Scrapes and Glances

Uh-oh....

An unauthorized session of "tag & tackle" breaking out as we reached the
historic Sallie Barber Mine this morning :)

You know what came after the prior photo! Yep, BOOM, tag, tackle, wrestle, flip, flop, duck, dodge - you name it, the playful kids did it!

Prior photo aside, we really did skijor the Sallie Barber Mine Trail this morning. We are still dealing with the aftermath of last week's super windstorm as we have not had new snow to cover any of the tree debris littered on the trails. For the most part, it is just minor debris that we can easily run and glide amongst:

Zipping along with minor tree debris scattered on the trail.

But, there are locations where large and often many trees fell across the trail last week that had to be removed by chainsaws. Unfortunately, in removing these large downed trees, a lot of sawdust and tons of little branches remain littering the trail. While not as bad as exposed rocks, my skis still made a awful scraping noise each time they grazed a pile of dust & twigs. Check this out, for example:

You can see the remnants of the large trees that fell forward and to our left.
You can also see the dust & twig debris covering the trail.

Jack & Rudy are great partners, of course, and they automagically slowed when we approached difficult debris for me to ski over. In fact, each time either of my skis made a scraping noise, one or both of them would glance back to check on me. Such great pals:

"You ok back there, that didn't sound good?" asks the great kids glancing
back to check on me after one of my skis scraped across a patch of twigs.

Now come along for the video fun of what I'm talking about. This clip starts out with us galloping along amidst minor, no issue, debris on the trail. Then, about 30 seconds into the clip and we get to a swath of heavy debris from downed tree removal. Watch as Jack and/or Rudy glance back to check on me a total of 7 times (each time one of my skis scraped) as we pass over this swath of debris. What great partners to keep checking on me!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I was happy as can be to dish out end of run treats to my perfect partners who had my well being in mind as we scraped through some sketchy patches of trail!

"We'd rather slow, glance and keep you upright than not skijor at all!" declares
the great kids awaiting end of run treats atop a mini snow wall.

A fun, albeit short, outing on the parts of Sallie Barber Mine that have had the downed trees removed (there are sections that are still blocked by trees): 4.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 16 days on the trails covering 94.9 miles with 11,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Debris

 A moment of unauthorized play from the 2 three years olds this morning:

"We authorize 'tag & tackle'!" suggests the young goofballs starting a game of
tag while I am navigating a corner in the trail.

Note all the pine needles you see in the prior photo. Well, it was EXTREMELY windy last night and this morning. That lead to a lot of wind blown tree debris on the trail. For the most part, it was just pine needles, small twigs and pinecones. But, we did hit the occasional patch of extreme debris:

Lots of debris across the entire trail here. Jack & Rudy are flying through just
fine; but I'm trying to pick the path of least resistance through this debris.

Despite picking the best path I could, my skis did make a not good/not normal scraping sound through the patch. Good boys Jack & Rudy simultaneously slowed, looked back to check on me and then refocused back to the front once they saw I was ok and my skis went back to normal sounds. I love their concern!

"You ok back there?" asks the wonderful partners concerned about me!

Now for the video counterpart of the prior two photos. As we start, you see the debris is minimal and we are able to fly along the trail as normal. But, the clip ends with us hitting and going through the extreme debris shown in the prior two photos. I love seeing the two kids simultaneously checking on me when the skis hit this patch. Check on the human, all is fine so go, go, go again :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We had a fun "back and forth" outing this morning. We did a skijor lap on the fast & wide Sally Barber Mine Trail, then a technical lap on the narrow Trail of Tears, then another Sally Barber lap, then another Trail of Tears lap and then a final Sally Barber lap to finish the day. A nice back & forth from wide to narrow trails:

Cruising along the narrow Trail of Tears single track.

In additional the the occasional patches of extreme debris on the trail, we also encountered four downed trees. 2 we were all able to go under, 1 we were able to cautiously step over and 1 required us to go off trail to find a way around the tree. Time to go under? Ok, let's get behind lead dog Jack and off we go:

Jack leading us under the downed tree. Rudy following nicely. I was able
to crouch slightly and make it through too!

Done for the day, time to join up with elder Zorro - yay! 

"Ready!" declares the focused trio!

A fun "back & forth" outing with a lot of technical challenges for Jack & Rudy to perfectly navigate! 7.7 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 57 days on the trails covering 447.4 miles with 39,500 feet of elevation climbed.