Trail Snack

Fun "shot from the front" as we approach Nancy to end this morning's skijor!

Happy, happy kids! Wheeee!

Today's skijor had a pretty entertaining first for us. We came across our first ever elk leg laying across the trail. It was complete with some tender, frozen meat still attached. Jack & Rudy thought this was the find of the century!!!

"Fresh frozen elk meat. Yum!" declares the two sampling their
delicious trail snack.

We have come across deer legs many times before (often with their own fresh, frozen and yummy meat). What I do is let Jack & Rudy have a little fun with the leg and then I tell them to "give" and I pick it up to toss off trail. Today's "give attempt"....

"No, I'm not finished yet!" says Jack as he tugs back on the leg.
"Hey, if you aren't going to 'give', then I'm coming back for more!" adds
Rudy (who originally listened to my 'give').

Today, I learned a very interesting fact. Elk legs are HEAVY, even when most of the meat is gone. Once I got Jack to "give", I went to toss the leg off trail like I've always done with deer legs. Well, the elk leg was shockingly heavy. My feeble toss only went a few feet off trail. Jack & Rudy quickly jumped off trail to grab the leg and pull it back into the trail to continue chewing on it.

"Ha, nice toss wimp! We weren't done, so we'll just bring it back!" says
the trail snackers hopping off to fetch the elk leg.

Ok, lesson learned. We went through another round of "give" and then I rocked back and used all my strength to toss the leg far off trail. It still didn't go that far, but far enough that Jack & Rudy couldn't just pluck it up again :)

With that exciting elk leg episode, Jack & Rudy were juiced all day long and hunting for everything as they were skijoring fast to find the next trail treat. Here's Jack pulling off trail due to some snowshoe hare tracks in the snow.

"Rabbits went this way, can we too?" suggests Jack.
You can see one set of hare tracks in the left of the photo.
I let Jack lead us off trail a little ways, but we never caught a rabbit :)

A little later and we were jogging along when Rudy lunged off trail. As he did, a gross of grouse (or a flock of feathers :) spewed out of the nearest tree. Seriously, there were at least 5 grouse that flew off due to Rudy's lunge their direction.

Look up from Rudy and slightly left against the blue sky.
The white you see is one of the grouse flying away.

What a day of trail snacks and hunting! We really did skijor too! Come along for video proof that we really did skijor between all the wildlife entertainment!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead and a large group of people was preparing to get going. They all cheered at Jack & Rudy towing me and then quite a few wanted to get photos of the handsome pair. Rudy really knows what to do with an audience. He belted out a WOOOOO for the cameras and then a second (and longer) WOOOOOOO when everyone laughed and more people took out cameras to capture the woo child.

"WOOOOO! Glad to entertain you!" belts Rudy.
Quiet Jack simply flashed his beautiful smile and wagged his
bushy tail for the onlookers.

In between trail snacks & hunting: 9 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 26 days on the trails covering 208.4 miles with 18,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Mileage

Jack & Rudy surpassed 1257 miles of skijoring yesterday.

The most miles the two youngsters have logged in a single season!

"And we thoroughly enjoyed every single mile!!!!" declares the happy pair.
Jack just finished rolling one of this patented snow angels, in case you are
wondering why he looks partially down :)

Our single season mileage record is 1433.5 miles accomplished by Max & Zorro in 2016/2017. But, yesterday marked young Jack & Rudy's longest season yet. Last year was their personal record at 1253.2 miles. But, we are now at 1257.4 miles and counting for this season! Woo Hoo! We probably won't surpass Max & Zorro's 1433 mile record; but I do anticipate Jack & Rudy reaching 1300 miles! We'll have to see what the rest of May has in store for us.

Back to the outing. It was a beautiful morning to skijor around Dumont Lake atop Rabbit Ears Pass if you picked your path correctly. Check out these great conditions:

A light layer of new snow atop otherwise packed snowmobile trails.

What did I mean by "pick your path correctly" in the previous paragraph? Well, come along for today's video highlight. Watch as the clip starts with us bouncing along in a "tracked up" trail. But, a few seconds in and I notice the right side of the trail is really nice. So, an "over to the right" verbal call from me and Jack & Rudy slide right onto the smooth trail ad off we go! Perfect once we "picked the correct path" :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A little further along and the following happened... It takes a lot for Jack & Rudy to abandon forward going and lock on something behind us!

Oh my, what has the kids' attention? What could make then want
to do a 180 while jogging?!?!?

The only thing that could get this reaction from them is moose or elk nearby. So, you better believe I stopped immediately to see what got their attention behind us (imagine a moose coming down the trail behind us!!!!!). Luckily, we never found the source of their 180, despite stopping to stare intensely into the trees.

Must be a moose nearby; but, luckily, we never saw one!

After failing to find the moose (or elk), it was back to forward momentum :)

Whee, off we go again with nothing but snow in front of us!

Fun, fun day. Let me go spend a moment with retired mentor Zorro before dishing out the 'end of run' treats!

Love these moments with my favorite old man!
"Waiting our turn!" adds wonderfully patient Jack & Rudy.

Setting the youngster's "season record mileage" and still going... 7.1 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 150 days on the trails covering 1257.4 miles with 117,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Hello

Yesterday morning was a PERFECT day to follow groomer tracks up, down and around the Buffalo Park area of Rabbit Ears Pass. Wheeee!

Cool wide angle shot of Jack & Rudy towing me for miles & miles1

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the groomer trail created Tuesday morning was still relatively untouched 24 hours later. While we only had time for a short outing, we certainly made use of this groomer track. Apparently most people think it is Spring and the snow season is over. Ha, not us! :)

Jack & Rudy catching air as we top 23 MPH along this perfect trail.

Now come along for a cool video clip showcasing a variety of highlights. We start with Jack & Rudy in a gentle jog as they are towing me along a winding trail through the forest. So nice of them to keep the speeds down while I work the skis to stay with then through the bends in the trail. Then, we come upon an open straightaway. Without any command from me, the two fun kids know "straightaways are speedways" and they really open up the throttle! Note that as we enter the speedway, Jack & I are thinking the right side of the trail is "best" while Rudy is centered down the middle. It only takes a few seconds for Jack & I to notice that Rudy is right and we both move to the middle to join Rudy and top 23 MPH. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Even with the great speed track trail, you cannot ignore rodents stirring under the snow. The hunters had to stop for one session of rodent excavation:

"Digging, digging, gotta find the rodents!" says digger Jack.
"Incoming, rodent excavation!" adds diving Rudy.

Partway through the excavation and time to check our progress :)

"Hello (hello, hello - echoing)!" calls the goofy kids.
"No need to worry, just a couple of innocent predators up here!" adds
innocent little sled dogs ;)

Despite such fine excavation work, we failed to come up with any rodents from under the snow. Well, we might as well settle for 'end of run' treats with retired mentor Zorro instead:

In tight, centered, focused & READY for 'end of run' treats!!!

A wonderful short but speedy day atop Rabbit Ears Pass again: 6.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 147 days on the trails covering 1239.1 miles with 115,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Cruising

Fresh snow this morning meant we could skijor multiple laps around the historic Iowa Mill on Baldy Mountain!

Iowa Mill to the right. Cool Jack & Rudy in the center :)

Baldy Mountain is one of our favorite skijor outings as it is quite unique. The terrain is VERY steep, so I only agree to skijor Baldy with my pals when there is new snow to (1) slow the kids and (2) give me some "powder control" on the skis. It is too steep to ever attempt without fresh snow!

Anyway, new snow this morning found us heading to Baldy for some fun laps. We alternated skijoring on the main (popular) trail and cruising on a few of the lesser used side trails. Here is a shot from one of my favorite side trails. This side trail starts at Iowa Mill and then leads you away from the main trail and into the forest. It's wide enough to avoid trees but also narrow enough to feel yourself flying right by the trees!

Launching along the side trail into the forest! Wheeee!

The main trail is heavily used and, thus, very packed under the new snow. But, with a little bit of safety powder atop the packed trail, I can let Jack & Rudy open the throttle. Today's top speed on Baldy? 24 MPH - wow!

Jack the speed missile next to Rudy the cannonball!

We also know of a few virtually unused side trails. We almost always find an untouched powder cache on these trails. Powder plowing Jack & Rudy:

Powder cache all to ourselves.

At our high point of the day, Jack & Rudy left the set trail to do a little plowing and exploring. After carving a path in the deep snow, both stopped to stare intensely ahead. What did they see (or smell)? Well, I'm not sure as I did not see anything. But, wildlife we have seen on Baldy before includes moose, elk, fox and snowshoe hare. Which of these drew the attention, we'll never know :)

"Our 'wildlife sensors' are on high alert!" declares the hunting pair.
Nice snow troughs behind the powder kids!

Now on to video fun for the day. Come along as we begin cruising towards Iowa Mill. The mill represents a meeting of 3 different trails and, thus, the terrain is a bit choppy from lots of use from multiple directions. So, Jack & Rudy politely slow through the choppiness until we hang a right around the mill and then take off along the main trail. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Another day on Baldy is another day to share 'end of run' treats with our wonderful retired mentor Zorro:

"Ah, Baldy, I remember those fun trails!" says focused Zorro.
"Fun, fun, fun!" adds happy Jack.
"You have my full attention!" declares sweet Rudy.

Baldy fun run: 7.2 miles traveled with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 104 days on the trails covering 872.6 miles with 82,700 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Powder Aerobics

Happy faces and tight cornering by Zorro & Jack as we complete the first leg of this morning's powder skijor. Yay for April Powder!

Beautiful, synchronized cornering by Zorro & Jack as we round the last left in
the trail to complete Zorro's leg of the outing.
"Outside lane" Rudy is just having a ball - no need for tight cornering
from the outside lane :)

We got a nice deposit of new snow overnight. A real powder treat for mid-April. We started the day with the full pack (Zorro, Jack & Rudy) and were laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches of new snow for the first leg of the outing. 4-5 inches of powder is about Zorro's limit now that he is 11-3/4 years old, much deeper than that and it is too much for his age. But, as you see above, he was all smiles on his stretch of 3-4 inches! Fun shot of the powder trio from early on in the outing:

Zorro kicking up powder!!! Jack too!
Rudy floating atop the morning's fresh snow :)

We did a loop through the forest with Zorro the 3-4 inches of powder and then dropped him off with Nancy to complete his leg of the outing.

For the next leg of the outing, the kids, Jack & Rudy, took me up high into deeper and deeper powder. We went from laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches with Zorro to breaking trail in 8+ (maybe 10+) inches of powder up high!

Nice snot of the powder twins with a nice snow trough
visible behind Jack!

Of course, the kids are also known for their daily entertainment antics. We did have the usual snow angels from both at our turnaround point. But, they added an additional comedy routine at one point along the trail. I have commented in previous entries how Jack & Rudy have both refined their wildlife radar to act differently for moose versus "every other form of wildlife". While veteran Zorro will ignore everything but moose; young Jack & Rudy just have different intensity for moose versus other. At 2 years old, they both still get distracted by silly little rodents, just not with the intensity they would have with a moose. Here we go for the silly kids pausing to stare up the tree at a set of squirrels!

"We'd be WAY more intense for moose; but we are still young and
fall for squirrel distractions!" demonstrates the silly kids.

Ok, done with the rodent comedy, time to get back in the powder. Can you say, "Kicking up Powder?" Whee!

Beautiful shot of the kids doing extreme powder aerobics as
they plow along the trail!

Today's video highlight is, of course, Powder Aerobics. Come along for an impressive glimpse of the youngster towing me along through the morning's fresh powder. What an aerobic treat!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead for 'end of run' treats for all three hard working powder hounds. Look at mature Rudy - he is really getting the concept that "he is third" and waits happily and patiently for his turn! Mature & patient attributed to Rudy in one sentence? Never thought I'd write that!!!!!

"Me first!" says focused Zorro.
"Me next!" adds closely onlooking Jack.
"I know, I know, me third!' says patiently waiting happy Rudy!

A nice "shallow powder run" with elder Zorro followed by some serious deep powder aerobics for young Jack & Rudy: 8.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 145 days on the trails covering 995.1 miles with 90,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Kicking up Powder

Is it me or is Zorro really PINNED to my chest :)

"Just in case you forgot, PIN - I get the 'end of run' treats FIRST!" says Zorro
pinning himself to my chest at the end of this morning's run.
"Funny big brother!' adds cute & patient Jack & Rudy :)

We started this morning with the youngsters, Jack & Rudy, on "new" backcountry trails before adding elder Zorro for a fast & fun sprint to the finish.

What do I mean by "new"? Well, technically we spent most of the morning on the upper elevation trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. But, the nordic center stopped grooming the trails over 1 week ago and we've received upwards of 12 inches of snow since then. So, what is usually groomed & fast trails was, instead, fresh powder backcountry-like trails. There was only one set of existing tracks in the new snow on these trails. Jack & Rudy took one look at the set track and said, "Pfft, we don't need no stinking set track - fresh tracks for us!"

The solitary set track in the past week's new snow to our right
as Jack & Rudy lay fresh tracks powering along the untouched
powder down the middle!

We were cruising along in the fresh snow when all of a sudden the photo below happened. Jack & Rudy stopped on a dime and spun their heads back to the right. "Uh oh,  Moose!" I thought as we were in known moose territory. I have commented this year how young Jack & Rudy have matured to separate moose from every other form of wildlife and their "moose detectors" are quite refined. But, the kids are still both young 2 year olds and, as you see, other wildlife still draws their attention. I should have known that, since they stopped and glanced instead of stopped and launched right that it was not moose. Yet, I still stopped on a dime with them given their attention off trail.  What did I find when I turned to look right. Two squirrels playing chase in a tree to our right. Squirrels!?!?!? Oh you silly 2 year olds :)

"One for you, one for me!" says the squirrely kids.
I should have read the body language as "just wildlife, not moose", but I
was still on guard when they first stopped like this :)

Back to skijoring... As I showed above, we were laying fresh tracks all morning on the upper elevation trails. At times we even got into some deep powder, maybe 8-10 inches (or more). Fun shot of Jack & Rudy "kicking up powder" in 10 or so inches of snow:

POW go the powder twins as we continue to make our
own trail and ignore the silly set track to our left :)

Today's video highlight goes along with the prior photo. Come along as we are kicking up powder powering through the morning's untouched snow. Powder Power!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually we came down from the upper elevation trails and onto the lower trails near trailheads and parking lots. As expected, the lower trails had seen a lot of traffic the last few days. No more fresh tracks but instead a packed trail to uncork the skijoring engine.

Packed & fast - off we go!

Of course, the reason we dropped onto the lower trails was to meet up with Zorro & Nancy. Once we met, time to add Zorro into the team and go back up the trail a bit and then turnaround and fly back to the trailhead.

Whee - the happy skijoring power three!

A fun day of "backcountry fresh tracks & breaking trail" for the youngsters with a packed & fast trail to end the day with Zorro: 6.6 miles traveled with 450 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 129 days on the trails covering 873.9 miles with 79,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Woo, Whee

Zipping along in a "mimi groomer track" with my fast pals Jack & Rudy. Wheeee!

Flying along in a mini groomer track.

After yesterday's "moose following skijor", we gave older Zorro most of today off to rest from the super fun and tiring moose day :)

I took Jack & Rudy out to the freshly groomed trails in and around Gold Run Nordic Center. We started as you see above on narrow "mini groomer" trails until we eventually dropped onto the fast, wide and FRESHLY groomed trails of the nordic center. My pals were in speed mode all day long. The GPS clocked us at 22 MPH for a top speed, but it sure felt like we went faster than that! Once we transitioned from narrow to wide trails, Jack & Rudy sure made full use of the wideness!

You can't get much further apart than this. Making full use of the wide trail.
8 feet all off the ground too!

The trails were so fast & fun that I was getting giddy too. When you hang out with a pair of 2 year olds, I guess it is contagious :) Come along as we are FLYING along the fast trails. Turn up your volume and you'll hear me shouting out "woos" and "whees" and "wows" as we ZIP along.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Oh those 2 year olds. We were rounding a corner when both jumped far off trail into the deep snow. I was expecting them to come up with some animal (or animal part), yet they came up empty. But something sure got their attention to leap this far off trail!

Dunk & Hunt. We smell fresh frozen meat :)

Then, coming around another bend in the trail and look what we found - MOOSE PRINTS! Jack & Rudy each have their nose in a moose print while you can see another in between them. We didn't see any moose, but these prints sure smelled good :)

"Sniff, sniff - tasty!" say the moose sniffing pair.

Finally, after a fast & furious day with the kids, we hooked up with Zorro for a happy glide to the finish with our favorite old man :)

"Whee - so happy!" says the super trio.

A fast, "woo, whee, wow" day with the kids and a fun finish with Zorro: 8.1 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 95 days on the trails covering 648.8 miles with 59,850 feet of elevation climbed.

Premonition

A wild day chasing wildlife all over Rabbit Ears Pass!

"No that was FUN!" exclaims ecstatic Max.
"Moose and porcupines - my favorite!" declares silly Zorro.

How fresh were the moose tracks we encountered on the trail this morning? Well, fresh enough for Max to break out into his patented "bucking bronco moose scream" even though we never saw the moose. The tracks and scent of moose were sooooo strong that Max broke out into his bucking moose scream without a moose visual! He's only done this once before in his life - normally it takes a visual for him to turn into a bucking bronco screamer...

"MOOOOOOOSE!!!! I SMEEEEELLLL MOOOOOSE!!!!!" screams bucking bronco Max.
"Must be to the left, must be to the left!" declares intense hunting Zorro.

How prevalent was the "scent of moose" along the trail this morning? Well, so prevalent that Zorro could not maintain a forward-focused sprint for very long before scanning left, right, left, right, etc for moose!

"Smells so moosey to the left! Where is it?!?" says sprint-n-hunt Zorro.
Max is still focused forward, so you know there is not a moose to our left; but silly
Zorro had to keep scanning every direction!

Zorro was so focused on scanning left & right that I had to stop reacting to him and watch Max. At first I would start to snowplow with each of his scans so I could safely look that way too. After many false alarms I noticed Max was not scanning as much as Zorro. So, I switched to watching Max and only slowed to glance when Max did too. Zorro had "moose on the brain" and couldn't focus :)

Funny story... I was telling Nancy on the way to the trailhead this morning that I had a dream last night that we skijored this section of Rabbit Ears and encountered a moose, herd of yak, porcupine, bear and mountain lion. Was this premonition on my part?

We encountered one snowless patch of trail where I had to take my skis off to cross before starting again on snow. As we started to cross this patch of dirt, a porcupine waddled from a nearby tree and climbed up the tree. We treed a porcupine. Fresh moose tracks then treed porcupine, I started scanning the forest for yaks, bears and mountain lions! :)

Yes the picture is ugly (no snow). But I just had to show Max & Zorro staring intensely
up the tree the porcupine climbed. We could see it partway up the tree even though it does
not come out well in this photo. Treed a porcupine, oh my!

Oh yeah, we did some skijoring too :)

Zoom, zoom, zoom we go in between moose and porcupine events.

Next time I dream of moose, yak, porcupine, bear and lion, I will not go skijoring on the trail where the dream occurred! 8.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 153 days on the trails covering 1281.5 miles with 135,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Especially Rabbit

A rabbit crossing the trail today got everybody in the mood to hunt. Especially rabbit!

It was a snowshoe hare (e.g., white) so hard to see in the clips below. But, I have to show it anyway as it set the precedent for the days' outing :)

The black you see to the right of the arrow are the feet of the snowshoe hare as its body is
camouflaged against the snow. But look at Max & Zorro and you notice we all saw the bunny!

How about a slomo video to try and show you the rabbit. Watch closely at seconds 2-6 and you will see the rabbit come out of the trees from the left, cross the trail and exit into the trees to the right. Look really close (try watching the video full screen) for the black blob (the rabbit's feet) moving across the trail. Also watch Max & Zorro's gusto to catch the rabbit and you will know it was really there (and they'll show you exactly where it exited the trail :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

It was quite entertaining in person even though hard to see in the shrunk down video footage. But, as I said, it set the precedent for the day...

Max & Zorro were on high alert the rest of the morning. We heard something in the trees to the left at one point, must check for more rabbits:

"I hear something, but cannot put a body to it!" says scanning Max.
"Let me get a better view, where is the bunny?!?" says intense Zorro.

A little further along and passing by some old mining cabins. Do rabbits live in old cabins?

"No rabbits on this shelf!" declares curious Zorro stretching to look atop the shelf.
"No rabbits down here!" declares Max inspecting the cabin foundation.

Keep going and then something caught the attention of our noses...

"Must be rabbits in the trees! Must be!!!!" declare the hunting pair pausing to stare into the
trees.

Oh yeah, we did do some skijoring today too :)  Another amazing late April day laying fresh tracks (although the rabbit overshadowed this fact):

Gliding along laying fresh tracks! Wheeee!

I'll spare you the one downside of the outing... I had to take my skis off 5 times to cross over exposed ground and rocks. Unfortunately this particular network of trails is done for the season. "What?!? No more rabbit hunting!!!!!" is what Max & Zorro thought of this!

A fun day seeing a rabbit and then searching for miles & miles for more rabbits: 7.8 miles traveled (remember my skis had to come off 5 times, slowing us down) with 700 feet of elevation climbed.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1131.2 miles with 119,400 feet of elevation climbed.