Useful Human

Starting this morning's skijor on the "not yet plowed" road leading to the Sallie Barber Mine Trailhead!

Only 2 or 3 cars and no plows had been on the road leading to the trailhead.
So, we started this morning's outing far down the road to "skijor the road"
to the trailhead and then continue on the backcountry Sallie Barber Mine Trail.

After skijoring the road to the trailhead, it was time to skijor up to the historic Sallie Barber Mine, then down and back up the backside of the mine before concluding the outing coming back down the frontside. On the first pass by the mine, the kids were frisky about all the new snow we were enjoying. Uh oh...

"Tag! You're it!" declares Jack.
"Coming right back at you!" responds never back down Rudy :)

At least the second pass by the mine was a little more professional :)

Zipping by the mine on pass number 2. Phew, no shenanigans from the kids!

Now come along for the highlight of today's outing being "the human can be useful too."

Beginning our original climb to the mine.

The prior photo has a lot of things to show. First there was a ton of fresh snow this morning; but a group of three skiers had beat us to the trail and went up before us (we did run into them eventually on their way back). Well, humans are lazy and tend to go single file up the trail in fresh & deep snow. You can see in the photo above that Rudy is in the track the 3 skiers set but it is too narrow for Jack to fit too. That's not a problem on the way up as powder Jack happily trotted next to Rudy. But, this set track would be too narrow for both to fit in and run fast on the way back. If Rudy was in the set track and Jack the side powder, Jack would not be able to keep pace with Rudy on the way down. What to do? The human, ME, to the rescue. The ski tip you see in the prior photo is my right leg. Basically I skied in the powder next to the set track all the way up the trail. I knew this would provide a new track for Jack and then each would be able to run fast "in track" on the way back down. Did it work? Of course...

Zipping along on the way back. Rudy in the track set by the three skiers
and Jack in the track set by me! 

Now come along for the video proof of my work. Both Jack & Rudy are able to maintain the same pace as each has a set track to run in. See, the human, ME, can be of use sometimes :) If you are curious, the answer is "Yes, that was a lot of extra work on my legs on the way up" but totally worth it to widen the trail for my pals.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and another fun snow wall to climb for end of run treats:

"Thanks for making me a track to run in the way down!" says happy Jack.
"Yes, that was fun!" adds cute Rudy.

A fun combination of road skijoring, backcountry skijoring and trail widening by the useful human, ME: 9.1 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 97 days on the trails covering 823.8 miles with 79,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Surprise Accumulation

Who is having a great time skijoring this morning?

"We are!!!!!!! So much fun in the fresh snow!" exclaims the happy kids looking
back to me when I asked who was having a good time :)

The forecast was for a few inches of new snow last night and into the morning. Well, we got a lot more than that! We had 6 inches in our driveway and Breckenridge Ski Resort reported 12 inches of fresh snow on the mountain. With more snow than expected, we headed out to French Gulch to use the new snow on this trail. As we transitioned from town onto the dirt road leading to the trailhead we saw that only a single car had driven out before us and the road was perfectly skiable! So, we hopped out and skijored the road to the French Gulch trailhead and then skijored out & back in French Gulch. Fun to be able to start far down the road:

Zipping along French Gulch Road amidst active snowfall as we
near the trailhead to continue onto the French Gulch Trail.

The conditions in French Gulch were a little interesting for long stretches. This trail is shared with 4WD vehicles that can access the handful of private cabins in the gulch. The road had not been recently plowed by any of the vehicles (YAY!!!!) but it had been driven. So, we had two set single tracks (the tire tracks that other skiers had been using as well) that were the width of a vehicle apart. When the single tracks were too skinny to fit two sled dogs, Jack & Rudy would automatically separate and take their own track:

The smart & flexible kids showing they can each use their one narrow
single track while I get to glide in the powder down the middle.

Despite being very flexible with conditions, Jack & Rudy do prefer to run closer together. So, of course, whenever they could come together and fit in the trail, they did:

Rudy in the left track while Jack runs in the ski tracks I set for him on
the way out this trail. I always try to widen a single track in one
direction in hopes we can then fit together on the return direction.

Now onto our video highlight of the day which shows just how tightly Jack & Rudy can fit together when needed. We start out in a gentle jog, packed together into a single track, along a flat stretch of trail. Then the terrain takes a downward dip and Jack & Rudy accelerate nicely while still fitting tightly in the narrow single track. Impressive kids :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, French Gulch comes along with the bonus entertainment of MOOSE!!!! We did not see any moose today, but Jack & Rudy clearly caught the "scent of moose" three times and had to dip off trail and climb snow walls to look for moose. Despite what their noses were saying, we failed to spot a moose (but we know they were nearby :)

"Our noses say MOOSE are in the forest this way!" declares the moose
inspecting kids.

Finally, we got our handler & driver (Nancy) back with us today. It's so enjoyable to have a handler's help so we can have our end of run treats out in the snow versus in the Jeep!

"Yay, back to treats from snowbanks!" says the happy kids.

A surprise amount of new snow this morning allowing us a fun skijor in French Gulch: 9.2 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 547.6 miles with 53,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Memories

A rare treat this morning: getting out before the plows and skijoring French Gulch Road!

Zipping along French Gulch Road - wheeee!

Only 2 or 3 cars (and no plows) had been on French Gulch Road before us in this morning's new snow. So, we started our skijor a couple of miles before the trailhead and skijored the road before connecting onto the actual trails. Fun!

For the most part, we have removed French Gulch from our skijoring menu. It used to be Max, Zorro and my FAVORITE trail. Years ago it was only skiers or snowmobiles you'd encounter on the trail. But, there are a handful of private cabins in the gulch and the owners have keys to the winter gate to drive the gulch. Unfortunately, over the years, a few of the cabin owners have started paying to have the gulch plowed! It started a few times a winter and has grown into getting plowed pretty much after every heavy snowstorm. As a result, we no longer expect much skijoring in French Gulch except for a couple of times a season when we get out before the plows.

Why was this one of Max & Zorro's favorite trails? Well, in addition to once being excellent backcountry terrain, the gulch is also home to a very active moose population. I'm pretty sure we saw at least one moose on every skijor in French Gulch (which was 100s of outings). Sometimes the moose were far away and sometimes right in the middle of the trail. Regardless of where the moose was, Max & Zorro would pick up the scent of moose and get excited. If the moose was far off trail, they would stop and climb snow walls on the side of the trail to get a view of the moose they smelled.

Well, today Jack & Rudy got one of their rare skijors in French Gulch. From Max/Zorro to Jack/Rudy, some things never change. I don't know how many photos I have of Max/Zorro in this position taken by Jack/Rudy this morning:

"Beep, beep - we smell moose to the right and we see them too!"
says the intense moose seekers.

I turned myself in the direction they were looking in the previous photo. Sure enough, I saw a moose walking through deep snow across the large open space that houses French Creek just on the other side of the trees to our right. I pointed my camera that direction; but the moose was too far away to show up on video; but all three of us saw it!!!!

On the rare occasion, like today, when you can skijor through the plowed section of French Gulch, you are always treated to incredible powder caches far back in the gulch. I have so many memories of plowing through deep powder with Max/Zorro on this trail. Here's Jack & Rudy's powder treat for the day:

Whee - it sure does get deep & fun if you can get through
the plowed initial terrain.

Now come along for today's fun video. We start out on great backcountry terrain running in the tracks we set on the way out this trail. Then, a few moments into the video and we pass by one of the private cabins. Well, the cabin owner had recently driven on the trail as you see in the video. Watch as Jack & Rudy transition from backcountry terrain to share a tire track without so much of a pause in the action. Fun kids.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

If you watch the video closely, near the end you'll see Jack & Rudy are having trouble fitting both of their bodies in a single tire track. Not a problem, as a few moments after that video clip, the kids realized they can each take a tire track and I get to really enjoy the safe powder in between!

"We prefer to run 'shoulder to shoulder' but we can adapt to any
conditions to keep going fast!" says the smart kids now taking one
tire track each. It was beautiful for me in the powder down the middle
as well!

Back to the trailhead to rejoice a rare skijor in French Gulch and many fond memories of Max & Zorro. Note that Jack & Rudy got the pleasure of skijoring French Gulch with Zorro; but the majority of our skijors in French Gulch was Max & Zorro.

"We remember doing this with wonderful Zorro too!" says the focused
kids awaiting end of run treats.

Ah, memories.... and a rare skijor in French Gulch nowadays: 8.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 43 days on the trails covering 361.2 miles with 34,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Early Road Fun

We started this morning's skijor at sunrise, we finished with the sun just barely over the mountains and bright & low in the sky!

The human barely visible against the low & bright sun.
The Siberians in the usual "all smiles" as we conclude today's skijor run.

We found one positive in the COVID-19 situation this morning. Typically the plows in & around Breckenridge try to get through all the major roads before school starts or most businesses open. Well, schools are closed and restaurants as well as all non-essential businesses are closed throughout Summit County. So, it appeared this morning that the county is letting the plow drivers sleep in and get out whenever they get to it :)

The result? Well, we had 3-5 inches of new snow overnight and, without the county plows out yet, we were able to skijor French Gulch Road "out & back" from where it transitions from town to county service. As I said, on a typical day the plows would have been on the road before we could get started a 1/2 hour after sunrise!

Whee - riding up French Gulch Road in MARCH behind my power trio.
What a rare treat!

We did a short skijor this morning as we wanted to keep Zorro in the team for the entire outing. As he is approaching 12 years old, the distance he can go is shrinking but he definitely still wants to go (he is ALL SMILES and power while out on the trails). We love having the elder leader with us the entire time so we are willing to do a short skijor now and then to enjoy his company the entire outing!

As I alluded to above, we did an "out & back" on French Gulch Road. We started down the road before the French Gulch Trailhead Parking Lot and skijored up & past the lot onto the beginning of the French Gulch Trail. We turned around just a 100 yards or so past the parking lot as we wanted to skijor back down the road before the plows woke up.

Ok, a short "out & back", what do you think Jack did at the turnaround point?

"Distance, shmistance - you stop, I ROLL!" demonstrates goofy snow rolling Jack.
"At least *I* am mature enough to reserve snow angels for long runs!" adds cute Rudy.
"I smell moose!" declares moose sniffing Zorro (which I'm certain he
did as French Gulch is moose territory).

Once we got Jack upright, it was time to head back down French Gulch Road. As we turned around a group of backcountry skiers was coming up the trail from the parking lot. We flirted & glided by the first 3 in the group. But the last member stopped and took out his camera to get a video of the cool sled dogs. Well, Zorro stopped to flirt & pose while Jack continued on by and Rudy slowed to give him a big "WOO!" for his video collection :)

"Hi sir, shall I pose for a happy face shot?" asks mellow Zorro.
"Camera, shmamera, coming through!" says all-business Jack.
"WOOOOOOOO!" adds Rudy the Woo.

Once past the "flirt & woo" point and here we go. Come along as we start on the very edge of the French Gulch Trail and then pass through the trailhead parking lot until committing to sprint down the road. Note how Zorro & Jack slow slightly through the parking lot as this is where we typically stop (they are checking the cars for Nancy). Rudy, on the other hand, wants to get THROUGH the parking lot before we get any silly ideas about stopping before getting more exercise :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A little further down the road and sun has finally risen over the mountains behind us. Love the poofs behind Zorro as he is running in shallow powder in a tire track. Love the big poofs behind Jack as Powder Jack has found the deepest part of the available snow to frolic in. Meanwhile, monster Rudy takes the set tire track to go FAST!

Whee, poofs for the cool blacks
and set tracks for the fast red.

What a fun & unique morning making some use of the COVID-19 shutdowns to get on some fresh powder on usually unusable terrain!

"YES - that was FUN!" as we have smiles all around from the
happy trio at our end of run group meeting :)

Not to worry, Jack & Rudy will get another walk today as reward for letting us do a short run with Zorro in the team the entire outing (believe me, they would drive Nancy & I CRAZY otherwise :).

Unique terrain for a full outing with fun Zorro: 4 miles traveled with 250 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 859.9 miles with 78,650 feet of elevation climbed.

Repeat

La-la-land Rudy seemed to forget about 'end of run' treats :)

"Ready!" announces focused Zorro & Jack.
"La la, huh? What 'end of run' treats?" says la-la-land Rudy.

Due to various appointments, we only had time for a short skijor yesterday and a short one this morning. Plus, I was too busy yesterday to get a blog update from yesterday morning's run. So, today you get yesterday and today's skijors put together.

What is fun is to compare & contrast yesterday to today given that we did basically the same trails. We started each day with the kids, Jack & Rudy, skijoring up, over and down the Sally Barber Mine Trail. We then completed each day by adding Zorro once we reached the French Gulch Trailhead.

There was about 2-3 inches of fresh snow yesterday morning. It then continued to snow lightly all day yesterday. While it never snowed very heavy, 24 hours of light snow can really add up. Compare and contrast the conditions in the following photo. The left is laying fresh tracks in 2-3 inches yesterday while the right is breaking trail in 10+ inches today!!!

Freshies to the left and breaking trail to the right.
What a difference 24 hours made on the Sally Barber Mine Trail!

On Wednesday, we met up with Zorro and noticed that French Gulch Road had been only 1/2 plowed. Then meant there was a nice shoulder for me to ski on 1/2 the road. So, as a treat we skijored French Gulch Road giving Zorro the easy plow surface with Jack, Rudy and I rode in the side powder.

Flying Z on the plowed road with powder Jack & Rudy on the shoulder with me.

Even though we got a lot of snow in the last 24 hours, the plow beat us to both sides of the road today. So, we couldn't skijor French Gulch Road and tried the French Gulch Trail instead. Unfortunately there was a very narrow single track on the trail and it is pretty hard for a 3 pack to fit in or share a single track. The out of track snow was too deep for the 'out of track' brother to keep pace with the 'in track brother(s)':

Zorro flying 'in track' with Rudy really trying to fit with him. Jack, meanwhile,
is in very deep powder 'out of track'.

As a result, we only did a short run in French Gulch and then tried the road once more. I rode in the shoulder as best as I could until I couldn't keep balance with my 'in road' partners any longer:

Sled dogs in the packed/plowed road with the human trying
to keep pace in the deep shoulder.

Today's video fun is Jack & Rudy laying fresh tracks near Sally Barber Mine yesterday while light snowfall is coming down around us. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, you knew there had to be at least one comedic moment from the kids across two days of skijoring. The "dunk & dive" brothers:

"Dunk - where are the rodents?" asks rodent dunking Jack.
"Incoming!!!!" demonstrates rodent diving Rudy.

Two days of quick runs showing the difference in snow 24 hours can produce!

Wednesday: 5.6 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

Thursday: 4.6 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 75 days on the trails covering 513.6 miles with 48,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Proud

Breaking trail in about 8-10 inches of fresh snow with Jack & Rudy at Sally Barber Mine!

Nice shot of Sally Barber Mine and beautiful shot of trail breaking
Jack & Rudy!

We did a split run this morning where Jack & Rudy towed me up, over and down the Sally Barber Mine Trail before adding Zorro to do an out & back in French Gulch. In addition to the fun trail breaking you see above, we had lots of other fun along the way to meet Zorro. Come along for the highlights...

Cruising along the trail when Rudy suddenly launches himself in a rodent swan dive off trail into the deep snow:

"Incoming!!!!" demonstrates airborne Rudy.
"Nice form little bro!" says onlooking Jack.

The result of a rodent dive? Well two things today. First, a dive results in a fully submerged DUNK in the snow. Second, any dive or dunk will get a similar response from your brother :)

"DUNK!" demonstrates submerged Rudy.
"Hey, wait for me!!!!" says diving Jack. As you see, Jack doesn't get quite the lift
that Rudy does in dives; but the resulting dunk is often just as good :)

More fun from the day comes along in today's video highlight. We showcase the difference between skijoring and skiing in this clip. Come along as there is a skier on the trail in front of us working hard to propel himself along. Meanwhile, I am sitting back on the skis as my skijor partners do most of the work and we catch the skier quickly. I start snowplowing near the end of the clip to keep us from running the guy over, waiting for him to notice us. He doesn't notice us, so I eventually stop to give him a head start before catching him again (he noticed us on the second catch and moved over so we could pass :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Done with Sally Barber and time to add Zorro in the group. We were second tracks on the French Gulch Trail with the first tracks belonging to a moose!!!!! Eventually the moose tracks went off trail and into the gulch, so, of course, Zorro, Jack & Rudy's attention went into the gulch as well:

"Beep beep - our noses say moose this way!" declares the moose monitors.
Despite seeing lots of moose tracks weaving through the deep snow in the gulch, we
failed to see an actual moose itself :(

We did a short out & back in French Gulch. Here we are on the way back as Zorro & Rudy ride the track we set on the way out while Powder Jack continues laying fresh tracks to the right:

Love the snow poofs around Powder Jack :)

We did a short out & back in French Gulch as the snow eventually got too deep for older Zorro. We had a set time to meet Nancy at the trailhead and since we did a short out&back, we decided to see if we could skijor French Gulch Road until meeting Nancy driving up the road. This road gets plowed, so whether or not we could skijor it was in question.

The following photo is the proudest moment I have of young Jack & Rudy's skijoring career. Why so proud? Well, look at the thin layer of snow with lots of exposed ground on the road. My skis are on the left shoulder behind and to the left of Rudy; but this is very thin cover too. They only way to proceed was cautiously - no sprinting or opening up the skijor throttle. Now look at this photo and see that all three of my partners are in a gentle trot even though they are a road where they could sprint. Veteran Zorro knows to slow on sketchy conditions without any instruction from me. Well, today that happened with Jack & Rudy too. I never said a single "easy" or other command to keep them in a gentle trot. The kids automagically switched to a gentle trot to match the sketchy conditions! A year ago I would have had to take my skis off and walk this road because Jack & Rudy would not understand slowing down. The youngsters really are maturing into incredible skijor partners like Zorro! So proud!

A gentle trot to preserve the human on sketchy conditions. What professionals!

From trail breaking on Sally Barber to Moosing in French Gulch to a perfect mature trio on sketchy French Gulch Road - what a fun day: 7.5 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 41 days on the trails covering 273.8 miles with 27,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Hey

"HEY! We were using that! RUDE!!!" says the snow loving trio to the evil plow.

"RUDE! Just plain RUDE!!!!!" says Zorro, Jack, Rudy and me :)

It was an interesting skijor for us this morning with a bunch of constraints.

First constraint: I had a "jury summons" to appear for jury selection at 9am this morning. What a rude morning constraint to deal with.

Second constraint: The ski resort reported 13" of new snow overnight at we had over 7 inches at home. So the trails would have between 7 to 13+. No way was I going to miss a morning like this because of some rude jury summons.

Third constraint: At 11.5 years old, Zorro is not really up to breaking trail in a foot of snow anymore. But, with the rude jury summons, we did not have time for Jack, Rudy & I to set a trail first and then add Zorro in to reuse what we packed. Rude jury summons!

The solution? Attempt to skijor French Gulch Road. Two reasons: (1) vehicles drive this in all depths of snow to get to trailheads and a few houses back in the gulch; (2) plows get to this road last on the schedule as they need to do the more populous streets first. As we arrived to French Gulch Road at the edge of the town limit, it was perfect. One vehicle had driven up the road with no plows yet. As a result, we were able to skijor up the road in perfect setup. Jack, Rudy and I took one tire track to let the kids haul me up. Zorro, meanwhile, took the other tire track to run alongside us while letting Jack & Rudy do most of the uphill work. A perfect use of young Jack & Rudy along with elder Zorro!

Wheeee - riding the "2 year olds" tow rope up one tire track while
Zorro keeps pace alongside us in the other track.

We did this configuration all the way out French Gulch Road for a little over two miles before we had to turn around to get me home in time for jury duty. Time to turn around and guess what... :)

"Turning means rolling snow angels first!" says the powder twins throwing themselves into
the deep snow first.
"Kids! What else can you say but 'kids'?!?" says onlooking Zorro.

Once turned around, everyone wanted to get in the same tire track for some downhill speed. Unfortunately only two sled dogs can fit in a single tire track. I spent 50 yards or so making sure everyone knew he could use the right track while the other two used the left track (with various 'over to the right' commands and others). But, alas, nobody wanted to run in the right track alone. Instead, everyone quickly settled on the "Powder Jack" configuration. Zorro & Rudy took the tire track and Jack happily ran in the middle powder right next to the track.

Powder Jack! Go, Jack, Go!!!
Impressive shot of Jack kicking up powder while still keeping pace with Zorro and Rudy
in the tire track.

Come along for a minute of impressive Powder Jack as he is able to "kick up powder" while still keeping pace with his in-track partners. I think Zorro & Rudy actually pulled back a little to make sure Jack could keep pace and they could remain in the set track. Impressive powder Jack and polite Zorro & Rudy - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

How long did Powder Jack go? Well, refer back to the original photo above. He maintained Powder Jack until we ran into the rude plow coming up the road. Rude! Anyways, once there was a wide plow lane, nobody wanted to run in the powder anymore. That's completely understandable but all the work then fell upon me to avoid obstacles on the road that the plow had exposed!

My partners making use of the fast plow lane while I ride with one ski in the lane and the
other ski in the side powder. I kept switching my weight between the "fast lane ski" and
the "safe/slow lane powder ski" to keep pace while avoiding hazards. I hate when I have
to do so much work :)

End of a short but very fun morning run:

"That was fun! What a great workout!" says happy Powder Jack.
"Look at patient me awaiting my 'end of run' treats!" adds cute Rudy.
"You have my full attention!" declares Zorro.

The "13 inch snow report" from the ski resort was as of 5am and it had been snowing nonstop since then. So, we were somewhere in the 15-20" range by the time we got home. I made one last check on my rude jury summons (it was still 'on' as of 7am) and, YESSSSS, jury duty canceled as of 8am due to inclement weather!!!! Woo Hoo!

Yay to jury canceled but boo to cutting our run short to be able to make it: 4.2 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 39 days on the trails covering 257.9 miles with 25,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Road Run

Nice shot of Jack & Rudy breaking trail in 10+ inches of new snow as we crest at Sally Barber Mine.

Impressive shot of the youngsters breaking trail and towing me up & past the mine!

We did a "split run" today where we started with the youngsters (Jack & Rudy) and then eventually met up with Zorro to add him in for the end of the run. A great day to exercise the kids in the fresh snow around Sally Barber Mine and then finish the day with a nice, easy cool down with elder Zorro.

We started on the lesser used west side of Sally Barber and found a few existing tracks at the trailhead. We quickly caught and passed those on the trail before us and, as you see in the first photo, then found ourselves breaking trail for a few miles climbing to the mine. The reward for towing me up? Well, we got to open up the throttle in set tracks going down the east (and popular) side of the trail. Zoom!

Nice shot of Jack & Rudy each taking one "set track" and uncorking the skijor engine. Zoom!

I mentioned the other day that young Rudy apparently needed to re-learn his "on by" tactics this season. Well, as it turns out, Rudy only needs to WANT to "on by", he still understands the concept completely - he showed me that twice today! Classic Rudy - he "knows" he just has to "want to" :)

"Yeah, yeah, look - I get it - I just have to want to!" demonstrates perfect 'on by' Rudy.

The original plan was for us to meet with Zorro at the Sally Barber/French Gulch trail intersection and then skijor out/back in French Gulch. But, once we got to the French Gulch Trail with Zorro, we found the trail untouched and we'd be breaking trail in 6-10 inches of snow in the gulch. Well, we do not want 11.5 year old Zorro to be breaking trail much anymore, so we turned around to check the status of French Gulch Road (the road leading to the trailhead). We were thrilled to find that the plows had not been on the road yet and only 4WD vehicles had been on the road. This made for a perfect "easy finish" for us to run with Zorro. Jack & Rudy took one tire track and Zorro the other and we skijored a few miles on the road to end the day - perfect for Zorro!

Yay, we beat the plows out and have 4WD tracks to use as a pseudo groomed trail!

Here we go with today's short video highlight. Come along as we skijor French Gulch Road gliding in 4WD tracks with deep snow in the middle and on the shoulders of the road. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, as usual, we ended the day celebrating with 'end of run treats' with my happy & focused partners.

"You have our COMPLETE attention!" says the focused trio :)

A perfect mix today exercising the youngsters in deeper snow and then running a packed road to end the morning with Zorro: 9.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/202 Season to Date: 22 days on the trails covering 139.3 miles with 14,150 feet of elevation climbed.

May POW

Breaking trail in over a foot of new snow on May 18th! Mid May POW Day!!!

Powering through 12+ inches of fresh snow on the French Gulch Trail. What a May treat!

Consider the following... The terrain you see in every photo today had NO snow a little over 12 hours ago! We woke to find a ton of new snow out the window. The super May storm that was forecast really came. Oh boy. With this much new snow, we decided to return to one of our favorite trails: French Gulch. It was April 29th the last time there was enough snow to skijor French Gulch yet we were able to return to this trail today! Yay!

As we were driving to the trailhead, we found the county road (just outside the town limits) had yet to be plowed. So we hopped out of the jeep and proceeded to skijor up the road until getting to the French Gulch trailhead and continuing up the actual trail. As luck would have it, someone had driven the road a few hours before we started. As a result, we were laying fresh tracks in a couple inches of snow for the beginning and end of the outing:

Look closely and you can see Max & Zorro are each in a tire track as we are laying fresh
tracks in a few inches to start the day.

We are happy to report that it was dumping snow all morning long. Every 1-3 minutes I would wipe the GoPro clear of snow only to have it get covered again within a minute or two. As a result, most of today's GoPro footage looks like the following:

Blurred by snow collecting on the camera. All you can see of Max is his back feet. Zorro is
a little more visible but a few seconds later and he was missing in the blurs too.

Today's fun outing went as follows: (1) lay fresh tracks in tire tracks up French Gulch Road to the trailhead; (2) arrive at the trailhead to find 12+ inches of fresh snow and break trail up the gulch for a bit; (3) turnaround and jog back in the trail we set until getting back to the road and following the tire tracks again.

I just wiped the camera clear to get this clip of us jogging in the track we set:

Jogging along in the trail we carved. Fun day!

A fun day of jogging in snow filled tire tracks and then breaking trail: 7.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 157 days on the trails covering 1312.6 miles with 138,900 feet of elevation climbed.