Caution, Go

Cruising by the historic Sallie Barber Mine on this wonderful, snowy March morning!

Zooming on by the old mine.

We start today's blog with a great video clip showing Jack & Rudy's "understanding of the trail". We are at the beginning of our skijor on the Sallie Barber Mine Trail and we have to pass through a narrow gate opening before really starting the run. Come along and watch as Jack & Rudy understand the human on skis needs to get through this narrow gate opening BEFORE we all can start running hard. This takes a lot of composure from the great kids as they so want to RUN at the start of every outing, but understand they need to get me through the opening first. :) Oh, nice active snowfall in this clip too!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

This morning's skijor was what has become our usual at Sallie Barber Mine this season. We skijor up the frontside, down the backside, up the backside and finally down the frontside. With a shallow layer of fresh snow, we were able to safely open the skijoring throttle on all sides of the mine.

It was zooming on the backside:

Whee!

It was zooming on the frontside:

Zoom!

It was zooming by the mine as shown in the first photo. But, with two passes by the mine, Jack & Rudy took a chance to do one of their comedy skits on one pass. Today's skit was "woos and angels" :)

"WOOOOOO!" booms Rudy who REALLY wanted to be heard today :)
"Rolling!!!" goes Jack rolling snow angels in the background.

While the video above showed great composure and trail understanding, we have more talent from Jack for end of run treats. Jack is known for his adorable "swooshing tail" that is always going/wagging when he's happy. So, check out this talent:

Sitting, focusing, smiling AND swooshing your tail at the same time!
Talented!!!!

Fun, quick run as we watch the snow fall for more fun tomorrow: 7.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 115 days on the trails covering 1019.2 miles with 92,500 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Lost Footage

Such fun to share the 'end of run' treats with my happy sled dogs!

The "happy & very focused" trio :)

Unfortunately, today was a day of "lost footage" as I did not realize the GoPro inexplicably turned off early on in our outing and did not record most of our fun day. Oh well, come along for what little footage I did get...

Fun shot of the power trio launching me up the initial hill from the French Gulch Trailhead Parking Lot. Zoom!

Up we go, zoom, zoom, zoom!

Once you leave the parking lot at French Gulch, you quickly encounter an access gate which prevents all but a few people from driving out the gulch (there are a few private cabins in the gulch and the owners have keys to the access gate). I love showcasing my PERFECT skijor partners with complex obstacles to navigate with me on the trails.

Come along and watch as my perfect partners slow (without command) on the approach to the gate. Then, all 3 move right to tow me through the pedestrian slot in the gate (again, without command). Then a simple "wait" request from me and all 3 pause until I am safely through the gate. Finally, once the human is safely through, we TAKE OFF skijoring up & out French Gulch. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As the video showed - cautious through the gate and then zoom:

Flying along French Gulch.

A few minutes after the prior photo and the darned GoPro stopped recording. Here's a description of what I wanted to show today. First, we eventually out skied all existing tracks on the trail and found ourselves laying fresh tracks in 4-5 inches of powder far back in French Gulch. Second, we were doing an "out & back" on this trail so we stopped in some deep side powder to turn around and Jack & Rudy rolled snow angels in some beautiful deep snow. Finally, we came back the same way and polite Jack & Rudy let elder Zorro run in my ski tracks from the way out while the two youngsters continued laying fresh tracks on the other side of the trail. What a fun day!

Anyway, at least Nancy's camera worked so we got the fun 'end of run' treats photo above and the following nice shot of the happy faces towing me to the finish of the day's outing:

"We had a BLAST!" says the happy, happy trio.

A wonderful day in French Gulch for us but, unfortunately, not much footage to share with others: 6.2 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 80 days on the trails covering 550.3 miles with 51,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Fast Packed

Putting smiles on the faces of backcountry skiers as we glide on by :)

"Hi.... Bye!" says cruising on by Zorro & Jack.
"Hi!!!!!" says always flirting Rudy :)

Conditions were hard packed and fast for our skijor out & back in French Gulch this morning. It is days like today where I really love and appreciate the cooperation from my perfect skijor partners. Take a look at the following photo and think of how many things could go wrong if my partners were not perfect.

They could fit under the gate while I could not.
They could go too fast through the opening and slam me into one of the side poles.
But, instead, we get perfect partners understanding to trot gently through the gate
until the human is safely through too!

The human is finally past the gate. Ok, let's open this thing up!

Zoom - almost all 12 feet off the ground as we take off on the other
side of the gate (Zorro has one foot touching :)

All the way out French Gulch and time to turn around. Oh Jack...

"Turning is stopping, stopping is ROLLING!" demonstrates snow rolling Jack.
"I'm having a BLAST today!" says ecstatic Zorro flirting with me as I turn around.
"Look who is lined perfectly and ready to go!" states perfect mature Rudy!!!!

While the conditions were very hard packed near the trailhead, once we got further out there was some nice snow in the middle of the trail for me to glide in. Fun shot here as we got to one fast stretch with shallow middle powder for me when, all of a sudden, one of my skis hit a piece of ice. It was just a quick scrape, so nothing to be concerned about. But, only Zorro and I knew this, the scrape got a glance of concern from both Jack & Rudy! Hey, it's great that they care! Veteran Zorro certainly cares too; he's just veteran enough to know this was a quick scrape of no concern.

"Whoa!!! You ok back there???" hollers Jack.
"Yikes, that was loud!" says glancing Rudy.
"Just a blip, keep on going!" declares veteran Zorro.

Today's video highlight contains the prior photo. Come along as we are on pretty nice conditions far back in French Gulch. But, at about 15 seconds into the video you can hear the scrape and see Jack & Rudy glance back. Alas, all is ok and we continue along the fast & fun packed trail.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A fun albeit very fast packed out & back in French Gulch:

"It was fun, fun, fun!" says the happy trio towing me to the end of the day's run.

Conditions are starting to get a little too fast packed on some of the more popular trails. Good thing we have snow (and hopefully a lot) in the forecast for later today! 5.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 70 days on the trails covering 483.1 miles with 45,700 feet of elevation climbed.