Bluebird

A beautiful bluebird morning to get a postcard photo of Breckenridge Ski Resort across the valley from us!

Beautiful view, beautiful sled dogs, beautiful morning!

While the morning was beautiful, we are starting to see the "end of season" realities. It's been a horrible snow year in Colorado (snowpack less than 50% of normal), so ground that we do not usually see until late April or May is already starting to show in early March. Yikes!!!

We did have a dusting of fresh snow overnight, as you can see by Jack & Rudy's
footprints. But, yikes, look at all that exposed ground to our left that is
typically not visible until late April or May. Yikes!!!

We did our favorite combination route this morning of starting in the Dry Gulch backcountry before dropping onto the trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. If you've been reading along this season, you probably recognize this location with Jack & Rudy rolling snow angels. It's called the Jumbo Overlook (for its views) and it is a natural point to turnaround from Dry Gulch onto Gold Run. Well, since I said "turnaround", you now know why I get so many photos like the following on this route!

"Turnaround! Roll Around!" goes the snow rolling sillies who have NEVER
failed to roll at snow angel (or 2 or 10) at the Jumbo Overlook :)

Once the snow angels were done, it was time to floor it on the fast & wide nordic trails. Whee!

The hover huskies catching air on fast & wide nordic trails!

Now come along for today's video fun as we glide to the finish of the day's outing. If you can take your eyes off Jack & Rudy, notice what a gorgeous bluebird morning it was!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

If you can also take your eyes off Jack, Rudy and the gorgeous morning, you'll notice Nancy on the side of the trail at about 35 seconds into the prior clip. It was a great day for her to get out and try to capture a front shot of us gliding to the finish. Success!

Smiles all around! "Hi Mom!!!!" says the flirtatious kids

Things may wind down sooner than usual this season, so let's enjoy it while we can, right guys?

"Yes! We don't want summer!!!!" says the happy kids giving me their
full attention for end of run treats.

A beautiful morning to get out for short skijor amidst dwindling conditions: 4.6 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 45 days on the trails covering 277.9 miles with 29,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Front

Great "shot from the front" of a happy skijor trio finishing this morning's awesome run!

Whee!

We had a light layer of new snow overnight (1-2 inches). But, any amount of new snow makes narrow side trails safe to skijor with my pals. It's such an experience to be tugged & towed through narrow, tree lined trails!

This is only safe with some amount of new snow to both slow Jack & Rudy
down and give me some braking control with my skis. 
But, we love winding through the trees when we can!

After the narrow, side trail treat, it was onto the more established (thus wider) backcountry trails. Once again, what a perfect layer of light new snow to safely uncork the Jack & Rudy skijoring engine:

Love all the snow flying up around them as we romp through the
fresh snow.

I'll take the prior photo as the lead in to today's video highlight. Come along to watch us laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow in the backcountry. Such a fun morning!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Our next leg was to drop onto the trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. But, this transition comes with a turnaround point, so you know what that means!

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes the comical snow rolling kids.

Snow angels completed and now time for the nordic center. No groomer had been out on the trails since yesterday and only a few skiers had been out before us. So, it was a light layer of slightly used fresh snow over a "yesterday groomed" fast trail. Jack & Rudy knew what to do with these nice conditions:

The hover husking flooring it to catch air along the nordic trail. Zoom!

As I said, a very entertaining outing, right guys?

"Yes, we LOVED it all!" says the happy kids patiently awaiting their
end of run treats.

A nice combination of single track, backcountry and nordic trails to yield 6.2 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 43 days on the trails covering 268.6 miles with 29,000 feet of elevation climbed.

2025/2026 Season Opener

Let the 2025/2026 Skijor Season FINALLY Begin!!!!

Whee, we are back on skis & snow!!!!!
Smiles all around!

After a ridiculously dry October and start to November in Colorado, we FINALLY got our skijor season started this morning. This is the latest start we EVER had to a skijor season (and we've been doing this since 2010 - first with Max & Zorro and now with Jack & Rudy). My goodness, we typically get at least one and usually multiple outings in October and we've even had a few years with September starts. Jack, Rudy and I were starting to wonder if it would ever snow this season!!!!

To get the season started, though, we needed an assist from the snow making machines on Breckenridge Ski Resort. While we did get some new snow overnight, it was not enough to skijor without an assist. So, we went to one of the closed runs at Breckenridge where they are making snow in an attempt to open new terrain. Well, snow is snow - we'll take natural or man made at this point to get the season going!

Zipping along a ski run of mostly man made snow with an active snow gun
making snow to our left. Any snow is good snow!

It was actually pretty fun to skijor amidst the active running snow guns. We were galloping (Jack & Rudy) and gliding (me) in and out of active, man made snowfall. Wheeee!

A somewhat blurred photo from snow guns spraying snow down
upon us. Fun!

Now come along for a video view into the fun as we skijor along a this ski run amidst active snow guns. 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite a much later than usual start to the season, some things remain the same with silly Jack & Rudy.

First, snow angels MUST be rolled at any turnaround point of the outing:

"Rub a dub dub, turnaround roll around!" goes the snow rolling goofs
already in "mid season snow rolling form" :)

Second, everyone is at full attention and all smiles awaiting end of run treats:

"We'd NEVER forget about end of run treats! Dish them out!"
says the happy & focused pair.

We needed an assist from the ski resort snow guns, but the 2025/2026 season has FINALLY begun: 3.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 15 MPH.

Pray for Snow - we need MUCH more!!!!!

Skijor the Ski Resort

Skijoring Breckenridge Ski Resort - wheeee!

The fun kids towing me to the finish of a "skijor the ski resort" outing
yesterday morning.

It has become an annual tradition for us. When Breckenridge Ski Resort closes Peak 9 for the season, we skijor the ski resort the next day. While the ski resort itself is still open, they start to shut down some of the trails as the season & crowds wind down. Well, Sunday was the last day peaks 9 & 10 (of the 5 peaks of ski runs at Breckenridge) were open. So, Monday was our annual "skijor the ski resort" on the closed trails on Peak 9. This outing is best shown through pictures versus me talking, come along for the fun ride:

We flew down wide trails high up on Peak 9:

Whee!

We floored it down narrower corridors of tree lined ski runs:

Zoom!

We zipped on by slopeside condos and hotels:

Wouldn't it be cool to step out on your hotel deck to see this
flying on by!!!!

So much cool video footage from the day. Let's go with the counterpart to the prior photo for the highlight of the outing. As I said in the photo caption: wouldn't it be cool to step out on your hotel deck to witness this flying on by :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Great time, right guys?

"Oh, the best! We love to skijor the ski resort!!!" says the happy kdis
with a nice trail map of Breckenridge Ski Resort in the background.
Peaks 9 & 10 are on the far left of this trail map.

Remember, ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing. Thus, our outings on the resort are always steep in elevation but lower in mileage: 4.8 miles traveled with 1500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 92 days on the trails covering 709.5 miles with 68,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Wily

3 happy fellows arriving at the trailhead to conclude this morning's awesome skijor outing :)

1, 2, 3 - smiles all around!

We started the morning doing a little backcountry tour in Dry Gulch. But, after two technical backcountry skijors in fresh snow the last two days, I decided to reward the kids with some fast nordic groomed trails for most of today's outing. As you see above, the nordic trails were perfect. As you see below, the backcountry start was pretty darn nice too!

Zipping along in Dry Gulch before dropping onto the groomed
trails at Gold Run Nordic Center.

Along the way, we had a short pause at an intersection of trails. Jack & Rudy often like to hop off trail into the deeper snow to roll snow angels at pauses at the nordic centers. Today's pause started as expected:

Jack rolling a snow angel off trail in the fluffy snow as Rudy looks like he
is about to start rolling an angel too.

But, the silly redhead Rudy then got other ideas. Suddenly, jumping Jack instead of rolling a snow angel seemed like the more interesting activity to Rudy:

"Incoming, I'm going to tackle & bury you in the snow!" says Rudy.
"You think?" peeks Jack back.

Then, as Rudy was launching his tackle, wily Jack spun around, causing Rudy to miss his attempted tackle and then Jack landed on top of Rudy instead! It was one of the most impressive & skillful wrestling moves I've ever seen!

"Nice try kid, GOTCHA!" goes wily Jack.

Jack is only 5 months older than Rudy, but sometimes it seems like 5 years when you watch Jack manipulate Rudy :)

After the previous episode, we were then flying along one of our favorite speed sections of trail at Gold Run Nordic Center when Jack appeared to "egg Rudy on" to go faster. Watch at around 22 and 29 seconds in this clip and I swear (older) Jack is baiting Rudy with "Let's go kid! Don't make me flip you again!" glances! Funny.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, for the prettiest shot of the day. We were first tracks on the freshly groomed main trail as we neared the end of the outing. Perfect!

Catching air on the fresh groomie zoomie!

Back to the trailhead and I know what is thought is in the head of each:

"Haha, he won't try to blindside tackle me again! I showed him!" says wily Jack.
"You KNOW I'll try it again (& again & again)!" suggests instigator Rudy.

A beautiful morning for a 9.3 mile skijor with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 69 days on the trails covering 535.3 miles with 50,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Rec Path

The happy sled dogs flashing their beautiful smiles for the camera as we concluded this morning's fun skijor outing:

"Hi Mom! We had a BLAST today!" says the happy kids flashing their
smiles to Nancy with the camera on the side of the trail.

Today was our first outing this season skijoring the Blue River Recreation Path from Breckenridge to Frisco (the next town north of Breckenridge). The kids were juiced to GO this morning as we hadn't skijored the rec path yet this season. See what I mean:

Catching air at the start of the day's outing. Wheeee!

Come along for the video evidence of Jack & Rudy "shot out of a cannon" to start today's outing. The clip starts with us stopped as I am completing getting my gear in order. Then I give the "ok" and like a cannon shot we go. We slow slightly to cross a bridge over the Blue River and then boom again once we are off the bridge and back on solid ground. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

This route is fun as it mirrors both the Blue River and Highway 9 which go from Breckenridge to Frisco. Many times the rec path is close enough to the highway that we gets approving honks and even people rolling down their windows to holler in approval. Jack & Rudy love putting on a show for the highway riders!

Whee - flying along as you can cars on Highway 9 to our right.

Along the way, we have to a few side streets intersection the rec path from Highway 9. Each such road crossing has me taking off my skis, crossing the exposed road and then putting the skis back on. I'm pretty fast at getting the skis off; but I'm slower in getting them back on. Well, Jack & Rudy make full use of every pause to re-attach the skis: Stop, Drop and Roll!!!

The funny kids rolling snow angels while I put my skis back on after crossing
the road leading into the Breckenridge Building Center.
They never miss a chance to Stop, Drop and Roll :)

Eventually we get to the Adventure Park at the south end of Frisco. As we enter the park, we pass by a (very distracting :) stable. Jack & Rudy do run on by the stable; but it also gets their FULL attention, especially Jack!

4 horses in view to our right. Jack is FULLY aware of the cluster of horses.
Rudy gave a slight glance to the horses; but Jack is always the most distracted
by them :)

Finally, down to the trailhead parking lot and even lower elevation Frisco (lower than Breckenridge) has snow walls to climb for end of run treats:

"Such a fun day! We love running the rec path!" says the happy & focused kids.

What a fun way to travel from Breckenridge to Frisco: 8.4 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 63 days on the trails covering 481.7 miles with 45,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Soft

Fun shot from the front of the happy, happy sled dogs towing me to the finish of today's skijor outing.

Smiles all around - such happy kids to be towing me in the snow!

We started the day laying fresh tracks in the backcountry. I was a bit surprised how much fresh snow there was as we had less than an inch or so at home. But, we'll take any and all fresh powder!

Wheeee - fresh tracks fun!

After touring around the backcountry, we dropped onto the wide trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. The nordic center's traditional big, heavy snowcat groomer is out of commission; so they are using snowmobiles towing grooming sleds to maintain the trails until the snowcat is repaired. As we dropped onto the nordic trails, we came across one of the snowmobile groomers:

"Hey, cool setup!" says impressed Jack.
"Interesting!" adds curious Rudy.
You can see the "grooming sled" behind the snowmobile that is being
towed to try and maintain the nordic trails.

There is one primary drawback of a snowmobile + grooming sled versus a grooming snowcat: the snowmobile is no where near as heavy as a snowcat. We have had upwards of 4 feet of new snow fall in the last 4-5 days; so the lightness of the snowmobile really shows. While a heavy snowcat packs snow pretty firmly, a light snowmobile leaves a very soft trail behind when there has been a lot of new snow. The result? Well, it is quite a workout for my pals to gallop through soft terrain. No complaints from anyone in our team, it is just quite a workout - compare this to running in sand!

Impressive Jack & Rudy still catching air despite the very soft trail
conditions. These kids are professionals :)

Now come along for the video counterpart to what I described above. Watch as Jack & Rudy are running hard and getting quite a workout on the soft trail (notice all the snow poofs and their footprints deep in the snow to get an appreciation for how soft it was). What a fun workout for all!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The trails at Gold Run are in a known moose habitat. Along the way, Jack & Rudy pulled a sharp right off the trail to inspect a deep moose trough leading into a very moosey meadow:

Only a big moose can walk through snow this deep and not leave any
indentations in the snow from its belly - just deep moose legs posts!
"Moose went this way! We should too!" suggests silly Jack & Rudy.
I vetoed this suggestion :)

Since we failed to get any moose meat, we might as well settle for our pork end of run treats instead:

"Ok, we'll accept the pork; but why couldn't we go find the moose?" asks
the happy kids.

A little backcountry fresh tracks fun followed by a nice workout on soft nordic trails: 9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 58 days on the trails covering 435.8 miles with 41,400 feet of elevation climbed.

 

View

Nice shot of the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort in the morning sun across the valley from us!

We are still in the morning shade of the mountain we are on; but Breck
Ski Resort is in "postcard full sun" across the valley!

Today's outing found us in the Dry Gulch backcountry to start the outing and then the groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center to end the outing. When we first transitioned onto the groomed terrain, I caught Jack & Rudy giving each other the "hehe, let's wrestle" hairy eyeball. I said my usual, "Hey, no wrestling on the trail!" Well, the smart alecks showed me:

"Fine! We'll take it OFF trail then! Time to wrestle!" demonstrates the
smart alecks teaching me a lesson!

Today's video highlight showcases Jack "taking off" ahead of Rudy and I! For context, we are rounding a small cul-de-sac the groomer uses to turn around. Watch as Jack is "ready to go" and pulling his hardest to get Rudy and I around the curve so we can take off. Rudy and I, meanwhile, are rounding the curve gently until we all get through and then Rudy joins Jack to fully take off. It was like, "Whoa Jack, wait for us!!!" to Rudy and I :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Once Rudy and I got in pace with Jack, it was time to floor it on freshly groomed nordic trails. Along the way, we did an "out & back" side trail. Well, that meant we had to turnaround...

"Turn around, roll around!" goes always snow rolling Jack.
"Turn around, woos abound!" belts singing Rudy.

Once the turnaround antics were over, it was time to floor it again. Wheeee!

Jack & Rudy catching air on the groomie zoomie!

A great time was had by all:

All smiles as we complete today's fast & fun skijor outing.

It was happy smiles all day long from my wonderful sled dog pals:

"That was fun! Ready for end of run treats!" says the happy & focused pair.

A fun outing with a little backcountry skijoring and a lot of fast nordic trail skijoring: 8.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 35 days on the trails covering 259.4 miles with 24,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Footage Issues

Fun "shot from the front" of the happy, happy kids towing me to the finish of this morning's skijor!

Wheeee - smiles all around!

We started out the outing laying fresh tracks in a light layer of new snow over a mini groomer track in the backcountry. A mini groomer is a snowmobile towing a grooming sled, so the resulting "groomed trail" is the width of a snowmobile. 

Whee - laying fresh tracks in the mini groomer track!
Nice shot of my skis too: shift weight to my right leg (in track) to
speed up and shift weight to my left leg (out of track) to slow down
and/or get under control :)

Today's video highlight will go along with the prior photo. Come watch as we are galloping along in this mini groomer track and, then, watch Jack & Rudy kick it into "high gear" and really take off for the last 20 seconds or so of this clip. Fun time!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Shortly after the prior video clip, the following happened: an unapproved game of "tag, tackle & wrestle" broke out :)

"I double dog dare you to try and tag me!" says instigator Rudy.
"Easy kid! Here I come!" responds Jack who immediately leapt into Rudy
right after this posturing :)

Well, apparently my GoPro did not approve of this unsanctioned episode of play either as it shut off shortly after this point and would not turn back on for the rest of the outing. Well, it would turn ON but it would record for about 2-4 seconds and then shut off again. So, the rest of today's awesome outing was lost due to issues with the GoPro :(

Then we get to the second "footage issue" of the day. Nancy has a new, fancy iPhone to take "end of run" shots with. Well, she was operating fine at first (see the first photo above). But, once it got time to share end of run treats, she was, well, way too close to capture us properly. She cut off most of Jack and most of me. I guess Rudy is her favorite (hahahaha).

Somebody needs to learn to backup with her new, fancy iPhone to get
us all in the photo :)

A fun time was had by all, unfortunately we lost most of the footage: 6.3 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 34 days on the trails covering 251.2 miles with 23,600 feet of elevation climbed.