Abort

What is that ahead of us in the middle of the trail (where I've placed a red arrow)?

Yikes! That is a coyote in the middle of the trail!
Note Jack & Rudy have noticed the coyote too! Eek!

No, I do not have a better picture of the coyote. I put on the brakes as soon as I saw it and turned us around (with some complaints from my pals :) Only 4 things scare me on the trails and cause us to abort the path we are going: moose, coyote, mountain lion and bear. Nicely, bears are hibernating most of the skijor season; but we have encountered bear tracks often in April & May as they are waking up. But, luckily, we've never had an actual bear sighting on the trails. We've seen mountain lion tracks only once (phew) and never an actual lion itself (double phew). We encounter moose frequently; but these are the least scary of the scary animals - moose want nothing to do with humans (or dogs) and they are not a danger if you simply keep your distance. Coyotes, well they bother me! So, it was abort this trail and turn around as soon as I realized this was a coyote on the trail ahead of us!

Before the coyote, we found ourselves on a wonderful, recently groomed trail along the shores of Dumont Lake. Jack & Rudy know what to do with a groomed trail: pedal to the metal and catch some air:

The hover huskies catching air. Wheeee!

Notice anything different about the following photo? Well, we are skijoring on the left hand side of the wide trail. Normally, we skijor the "right side of the road" on wide, multi-use trails as basic rules of the road apply to snow as well. But, today the left side was a pristine corduroy groom while the right side was snowmobile tracks. Who wouldn't ski a corduroy over a snowmobile track if you have the chance? Note that this is a wide open stretch of trail and I would be able to see any snowmobile well in advance and move back to the right side of the road :)

Riding the left side of the road. Rebels :)

Come along for today's video counterpart to the prior photo. We start out on the right; but once I see the "left corduroy" I only need to say "over the the left" for Jack & Rudy to slide over with me. We drift left twice (both times I ask) and then eventually drift back to the right side of the road once the corduroy appears over there as well. Great listening from my perfect partners and great understanding to automatically drift back to the right when the conditions warrant it!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

With our initial planned route aborted due to a coyote encounter, what to do now? I know, let's go skijor over Dumont Lake! The lake is, of course, frozen in the winter. A couple of times a year, I'll route us onto the lake when I see fresh/recent snowmobile tracks crossing the lake too. The total weight of our combined team is only about 250 pounds; if the ice can hold a snowmobile, it can hold us!

We skijored out to the middle of the lake before turning around to come back the same way. Did I say "turn around"? You bet...

Our first ever "snow angels on a frozen lake" from the goofballs.

Done rolling snow angels and time to really turn around. Fun shot of us cruising over a frozen lake:

No trees anywhere near us because we are on frozen Dumont Lake! Wheeee!

Finally, back to the trailhead with my fun pals:

"Ready for end of run treats!" declares my cute little pals!

Some nice wide, partially groomed trail skijoring and then a trip over the lake after the coyote abort: 8.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 121 days on the trails covering 1072.8 miles with 97,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Off Trail

Going "off trail" to lay fresh tracks on the endless spring crust for mile & miles - wheeee!

Laying fresh tracks over Dry Lake. Yes, skijoring over a frozen lake!

Today is probably our last time skijoring over a lake for the 2016/2017 season as we are entering a week with no snow and high temperatures in the forecast. So, we made the most of our last chance to skijor a lake. Wheeee!

Temperatures overnight dropped below 20 F and remained in the 20s all morning. We knew this meant the spring crust would be solid enough to hold our weight. We also had 3+ inches of new snow fall yesterday all over the terrain. The results of "low temps + new snow"? Well, we abandoned all set trails and found ourselves happily laying fresh tracks as we made our own path across frozen lakes, open meadows and groves of trees. What a fun outing!

Kicking up powder behind us as we lay fresh tracks atop the spring crust over an open meadow.

Tree skiing with Max & Zorro is so much fun. They politely keep the speeds to a jog or trot as they listen to my left/right/forward commands to weave us through the forest.

Trotting through the trees as we listen to all the mushers directions. Perfect!
Note the fox tracks going perpendicular to Max & Zorro as they ignore the tracks and
listen to my "forward" instructions. What partners!

Although some would think temperatures in the high teens/low 20s are chilly, some would not :)

"Oh man, soooo hot - must roll to cool off!" demonstrates silly snow rolling Max.

A beautiful day to abandon set trails and lay fresh tracks for miles & miles atop the spring crust: 9.4 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 1042.3 miles with 110,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Cooling

A morning with temperatures starting just below freezing and ending just above freezing means my silly partners needed to "cool off"!

Max's favorite "cooling activity" is rolling snow angels while Zorro's is eating snowcones...

"Aaahhh, rub a dub dub, I'm cooling my jets!" demonstrates snow rolling Max.
"Chomp, chomp, yum, yum - eating snowcones to cool my jets!" says snow eating Zorro.

We started the morning on snowmobile trails winding through the trees at Rabbit Ears Pass. Conditions were fast packed! Wheeee:

"Hey little bro, you're fun to run with!" says silly Max to Zorro as we zip along the trails.

Partway through the outing we found a snowmobile track to follow that took us out of the forest and into the open. After getting my bearings on where we were, I cautiously let Max & Zorro follow this track out of the trees. Why cautious? Well, look at the following photo and consider this: the wide open snow field you see all around us is NOT a snow covered meadow but it is an ice and then snow covered lake! Yes, we were skijoring over Dumont Lake atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Thus my cautious approach - skiing over a lake. But, I saw several snowmobile tracks crossing over the lake so it had to be solid enough to hold us. Plus, Zorro is a professional "water detector", if there were any softness in the ice under the snow he would stop instantly and we'd backtrack. So, over the lake we went...

"All safe!" declares sprinting Zorro who will NEVER run on, over or near water.
"Yes, let's gooooo!" says long Max.

Over the lake, we did it!

"Piece of cake, you know I'm a 'water detector' pro!" smirks Zorro.
"Let's go again!" says giddy Max.

A peaceful day atop Rabbit Ears gliding through the trees and then over Dumont Lake: 9.1 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 106 days on the trails covering 882.1 miles with 94,100 feet of elevation climbed.