time, wonder if it was a lone male with a beautiful antler basket on top his head?

"Fresh again! Tasty!" states moose inspector Zorro.
"Love the scent of moose!" adds the youngsters.

Once again, despite the freshness we failed to see any moose. We had TWO more encounters with moose tracks with the same pattern: fresh enough to interest Zorro but no sightings.

Now, here is a new one. We were cruising along one section of the crust when a coyote suddenly appeared to our left and started howling at us! This brought my partners to a halt to turn and inspect the coyote. This was our FIRST ever coyote encounter while skijoring. Looking back at my notes and today was Zorro's 1082nd skijor outing but his first coyote encounter!

"You talking to US?!?!?!" asks the intense trio stopping to take in the howling coyote you see across
the ravine between Jack & Rudy.

Amazingly, talkative Rudy did NOT talk back (stunned silence :) But, this was too close for me, I ordered my pals to reverse and high tail it out of there. But...

"Hey, it's following us!" declare Zorro & Jack noticing the coyote shadowing us to the left.
"Huh, thought we were going fast again?" says oblivious Rudy :)

Yes, indeed, the coyote was shadowing us in the trees to our left. Luckily, Zorro & Jack are very responsible and kept listening to me to go forward instead of drifting towards the coyote. I kept us moving right to move away but we were in a heavily treed area and it kept shadowing us in the trees for at least a mile! Finally we got to an open straightaway with less dense trees and floored it. At this point the coyote lost interest. Yikes - too much excitement!

Oh yeah, we did get in some skijoring without wildlife. Come along for a fun & fast stretch of the outing.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

First ever coyote encounter - I am ok if this is the only such outing we ever have (a little unnerving being shadowed & stalked): 6.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 728.4 miles with 68,100 feet of elevation climbed.