What Cold Front

A serious "springtime cold front" blew into Colorado yesterday. It did not bring as much snow as promised; but it did bring an extreme drop in temperatures...

8 degrees at the trailhead when we started, colder as we went higher, 14 degrees when we finished and a brisk breeze to drive the windchill below zero. The Siberians' view on the supposed cold front was, "What cold front?"

Max and Zorro each rolling snow angels to "cool off" during our quick break after completing
the steep climb up & out of Indiana Creek. "What cold front?" :-)

Well, I thought it was cold for April - guess it was just me...

We did one of our favorite routes going from Indiana Creek, up a steep connector trail to Boreas Pass and then a gentle jog & sprint all the way down Boreas Pass Rd. The highlight of the day: an untouched layer of 1-3 inches of snow for 7.8 of the 8.8 mile outing. Laying fresh tracks for miles & miles & miles - Whee!

High up on Boreas Pass Rd. The wind was brisk and the temperatures were low; but the
trail conditions were fabulous!

On the "Indiana Creek to Boreas" connector trail. Goofy Zorro deciding he wants to skijor
on top of the trail snow wall. Hey, as long as he is pulling, he can trot up there...
"I'm short and cannot see over the wall, so I'll trot up here!" says short Zorro.

More beautiful conditions along Boreas - laying fresh tracks for miles & miles...

Arriving (quickly & all smiles) at the Boreas
trailhead. The mile near the trailhead is always
heavily tracked, as above; but we had the first
7.8 miles all to ourselves!

Statistics for the day's outing: 8.8 miles with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

Zorro Shoes

We always jokingly talk about Zorro having "built-in snowshoes" on his feet - here is a great example of what we mean:

Max & I are on the hard packed trail - if either of us step off the packed trail, we would sink
into 6-12 inches of snow. Notice the holes poking through the snow on the left of the trail,
some poor animal without built-in snowshoes sunk through. Now look at Zorro happily
trotting outside the set trail with no worry of "breaking through" - thus our reference to his
built-in snowshoes. He can frequently run "out of track" and not break into the deep snow
like Max or I would...

We expected icy conditions for our outing today; so we took a path to minimize the downhill slope: 3.6 miles to ascend up a steep 1150 feet and then spread the 1150 feet descent over a much safer 5 miles. A perfect route for icy and/or fast packed trails.

Transitioning onto Boreas Pass Rd - time to start the 5 mile jog down.

"Wait, let's cool off first!" as Max rolls a snow angel and Zorro chomps
down on snow cones.

Airborne Siberians jogging fast as we approach the finish...

The route: start at the Indiana Creek trailhead and take a steep trail to connect high up on Boreas Pass Rd and then jog down the much more gentle Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead. We covered 8.6 miles with 1150 feet of elevation climbed and a mild top speed of 16 MPH. I did not want to encourage a "20 MPH sprint" and risk encountering ice at these speeds, so we kept the pace for the day at a safe & enjoyable jog.

Surprise

We skijored into a surprise snowstorm coming down Boreas Pass Rd today!

A Siberian Super Surprise!

Look closely - all the "white speckles" you see in this photo are snowflakes
falling down on us. What a wonderful Siberian surprise!

We started the day in the sun at the Indiana Creek trailhead and skijored up the steep trail connecting Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass Rd. Once we got onto Boreas, we turned right and headed further up Boreas Pass until we got above treeline and the wind started picking up. I was not dressed for strong winds, so it was a quick break and then turnaround to head back down Boreas Pass Rd and into the surprise snowstorm - Whee!

On our initial descent down Boreas Pass. The "gray blob of clouds" directly in
front of us is the surprise snowstorm we are heading into. It is always so much fun
to skijor with Max & Zorro while it is snowing!

Yea - snowing! The white speckles you see against the trees and against Max & Zorro
(especially black Zorro) are big, fluffy snowflakes falling upon us.

Approaching Bakers Tank as we are about halfway down Boreas. Slight shadows on the
trail - we haven't reached the falling snow yet... Just a couple more minutes and it
started dumping on us!

The snowstorm did not last for long; but any snow in late March or April is a welcome thing!

Today's outing covered 9.6 miles with 1300 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 18 MPH and a fun collection of snowflakes dropping on us for about 3 miles of the route.

How Hot

How hot was it today? So hot that even Zorro rolled a snow angel to cool off!

Zorro rolling a rare snow angel to cool off at our high point of the outing.

It was in the upper 20s when we started our outing and upper 30s when we finished. That is "hot enough" for Zorro to declare snow angels in order. Max, of course, never misses a chance to roll a snow angel:

Rolling a snow angel while also tasting the snow - talented! :-)

It was an interesting route today connecting Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass. The route up Indiana Creek was a narrow, single file trail rising up around 1400 feet over 4 miles:

Max running lead on the "single file" trail up & out of Indiana Creek.

Gotta share the load - Zorro taking lead for a while as we are still climbing up
the narrow trail.

You will notice from the photos, that the guy in front during "single file skijoring" is doing a lot of work - both leading the pack and hauling the human! The guy in second slot has a loose gangline as he is "resting" while jogging along in this position. The reason to keep alternating lead...

Once we connected onto Boreas, it was the complete opposite of the route up. Boreas was a wide open super-packed trail. It was so packed in areas that it was closer to ice than a ski trail. Try putting yourself on skis on ice while connected to two Siberian engines - stopping is not always an easy or readily accomplished act!

Ice or trail? It is a fine line... 2 sprinting Siberians and 1 silly human wondering if
stopping is really a possibility :-)

Happy Huskies arriving (quickly) at the trailhead
after a "casual" 10 mile outing.

Today was day 6 of our "mini Iditarod" covering 10.1 miles with 1400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

Our total stats after 6 Iditarod days: 62.1 miles and 7150 feet of elevation climbed.

The GPS summary of the day's outing.

Pretty Day

Today was a beautiful day skijoring Indiana Creek and Boreas Pass.

Mostly sunny with just the occasional cloud in the sky.

Cruising along the "lower meadow" at Indiana Creek (before starting our steep climb to
Boreas Pass). The trail is packed & fast. It may not look like it, but if you step off the
packed trail you would sink to thigh deep snow!

The route from "Indiana Creek to Boreas" can be broken down into 3 stages:
(1) A gentle start from the Indiana Creek trailhead following the popular trail along the creek.
(2) Breaking away from the main trail and doing a steep climb up and onto Boreas Pass Rd.
(3) Cruising along Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead.

A very fun route with some challenging climbs on the second stage and great views along the first and third stage.

Fun skijor gallop along Boreas Pass Rd.
Faster than a "trot", slower than a "sprint" - a fun, peaceful gallop :-)
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

More fun shots from the day:

Approaching Bakers Tank on Boreas Pass Rd. I just called out "wait" as we are going to take
a quick break before finishing the route. Max & Zorro quickly glanced back with "Oh boy,
you said 'wait' - that means 'hotdog reward break' - Yum!"

Our most common "break activity" (after getting some hotdog slices, of course):
(1) Max rolling a snow angel to cool off.
(2) Zorro chomping down on snow cones to cool off.

Nice clips of the sprint to the finish at the Boreas trailhead.

A fun 8.6 miles with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

Birthday Fun

Guess what Max & Zorro got me for my birthday today... 9 miles of skijoring fun!

Those two sure know how to throw a birthday bash :-)

In our deepest snow of the day as we were on the final climb out of Indiana Creek and onto
Boreas Pass Rd.

They had a great idea to do one of our favorite routes: (1) start at the Indiana Creek trailhead and do the steep skijor climb up to Boreas Pass Rd; (2) do a little sprint up Boreas Pass Rd before taking a quick break; and then (3) jog, trot & sprint all the way down Boreas Pass Rd to the Boreas winter trailhead. It was a bit windy when we connected onto Boreas, so we did not sprint too far up (part #2 of the route). If it was a little less windy, we typically turn this into a 10 mile outing; but I decided it's my birthday so I can cut it short into 9 miles - a few "questioning looks" from the Siberians when I declared the break earlier than normal, but they were quite cooperative with my birthday request to get back downhill into the trees where the wind would not be as strong.

It is always an interesting mix of trail terrain on this route... Indiana Creek is seldom used - apparently only us Siberians think it is fun to break trail up steep terrain. Conversely, Boreas Pass Rd is a heavily used route - so you often encounter many people when you go up or down this trail. Fun photos from the outing below:

Climbing up Indiana Creek with about 3-4 inches of fresh snow on existing tracks.

We just connected onto Boreas Pass Rd and Whoa - look what happened!
Zorro rolling an impromptu snow angel on the trail. Zorro never rolls
impromptu angels (Max often does). I guess Zorro is saying, "Whew, that
was a steep & deep climb out of Indiana Creek - I need to quickly cool
off before continuing!"

High up on Boreas - 1-2 inches of fresh snow on the heavily packed main trail. If you step
off the main tracks you sink into 8+ inches of snow!

Most of the way down Boreas skijoring on a packed trail as we encounter a group of skiers.
Those going uphill are always so jealous of my Siberian partners as they said, "Wow, we could
certainly use some of their help too!"

Total stats for today's outing: 9 miles, 1350 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 16 MPH. What a fun birthday outing!

Cruising Around Boreas

High up on Boreas Pass Rd - a fresh 2-4 inches of snow all
to ourselves to lay fresh tracks!

We had a great skijor day today.

We climbed from the Indiana Creek trailhead to Boreas Pass Rd in record time. "No reason to head down yet," we all said as we crested onto Boreas Pass Rd. So, we trucked up Boreas for another 1-2 miles to enjoy the fresh snow. After taking a quick break, we then jogged & sprinted all the way back down Boreas Pass Rd. There was a fresh 2-4 inches of snow on the trail for our first 6 to 7 miles. The last 2-3 miles still had the 2-4 inches of new snow, but it had been heavily tracked by other skiers and snowshoers.

Sometimes the best way to summarize a skijor outing is "perfect Siberian Huskies in motion" - everyone was in a real cruising groove today and we flew up, down and around Boreas with barely a single pause (just one mid-point break to rest the human, not the huskies). Siberians in motion tend to stay in motion! :-)

A nice clip of the Siberian sprint as we are nearing the end of our 9.6 mile outing.
According to the GPS, we hit a top speed of 18 MPH somewhere in this clip! Woo - Fun!

[watch on youtube if no video shows below]

A few more fun shots from the day...

Laying tracks in a fresh 2 inches near the Indiana Creek trailhead.

Breaking away from Indiana Creek and about to start the steep ascent
up and onto Boreas Pass Rd.

Stats for today's outing: 9.6 miles, 1250 feet of elevation climbed, top speed of 18 MPH.

If Only

Look what we found today:

Breaking trail above the abandoned Warriors Mark Mine. It sure was nice snow up high...

If only that last picture was representative of the whole outing... If only... Here's most of what we found:

Nice bright sun. Nice untouched trail. But very shallow snow in the mid section of Indiana Creek.

Yikes - ice and rocks. Most of the ice could "hold a husky", but the human would break right
through. The recurring rocks just under the snow made for a challenging outing.

Our plan for the day was to tour around the trails of Indiana Creek. We (mistakenly) assumed the snow from last weekend was enough to make these trails skiable. Oh what a mistake... These trails are very rocky and more like mountain bike trails than jeep trails. We didn't have nearly enough snow for most of the route to safely skijor down without catching and falling on a rock. So, the modified outing:

(1) Skijor up Indiana Creek to the ghost town of Dyersville - taking note that this trail was possible to ski up (carefully) but was not a trail we could take down.

(2) Continue from Dyersville up and past the abandoned Warriors Mark Mine - oh what great conditions we had up high! 

(3) Attempt to connect down from the shelf above Warriors Mark to the opposite side of Indiana Creek (opposite side from our route up), hoping the conditions were better on the other side.

(4) Quickly discover the conditions had too many exposed rocks for downhill skijoring. Off with the skis, load them on my backpack and hike around Warriors Mark for 30 minutes looking for a skiable path down.

(5) Give up on Indiana Creek, put the skis back on and skijor up to Boreas Pass Rd.

(6) Skijor down Boreas to Bakers Tank.

A lot of "backcountry exploring" (on & off skis) to learn that last weekend's storm did not dump enough snow on the technical trails to make them skiable in any down directions. Bummer...

Stats of the Outing: a moderate 7.4 miles (taking the skis off sure slows us down :-) with 2000 feet of elevation gain. Nice elevation gain as we kept thinking, "it must get better higher!" - well, we were right about the "better higher" but wrong assuming "there must be at least one skiable path down".

I Love It When...

I love it when a squirrel, snowshoe hare, or other tasty wildlife jumps on the trail in front of us when we are skijoring uphill - talk about Siberian turbo boost!

There is no feeling as cool as being in a "downhill tuck" while flying uphill - Siberian Power at its best.

Conversely, though, there is nothing I dread like a tasty morsel dropping on the trail in front of us while we are flying downhill. The Siberians do not need a reason to boost their downhill momentum! Thankfully, today's wildlife boost happened on uphill terrain - wheeeeee!

Cruising down Boreas Pass Rd. Note the swath of exposed dirt on the shoulder
ahead and to the left. Even though we were high up on Boreas, this trail is so
sun & wind exposed that it is quickly approaching non-skiable if we do not
get some new snow soon!

It was "spring skijoring" today as we had conditions all over the map: (1) started at Indiana Creek and skijored up a "trail of ice" as we started towards Boreas; (2) moved into nice packed powder as we got further up the trail and past the point most people go; (3) intersected "sun & wind exposed" Boreas Pass Rd for quick sprint down to Bakers Tank; (4) cut up into the backcountry onto one of our "secret & little used" shady trails and enjoyed soft powder for miles; (5) eventually had to return home and got back onto another "trail of ice" to return to civilization. Unfortunately the last part of the final leg was soooo steep and icy that we had to shed the skis and hikejor down (hikejor - human hiking while the Siberians are still in skijor hookup).

Contrast this fun, untouched snow to the photo above. We have a network of
"secret trails" that we use to connect between the busy/packed trails. It is so fun
to get on our own terrain!

Snow Angel Max cooling off in the snow. It was hot enough today that Zorro joined
in the snow angel festivities; but the stupid human hit "delete" instead of "save" after
snapping a photo of Zorro's snow angel antics.

Vital Stats: 8.2 miles; 110m total time; 85m skijoring time (25m for one long break to cool off and time hikejoring down the last stretch of trail); 17 MPH top speed; an exhilarating 1400 feet of elevation climbed! 

Wind Snow

A windy day skijoring up on Boreas Pass today. It was snowing on & off all day yesterday, so the trees were full of fresh snow. Every time a big gust blew, tons of snow came flying off the trees and onto Max, Zorro & I. It was a day of fresh (and deep) powder on the trails and lots of "wind snow" in the air.

No, my camera is not broken and taking fuzzy pictures... The "fuzz" is snow blowing off the trees
with a gust of wind. The old relic in the photo is Bakers Tank - a remnant of the days when
Boreas Pass was the railroad route from the mountains to Denver.

Our most intense encounter with the "wind snow" was on our route up from Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass. The upper portions of this trail travels tightly through a thick forest of trees. The trees all had lots of fresh snow from yesterday on their branches. At one point a strong gust of wind came blowing through the thick trees. Snow started falling and swirling all around us and I could no longer see Max & Zorro only 6-7 feet in front of me. I could feel them still going via the gangline, so I dipped my head rode it out. Once this extended gust finally let up, I looked back and was shocked to see we'd traveled 30-40 yards during this complete whiteout - just trusting the Siberians at the front to keep going - good boys!

Vital Stats: 8.8 miles from the Indiana Creek winter trailhead up to Boreas Pass Rd and down to the Boreas winter trailhead; 1350 feet of elevation climbed (a steep & deep route up and out of Indiana Creek); 115m total time; 105m skijoring time; 20 MPH top speed.

Less than a mile from the Indiana Creek trailhead - untouched, fresh snow found
us breaking trail in 8-12 inches most of the 1350 foot climb out of Indiana Creek!

Still less than a mile into the outing and still breaking trail....

Eating snow cones at our break point before cruising down to the Boreas
trailhead. Look closely, you can see Max's tongue sampling the yummy
snow. Zorro is chomping down on his snow cone.

Cheeeese!

Beginning climb up & out of Indiana Creek towards
Boreas Pass Rd. Shoulders down, powering forward!

Max, Zorro & I spent a lot of time posing for the cameras on the trails today.

We started at the Indiana Creek trailhead and took the steep incline up & out of Indiana Creek to Boreas Pass. This is a 4 mile trek climbing about 1250 feet; and the last mile was breaking trail in 12-18 inches of snow. Quite the power track to start our route. When we connected out of this steep trail onto Boreas Pass Rd, we stopped to take a quick break.

As we were about to conclude our break and start down Boreas Pass, a group of 6 snowshoers came upon us. They were on their way down from a night spent at one of the backcountry huts at the Boreas Summit. We talked with the group for a bit, Max & Zorro flirted with everyone and the group took pictures of Max & Zorro. Fun part of the end of the conversation:

- Showshoer: "So, how long does it take you to get back to the Boreas trailhead [same place they were headed]?"
- Me: "Oh, about 40-45 minutes from here."
- Showshoer: "Wow, no way, we have 3 to 3.5 hours planned for our descent!" [I could sense the skepticism in his voice, but we have done this route many times and 40-45 is true]

I then got Max & Zorro ready to go and said bye to the group and then, "Ok guys, lets go!" Now remember that we had just finished our short break after climbing out of Indiana Creek and then we extended the break for quite a while talking with these folks. Well, the Siberian engines were recharging this whole time. After my "lets go" command, Max & Zorro took off sprinting down Boreas. All I heard from the group was the doubter exclaiming, "Wow! Look at that!" He surely believes our 40-45 minute estimate now ;-)

About 1/2 down Boreas we ran into a group of 8 well-outfitted backcountry skiers coming up the path (well-outfitted meaning they had overnight gear and rations for a long outing). They all stopped and wanted to meet Max & Zorro. So, we obliged and gave them some Siberian love while I explained the concept of "skijoring" to them. As with the snowshoe group, they also wanted pictures of Max & Zorro. They even wanted a picture with me at the end of the outstretched gangline so that they could show friends this crazy guy attached to 2 huskies and prove they were not making it up.

All in all, a fun little outing on Indiana Creek & Boreas with a lot of tourism advocacy with all the groups we encountered.

Vital Stats: 9.1 miles (with about 1 mile of extreme trail breaking); 135m total time; 100m skijoring time (35m of "tourism advocacy"); 19 MPH top speed; 1250 feet of elevation gain.

"Untouched" Boreas Pass Rd - we are about to start down this route and wow
the group of snowshoers with our "take off" speed.

Perfect Day!

Upper sections of Indiana Creek, before connecting with
Boreas Pass Rd. About 15-18 inches deep here, and getting
deeper! We are about to switch to single file skijoring as it
gets deeper than Zorro.

Last night delivered some high quality snow to the Colorado High Country - today delivered a perfect skijoring outing for Max, Zorro & I. The highlights:

(1) No tracks for the first 7.6+ miles of our outing. We were breaking trail for 7.6 miles straight!

(2) Untouched powder as deep as 20+ inches (deeper than Zorro). We had to switch to single file skijoring for a while to use Max's snow stilts (long legs) to break trail with Zorro riding in behind Max.

(3) 4+ inches of untouched powder for the first 7.6 miles (the majority with 6-20 inches). Now that is a Siberian Workout!

(4) Perfect Siberian temperatures, around 3 degrees when we started (and dropping as we went up in elevation) and only about 12 degrees when we finished. Max & Zorro will tell you that is perfect conditions for hauling me around the backcountry.

Max & Zorro's take on the outing? Perfect! We were skijoring for about 1h 50m straight through all this deep trail breaking when I stopped for a quick break to text Nancy where/when we'd be finishing. Both Max & Zorro showed *no* sign that they'd been running, with long stretches of deep deep snow, for almost 2 hours! They just wanted to strap back up and sprint the last 15 minutes of our route!

The Route: (1) Indiana Creek winter trailhead and up & out to connect to Boreas Pass Rd; (2) Down Boreas Pass Rd until Bakers Tank; (3) Up Bakers Tank trail until taking a right to connect from Boreas Mountain to Baldy Mountain; (4) Up Baldy until connecting with Forest Service Rd 5281B; (5) Up FR5281B until hitting the high point of this trail and then sprinting down FR5281B and Baldy Mtn Rd to the Baldy Mtn Rd winter trailhead. Note that the majority of this route was "up" - given the difference in elevation between our starting/ending points, we spent about 2/3 the distance in the "up direction" and only 1/3 of the distance in the "down direction". So, breaking trail uphill 2/3 of the route - and neither Siberian showed any sign of tiring!

Vital Stats: 9.1 miles; 135m total time; 126m skijoring time; 21 MPH top speed; 1600 feet of elevation gain; breaking trail in 6-20 inches of untouched powder for more than 80% of the trail!

Extreme trail breaking. The route is straight as Max & Zorro are aligned and
then a gentle right up through the opening in the trees. A bit after taking this
gentle right, the snow got "deeper than Zorro", so we had to switch to single
file skijoring to use Max's long legs to break trail for Zorro and I.

Pretty shot of the snow covered trees all around us where we took a quick break.

Another pretty snow shot. You can see a couple of the ski runs on Breckenridge
Ski Resort off in the distance.

From 2 to 20 inches!

Cruising up the mid section of Indiana Creek.
No tracks, breaking trail, Zorro chest deep!
Notice Max's back covered in snow - "Siberian
cooling tactic ;-)"

Sunday morning found Max, Zorro & I breaking trail in up to 20 inches of fresh, untouched powder! Woooo!

We had a couple of inches of snowfall in town Saturday night, so we decided to test the upper elevations of the Indiana Creek trail. Wow, were we in for an extreme trail breaking treat! We were fresh tracks the entire route and saw everything from 2 to 20+ inches of untouched powder:

1) First 1/4 mile: Indiana Creek winter trailhead heading up towards Boreas Pass - about 2 inches of fresh, untouched powder.

2) 1/4 - 1/2 mile: continuing up Indiana Creek - powder increasing to 2-4 inches.

3) 1/2 - 1 mile: in the lower open meadow of Indiana Creek before ascending into the trees (crossing the semi-exposed creek twice) - 4-6 inches of untouched powder.

4) 1 - 4.2 miles: ascending up the steep, heavily wooded (and rarely traveled) section of Indiana Creek to connect with Boreas Pass Rd - 8-20 inches of untouched powder. Most of the time spent breaking trail in the 12-16 inch range with occasional strings of 20+ inches to break through! Steep, Deep, Breaking Trail - Siberian power.

20+ inches - what, did I stop and put a yardstick in the snow, you ask? No, the definition of "20+ inches" is snow depth where Max & Zorro can no longer power forward with their shoulders but, instead, have to resort to "bunny hopping" (or "dolphin cresting") through the snow. An extreme workout for two fellas under 2 feet tall; but you should see the smiles as their heads with each crest above the snow!

5) 4.2 - 6.2 miles: cruising down Boreas Pass Rd in 4-6 inches of untouched powder to Bakers Tank.

6) 6.2 - 8.2 miles: continuing down Boreas Pass Rd in 2-4 inches of fresh powder.

7) 8.2 - 8.7 miles: lower, wind & sun beaten section of Boreas Pass Rd with too many exposed rocks to skijor. Shed the skis and hike over this terrain. BOOOOO!

8) 8.7 - 9.2 miles: re-engage the skis and cruise to the Boreas winter trailhead. Phew, what a workout...

Vital Stats: 9.2 miles; 140m total time, 100m skijoring time (20m hiking time, 20m stopped & equipment on/off/adjustment time); 16 MPH top speed; 1300 feet of elevation gain with 1000 of the elevation gain happening over just 3 miles breaking trail in up to 20 inches of powder!

A nice view of the untouched trail in front of us. Breaking trail in over
12 inches of powder at this point. Note Zorro's back left leg kicking out
of the snow. Siberians powering me up this deep & steep trail!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....
Sorry, this shot of the "snow covered Christmas trees" just made me
start to sing...