Downed Trees

 Rudy can taste the end of run treats before I even handed them out :)

"Slurp! I know what's coming!" demonstrates silly slurping Rudy.
"Ready, hand them out!" adds focused Zorro & Jack.

The morning started out perfect as we had a light layer of fresh snow on the trails with light snow continuing to fall. As we approached one of our favorite backcountry meadows, I was thinking what a perfect day this was turning out to be!

Perfect conditions as we approach this vast backcountry meadow.

But, everything changed once we got deeper into the forest. We had a severe windstorm last Wednesday night and Thursday morning. The trails we were on today are lightly used in the backcountry. As a result, they are far down the list of trails for the county to take care of after heavy winds. We encountered 11 downed trees during our outing that each required some form of creative crossing over or around.

I had to stop to study and evaluate our options with many of the trees. Well, stopped...

"You study, we'll roll!" demonstrates the 'stop, drop & roll' brothers :)

Some of the trees had a natural crossing point. So, I only needed to tell Jack where to look and he would lead us over:

Good Jack leading us over the tree. Polite Jack & Rudy both waited patiently
for me on the other side of the tree to step over sideways in my skis.

For a while, it seemed like every time we just started to "get going" we'd encounter yet another tree. Come along for today's short video highlight as we just started "getting going" on the trail when we have to stop for yet another downed tree!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite the prior video, we did have quite a few extended openings between downed trees to get in some serious skijoring:

Zooming along without a downed tree in sight! Yay!

An interesting day full of backcountry downed tree obstacles: 8.1 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 59 days on the trails covering 464.8 miles with 41,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Happy

Happy Jack & Rudy checking in with me when I paused briefly on the trail to assess our location:

"Let us know when you are ready to restart!" says the happy pair.
Oh, and don't worry, they did roll snow angels at my other pause on the trail :)

 We started the morning on narrow a single track trail but quickly transitioned onto wide snowmobile trails after a quick climb on the single track:

Fast and wide trail! Wheeee!

After following the wide trails for a few miles, we transitioned onto a lesser used snowmobile trail. The trail was roughly one snowmobile wide and took us through some rolling meadows:

Cruising along. Such fun skijor partners!

Come along for the fun ride on the rolling terrain. Love how Jack & Rudy automatically slow slightly whenever they feel my skis slowing (for my safety :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Along the way, Jack made one of his, "MOOSE! Must Exit Trail Here!" declarations. I could see moose tracks off trail in the open gulch. Since it was open enough for me to see there were no moose in the vicinity, I let Jack take us where he intended:

"This way! Follow ME!!!!!" declares moose seeking Jack.

You can see three sets of moose tracks in front of Jack and Rudy in the prior photo. Sure enough, these tracks were Jack's target:

"I think they went to the right!" says Jack standing in a set of moose tracks.
"I agree, moose went right!" agrees Rudy.

Despite all the tracks apparent in the snow and the intense stares from Jack & Rudy, we never actually saw any moose (phew). But, filling your nose with scent of moose is pretty special too :)

We finished the day in a deep & dark gully where the morning sun had not yet penetrated. So, not the best ending shot with Zorro, but still fun to see the happy blacks (Zorro & Jack) and la-la-land Rudy:

"Glad you made it back!" says handsome Zorro.
"Nice to be back with my big bro!" adds happy Jack.
"La la!" contributes distractible Rudy :)

A fun day following snowmobile tracks through the forest: 6.8 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 46 days on the trails covering 359.7 miles with 32,600 feet of elevation climbed.