Crust

Our first outing this Spring completely abandoning set trails and spending the entire outing on a firm Spring Crust! Yay! 

Perfect strong/solid crust this morning!

We have been waiting for the arrival of the spring crust - when warm days soften the top layer of the snowpack and then freezing nights form this layer into a solid crust that can hold our weight while running and skiing. April 11th is one of the latest arrivals we've had of the crust in any season; but it is finally here!!!

We did numerous laps on the crust around Dry Lake at the base of Buffalo Pass. Look at this beautiful shot of endless, open crust:

Zipping along an endless spring crust. Wheeee!

How about another cool shot of Jack & Rudy flying along as we skijor across an incline.

Flying perpendicular to the incline in the terrain.

Come along for a "combo video" of the morning fun - the first 30 seconds we are doing some voice control navigating and the second 30 seconds we are zooming up a gentle rise on the endless spring crust. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, there is one thing the crust can never support... Moose! We were cruising through some trees when we came upon a collection of moose beds and moose tracks. Jack & Rudy found the moose bed the most interesting.

The dark in the snow just to the right of Rudy's left foot is a tuft of moose fur.
Jack's nose is in another tuft of moose fur.
The moose was shedding in this moose bed - made for fascinating sniffs :)

Today's snow angels from the silly kids came with some nice views :)

White as far as the eye can see. The Colorado snowpack is very good this year!

Back to the trailhead and, you guessed it, the kids found a snow wall to climb to get to my height for end of run treats.

"We love our new 'climb a snow wall for treats' trick!" declares the happy kids.

The first day of Spring Crust is always so fun! 9.4 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed (I forgot to turn off the GPS, so I don't know our top speed as it was on while we were driving home).

2022/2023 Season to Date: 132 days on the trails covering 1177.4 miles with 106,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Moose Bed

Jack & Rudy inspecting a moose bed we found next to the trail this morning.

A moose bed, you ask? Basically the large indentation in the snow a moose leaves after laying down.

Yes, Jack & Rudy can fit in a moose bed with plenty of room to spare.
Moose have big butts :)

Moose bed aside, we had a zippy day on narrow and wide groomed trails this morning.

We started the day on mini groomer trails. Basically, a snowmobile towing a grooming sled the width of a snowmobile is a mini groomer.

Catching air in the mini groomer track. Wheeee!

Now come along for a fast & fun skijor video in a mini groomer track. But, notice that there is barely room for my parallel skis and virtually no room to snowplow if I want to slow us down. It takes a lot of trust in your partners to "floor it" in such interesting terrain. I have complete trust in Jack & Rudy, such great partners!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After zooming around the mini groomer trails for about 5 miles or so, we transitioned onto the wide (snowcat) groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. Wide & groomed = petal to the medal!!!

Flying on the wide groomed trail as we are shaded from the morning
sun by the mountain behind us.

Okay, that prior "shade shot" does not do the wide groomed trail justice. So, we'll just go a little further along until we can turn a corner into the morning sun. Now this is a nice shot of the wide & groomed nordic trail :)

Catching air on the wide groomie zoomie.

Of course, all this zooming around the groomies means you really need to cool your jets at any stop along the way...

"Ah, rub a dub dub, cooling the jets!" demonstrates the snow rolling goofs.

Finally, there was another dog at the trailhead so everyone come in close for end of run treats - we do not share these hard earned treats :)

"All for us! We hauled you all over the place!" says the fun kids.

Zooming groomie day: 10.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 72 days on the trails covering 628.6 miles with 56,400 feet of elevation climbed

French Gulch Usual

All the "usuals" in French Gulch this morning :)

Here we go....

It was fast on lower French Gulch where we had about an inch or so of new snow on the popular "wide & packed" trail. Zoom.

Uncorking it along the fast lower trail.

Then, it was "laying fresh tracks" to "breaking trail" in upper French Gulch.

No humans have made it this far recently, so we'll happily set the trail. Wheeee!

Finally, it was "moosie" many times during the outing. At one point, Max & Zorro hopped up a tall snow wall in unison - only the "scent of moose" could cause them to do this. I almost fell over when they hopped this high, fully expecting Bullwinkle to peek over the wall back at us! Luckily, he did not poke his head out of the trees in front of Max & Zorro!

"Moose up this way! Our noses KNOW it!!!!" declare my moose seeking wall hoppers.
Yes, the snow wall was at least 5 feet tall and they both scaled it without a flinch!

Once I determined that there was not a moose just over this wall, I convinced Max & Zorro to move along the wall a bit until it was only about 3 feet tall. Then, I scaled it with them and took a good scan into the trees to make sure there were no immediately nearby moose. Note: it was with great effort that I scaled the 3-foot wall versus Max & Zorro hopping up the 5-foot wall - just ask my partners :) With "free from moose" established, I decided to let Max & Zorro have a little fun following their noses a little ways into the trees. Low and behold, just steps off the trail and look what we found...

"Fresh moose bed - not so big!!!!!" exclaims silly Z, even though you could easily fit 4, possibly
6, Zorros in this moose bed!
"You check the bed, I'll see if it is still nearby!" declares moose scanning Max.

"How do you recognize a moose bed?" you might ask. Well, imagine an indentation in the snow that looks as if a huge boulder was dropped and then removed. The "boulder indentation" is actually a "moose indentation" - same thing :)

The French Gulch Usuals: fast down low, fresh tracks up high and moosing along the way: 8.7 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 43 days on the trails covering 326.8 miles with 33,450 feet of elevation climbed.

Moose Bed

Nothing quite as entertaining as encountering a fresh moose bed on the side of the trail!

"Sniff, sniff - smells very fresh! We just missed the napping moose!" declare the moose bed
inspecting pair.

It was clear a moose had recently been laying right were Max & Zorro are sniffing. I saw the big 2-toed tracks coming in & out of the bed and my partners sniff intensity told me the moose had been laying here very recently. Imagine coming across a moose laying right on the side of the trail - yikes!

We failed to spot a moose on this morning's outing to French Gulch. But, the "scent of moose" was enough to tickle our noses a few times. Scent of moose and a fresh moose bed - fun! Here is Max catching a whiff of moose as we trot along the trail:

"Sniff, sniff - beautiful aroma!" states hunt-n-jog Max.
"Not strong enough, keep going!" declares Zorro (he did get some moose whiffs later)

One of the saddest sights of springtime: creek breakup! While the snowpack is still sufficient to skijor over most of French Creek, there are a few spots of breakup here and there. So sad...

"Eek, the creek - stay to the left!" exclaim all three of us.

The evil creek was not visible most of the day - yay! Here we are skijoring the top layer of snow crust in the last meadow of French Gulch. This meadow houses a swamp with French Creek flowing down the middle in summer. So fun to run the top layer knowing there is nothing trail-like in this meadow once the snow melts!

Zoom! Love when the crust can hold our weight!

Today's short video clip is the counterpart to the previous photo. Here we go skijoring the top layer of snow crust on the upper/final meadow of French Gulch. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A peaceful day cruising French Gulch with just enough "moose juice" to add some excitement: 8.8 miles traveled with 950 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 113 days on the trails covering 958.6 miles with 105,050 feet of elevation climbed.