25 MPH Burst

Oh my, what a fast day we had on the recently groomed nordic trails this morning!

"WOO! I feel the need, the need for speed!" belts out wooing Rudy.
"Oh my we were FLYING, need to roll in snow to cool my jets!" adds
snow rolling Jack.

After spending the last 4 skijor outings on ungroomed backcountry trails, today we decided to go floor it on the groomed trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. We were not first tracks on the recently groomed trails but we were 2nd or 3rd all morning long - that's pretty much the same as being first tracks!

The kids, Jack & Rudy, were in super speed mode this morning. I could not believe how fast we were flying around the terrain! Come along and see for yourself...

It was catching air as we zoomed by the Kathy's Viewpoint Warming Hut:

Flying! Love the snow poofs you can see in sun behind Rudy.
If you look closely, you can see similar poofs behind Jack; but they
are in the shade so harder to see.

It was catching air with views as we flew along this stretch with awesome views to our right:

Poofs off the feet again, catching air again, zooming again!!!!

It was catching air on the approach to FLY by the Hallelujah Warming Hut:

Did the kids ever actually touch the trail today? :)

It was catching air as we hit our top speed of this season: 25 MPH!

Such incredible lift from the hover huskies!

Now come along for the video of Jack & Rudy's 25 MPH burst. The kids maintain 14-18 MPH for extended distances on groomed trails; but we typically get a few speed bursts mixed in along the way. Come along for today's burst. We start out on the approach to the Hallelujah Warming Hut. Then, about 8 seconds into the clip and you see Jack & Rudy kick it into overdrive. Boom! It's quite the amazing feeling to be behind these bursts on skis. What a fun & wild ride :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a way to earn end of run treats by FLYING all morning long!

"That was fun! How about some refueling?" asks the focused, happy kids.

The theme for today's skijor outing? Zoom! 9 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 47 days on the trails covering 392.0 miles with 37,300 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Views

It was a day of absolutely stunning views from high elevation and freshly groomed nordic trails!

Flying by the Kathy's Viewpoint Warming Hut with a beautiful
snow covered mountain peak in the distance.

We were first or second tracks on the freshly groomed trails all morning and every direction we turned had really beautiful mountain views!

Jack catching some serious air as we zoom along the groomie zoomie
trail. Rudy is airborne too; but Jack's got some serious lift in this shot.
Oh, and more views of the snow capped Rocky Mountains all around us.

Even when we were second tracks on the trail, all we had to do was move to one side to be first tracks on our side of the trail. Here are the fun kids catching some serious air again as we fly by the Hallelujah Warming Hut with more mountain peaks in the background.

Whee - one skier came up the trail to our left before us, so we'll just
stay right and lay first tracks over here :)

Here we go with yet another cool mountain view shot with Jack & Rudy once again catching some air. You get the idea, it was a fast & fun outing this morning!

The zipping kids with more mountains to take in.

Now for today's video highlight. I love this stretch of trail as do Jack & Rudy. We are near our highest point of elevation of the day in this clip. While we start out amongst some dense trees, watch as the trees thin after about 20 seconds into the clip and then it is marvelous 360 degree views for the rest of the clip. Oh and notice how fast Jack & Rudy are flying today - top speed was 24 MPH.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Now for our daily "turnaround time entertainment". We know Jack ALWAYS rolls snow angels at turnaround points. Rudy is the wildcard - it's either rolling snow angels or belting out woos. Well, today Rudy decided to put them together. He first rolled a snow angel (along with Jack) and then flashed me a smile and followed with a beautiful woo from his snow angel down. Talented kid :)

"It's ALWAYS stop, drop and roll for me!" declares snow rolling Jack.
"Stop, drop, roll and WOO! I've got a new combination antic!!!!" introduces
rolling then wooing Rudy. Wonder if he can woo while rolling? It would not
surprise me in the least if he came up with that combination at some point.

Back to the trailhead and we found a really nice snow wall to climb for end of run treats. Such talented kids!

"Love climbing snow walls for treats!" says the happy, happy kids.

What a glorious day on perfect conditions with stunning views: 10.6 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 37 days on the trails covering 308.0 miles with 29,500 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Huts

Beautiful shot from one of our favorite "view stretches" of trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning.

The views to the right are simply stunning from this stretch of trail.
Oh, nice view of Jack & Rudy catching a little air in the morning's fresh
snow too :)

This morning found us enjoying a light layer of new snow on the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. Along the way, we pass by 2 warming huts where you can stop, go inside and warm up. Hmm, what do Jack & Rudy think of stopping to warm up? 

"We are speeding up if you are even thinking of stopping! What on earth is
a warming hut for?!?!?!" declares the kids flying by the Hallelujah Hut.

Further along and here comes another warming hut. Any need to stop?

"We are ALREADY warm! Speeding up!" declares the speed demons as we
fly by the Kathy's Viewpoint warming hut.

Ok, put the following two photos to their video counterpart. Come along and watch what Jack & Rudy think of a warming hut - something to zoom on by, twice :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

So, no need for those silly warming huts, anything that we do need to stop for?

"YES! Roll snow angels to cool off!!!!!" go Jack & Rudy.
Yep, the Siberian Husky version of warming hut :)

At our highest elevation point of the outing, we found a wonderful stretch of trail with a couple inches of fresh snow all to ourselves!

Fun snow poofs coming up from Jack & Rudy as we enjoy the best snow
of our outing at the highest elevation.

Back to the trailhead and, despite recent melting, the kids are still able to find snow walls to climb for end of run treats. I don't know what we'll do when these walls finally melt and I have to kneel down again :)

In close for the treats!

Gorgeous morning! 9.5 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1201.3 miles with 109,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Yep, surpassing 1200 miles for the season! Yay! Do I see 1300 (or more) in our future. Most likely, stay tuned....

Woo

We had a wooing great time skijoring Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning!

"Woo indeed!!!!" adds silly wooing Rudy.
"Great time indeed, but it's a little noisy out here!" adds happy, happy Jack.

Rudy is the talker in our household and today he had many WOOs to add to the outing. What was he wooing about? Well, Jack & I will simply say, "Don't ask, it's Rudy!" :) Seriously, he was just very talkative about the fun he was having on the trails this morning.

In between the woos, it was a beautiful bluebird morning to zoom around the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center and take in all the views. Come along for the ride...

Cool shot of speedy Jack & Rudy with Peak 7, 8 and 9 of the ten mile range that houses Breckenridge Ski Resort in front of us:

Top of Peak 7 straight up from Rudy.
Top of Peak 8 is the little hump to the left of 7.
Top of Peak 9 is the large peak to the far left.

Is there a Peak 10 in the ten mile range? Yep (there are actually 10 peaks across this span of 10 miles, pretty cool) and here you see the top of Peak 10 straight up from Jack:

Zooming on the trail with Peak 10 coming into view.

Nice views of the peaks? Well, how about some nice views of the warming huts sprinkled throughout the nordic center?

7 of 8 feet off the ground as we approach the Kathy's Viewpoint Warming Hut.

If you thought the last photo was cool, wait for the next one :)

Jack & Rudy catching air as they hover over the trail to fly by the
Hallelujah Warming Hut on this beautiful bluebird morning.

With so much fun video to show, what to highlight? Well, today I'll pick the zoom by Kathy's Viewpoint. I like this clip as we start out in the shade and then transition around a corner into the morning sun to fly by the warming hut. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Did I mention Rudy was in a goofy mood this morning? Here we have Zorro & Jack front and center for 'end of run' treats while 'la la land' Rudy is doing his own thing on the snow pile next to us!

"Front, center & ready!" declares focused Zorro.
"I'm right here too!" adds Jack.
"Slurp, I can taste the treats in anticipation from way back here!" says
silly slurping Rudy (notice the tongue slurping around his nose).

A zooming fun bluebird morning: 7.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 57 days on the trails covering 453.7 miles with 42,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Packed Powder

Nice "360 views" from high up on fun packed powder trails this morning!

Great views all around us, great trail in front of us, great
partners propelling me along :)

We went to the upper trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning expecting to find a freshly groomed track (they try to groom every Monday morning after busy weekends). But, we got out on the trails before the groomer had a chance to get out. As a result, it was quite an interesting contrast in trail conditions. 

When we got far away from the trailhead, it was basically packed powder conditions as you see in the prior photo. Only a few other skiers had made it out this far to provide a little bit of packed tracks in otherwise soft powder. Then, for a complete 180, when we were near the trailhead, the trail was completely packed from side to side from all the heavy weekend usage!

Fully packed, side to side, closer to the trailhead.

We spent about 2/3 of the outing on the lesser used "packed powder" conditions and the remaining 1/3 closer to civilization on packed trails. While it all was fun, all three of us enjoyed the packed powder stretches the best. It was packed enough for Jack & Rudy to really fly while being powder enough for me to have some control of the skis. Wheeee!

Jack & Rudy flying in the shoulder powder as I ride one ski 'in track'
and the other ski 'in powder'.

Come along for a fun ride behind Jack & Rudy in beautiful packed powder conditions. Oh, if your volume is up, you can hear Rudy "trash talking" briefly about 40s into the clip. What was Rudy talking about? Well, I've learned that is often a pointless question to ask - Rudy talks when Rudy wants to talk :) Seriously, I think it was just a minor burst of "this is fun, come on Jack!" from the silly & talkative redhead.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The following is a funny shot once given full context. We paused briefly at the Hallelujah Warming Hut to note the trail conditions. The trail before and at the hut was packed from heavy usage. The trail after the hut was the packed powder you see in most of the photos and video herein. So, the hut was the marker of the transition from packed to packed powder. Well, that seems like a worthy transition to stop and admire by rolling snow angels, right?

"Ah, love the 'warming' hut!" demonstrates the snow rolling goofs.

Finally, as is the tradition with retired mentor Zorro this season: end of run treats for all after a beautiful and fun morning!

"Ready!" declares focused Zorro.
"Fun day!" adds the giddy kids.

A fun morning on mostly packed powder with a bit of fast packed trail near the trailhead: 8.8 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 52 days on the trails covering 412.6 miles with 39,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Bluebird Beauty

Beautiful morning to catch air as we fly past the Hallelujah Warming Hut at Breckenridge Nordic Center. Zoom!

Beautiful morning, beautiful trail, beautiful fast running & hovering sled dogs :)

We split this morning's run into two parts. I started with Jack & Rudy to get in a few laps before adding Zorro for the second half of the run. Jack & Rudy were in a real skijor groove this morning. We were tearing up the terrain in record time. We did a ridiculously fast out & back on the wide & groomed Gluteus Maximus Trail:

Rudy the missile next to hovering Jack as we go out & back on Gluteus Maximus in record time!

We then did a ridiculously fast out & back on the Gluteus Minimus narrow backcountry trail:

Winding through the trees on the narrow Gluteus Minimus Trail.

We were so far ahead of schedule, we did ANOTHER out & back on Gluteus Maximus before doing one more out to finally meet up with Zorro.

We then added Zorro to the team to do an out & back on the upper elevation trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center. The theme was the same: ridiculously fast on the beautiful groomed terrain:

Zorro & Rudy missiles next to the still hovering Jack. I wonder if Jack really touched the
trail this morning or just hovered the entire time ;)

Come along for today's "bluebird beauty" video: a beautiful bluebird morning with a beautiful groomie zoomie trail and three beautiful sprinting skijor partners. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Did I say we did an "out & back" with Zorro? Yep, well you guessed what that means - an out & back requires a turnaround...

"Silly kids!" smirks Zorro.
"Turning? That's stopping! That's ROLLING!" demonstrates goofy Jack.
"Turning? That's stopping! SNOWCONES!!!" says snow eating Rudy.

Finally, all smiles as we come to the end of a beautiful and ridiculously fast skijor morning!

Nancy's camera is not the best in shade/low light; but you can still make out
the smiles on the happy, happy sled dog trio!

Zooming all over the Breckenridge Nordic Center this beautiful bluebird morning: 7.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 67 days on the trails covering 464.2 miles with 44,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Huts and Views

Everybody enjoying today's skijor?

"YES!!!!" says the happy trio looking back to me during a quick pause on the trails.

Today was a beautiful bluebird morning with a couple of inches of fresh snow on the trails. To add to the fun, Breckenridge Nordic Center finally has enough snow to groom the upper trails on Peak 7. As a result, we had 1-2 inches of new snow over a freshly groomed nordic trail. We got to fly by the nordic center warming huts and take in all the great views. What fun!!!

He we go flying by the Hallelujah Hut - one of the two "warming huts" on the Peak 7 trails. I believe we may have all 12 feet off the ground in this shot, but I cannot see one of Rudy's feet and the snow puffs behind Jack blurs one of his feet. But, it sure looks like a "fresh tracks hover husky" photo to me :)

Flying by the Hallelujah Hut - wheeee!

Further along the trail and flying by the Kathy's Viewpoint warming hut. No reason to stop, who needs a warming hut? :)

Flying by another hut...

Eventually we got onto the highest shelf of the Peak 7 trails which offers stunning views of the Colorado Rockies!

Nice panorama of the rockies to our front & right.
Nice view of a perfect trail in front of us.
Nice view of the speedy sled dogs in front of me!

Today's video highlight is a beautiful bluebird morning with snow covered trees all around us. Come along as we cruise by Kathy's Viewpoint as we glide along the great conditions. You may wonder why Jack "backs off" a bit about 30 seconds into this clip. Look closely and you see a trail to the right that we could turn onto. Sometimes I call out "right" and sometimes we continue "forward". Jack is simply backing off a bit to see if I call out "right". Once I do not, he quickly launches back up into the team to continue forward. Nice trailwork by Jack!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Well, you probably knew this was coming, but it is even more comical today than usual. A conjoined snow angel from the silly kids:

"Oh my, look at this! What will they come up with next?!?" asks Zorro surveying the weird kids.
"Haha, conjoined snow angels!!!!" demonstrates the goofball twins. Look closely, you see Rudy's
body in the foreground and those are Jack's four feet in the air coming out of Rudy :)

Finally, a "shot from the front" to end the day. Unfortunately it is not the best with the dark lighting, but you can still make out the happy faces!

Here we come - wheeee!

Today's outing was just shy of 8 miles. To be honest, I did not think 11.5 year old Zorro had any 8 mile outings left in him. Well, he showed me! If we take him on easy & groomed nordic trails, there appears to be plenty of 8+ mile outings left in Zorro's tank!

7.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 147.1 miles with 14,950 feet of elevation climbed.

Silly Huts

Happy & focused trio at the end of the morning's fun run:

"Fun run, now hand out the 'end of run treats'!" declare the happy & focused trio.

We skijored the fast trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. The trails had not been groomed for at least a day and there was about 1/2 to 1 inch of fresh snow on top of the "groomie zoomie" underneath. We took the lower trail on the upper terrain to visit and fly by the warming huts. Rudy has been to the Hallelujah Warming Hut once before. On his first visit, he was intrigued by the hut and wanted to understand what in the world was a "warming hut". Today he could care less about the Hallelujah Hut - been there, done that, wasn't worth the stop...

Flying by the Hallelujah Warming Hut at Breckenridge Nordic Center.
"No reason to slow or stop - it was overrated the last time!" says Rudy flying by.
"Right on little kid, let's fly by!" add Zorro & Jack.

Rudy passed a new milestone in his skijoring life last Friday. He was born on December 29th (2017) and since he turned one year old last December, we evaluate him on the 29th of each month and decide how much more skijoring he can do. Basically he is a "sled dog machine", so on the 29th of each month we add 5-10 minutes to how long he can run (up to 45 minutes now). We will do this until he is 1.5 years old and then we will remove the training wheels completely. Unfortunately for Rudy the 1.5 date is June 29th and, while there will be snow to hike to and roll in, there will not be enough snow to skijor without limits. The poor little guy will have to wait until October or November to skijor without limits.

Anyway, back to today's outing. This was Rudy's first visit to Breckenridge Nordic Center on the expanded 45 minute limit. The result? Well, he got to see the next warming hut on the trails named Kathy's Viewpoint. After staring at the hut for a moment, he agreed with Zorro that warming huts really are a silly concept - no reason to pay them any attention. Jack on the other hand....

"Nothing here, let's go!" says Zorro trying to lead everyone away so we can run.
"I agree big bro - you are really smart! Warming hut, what a silly concept!" adds Rudy who
quickly lost interest in the hut.
"No wait, I found a use for a warming hut! Come back - you roll snow angels at them!" declares
goofy snow rolling Jack.

Eventually Jack rejoined and we went past Kathy's Viewpoint before turning around and coming back on the same trail. After realizing warming huts are no big deal, Rudy had no interest in Kathy's on the second pass :)

"No reason to even slow down!" demonstrate sprinting Zorro & Rudy.
"No really, we stop and roll snow angels. Come on!" says silly Jack to Rudy.

The video counterpart of the prior photo. Come along as we fly by Kathy's Viewpoint on the return pass. No reason to even slow down! :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After flying by the two warming huts, we took another side trail to reach our 45 minute goal (we were WAY ahead of schedule doing the hut trail :) Up a side trail and time to turnaround. But, a turnaround is a stop so...

"Ok, the huts are silly - we can roll snow angels anywhere!" demonstrates Jack.
"Are you two done YET?!?!?!" asks Zorro.
"Woo - we aren't done yet!" woos Rudy to Zorro with a little tail crank added in :)

Warming huts - how silly! But they are fun to fly by: 6.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 89 days on the trails covering 494.9 miles with 44,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Nordic Freshies

Laying fresh tracks in 4-6 inches of powder atop the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center.

Nordic Freshies :)

Beautiful "power shot" of the strong trio powering through 4+ inches of powder.
Look real close and just below the gangline and right in front of the carabiner is my buried
ski gliding in the powder. Wheeee!

It has been a delightfully snowy start to March and today was another example. There was 4-6 inches of fresh snow on the nordic center trails, it was snowing during our entire outing and it is still snowing!

Apparently the active snow scared everyone else away from the nordic center. We did not see any other tracks on the trails all day long (except our own :)

Another great shot of the trio powering me up a short & steep rise in the trail. 

Today was young Rudy's first visit to the Hallelujah Hut (one of the two warming huts on the trails at the Breckenridge Nordic Center).

"It's never been this buried in snow before!" says curious Jack who has been to this hut before,
but never this covered in snow!
"Warming hut, silly!" says Zorro.
"No, really, what's a warming hut?!?!" asks perplexed Rudy.

Of course we know Jack's idea of a "warming hut" :)

"We stopped, I'm rolling to cool my jets. Who needs to be warmed?!?!?!" says silly Jack
at our turnaround point on the trail.
"Warming? No way, I'm going to play & eat the deeper side powder!" demonstrates Zorro.
"No, really, I give up - what's a warming hut?!?!?!" adds still perplexed Rudy.

We did an "out & back" on the trail going by the Hallelujah Hut. Come along for the "back" leg as we ignore our "out tracks" to the left to use the right side of the trail to continue laying fresh tracks as we cruise by the hut. Watch as the snow gradually collects on the camera until it starts to blur. We love when the camera is blurred by active snowfall!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The end to another fun skijor day:

"Trails all to ourselves and now 'end of run pork treats' all to ourselves!" declare the happy trio.

A fun day laying "nordic freshies" all outing long: 5 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 73 days on the trails covering 392.4 miles with 35,000 feet of elevation climbed.