Cross

Who is enjoying today's powder skijor?

"I am, I am!" declares happy Jack.
"WOOOO - me toooo!" adds wooing Rudy.

This morning found us laying fresh tracks to breaking trail in fresh snow in French Gulch. The kids, Jack & Rudy, were really blasting through powder when it got deep!

POW - blasting through some wonderful & deep powder.

Now come along for an interesting story from the outing. I do not have a lot of good video/photo footage and you'll understand why soon :)

We were cruising along in one shallower section of snow when Jack & Rudy got fully focused to our left. Only a moose can draw this much attention. But, I was scanning the trees and did not see a moose close by to our left:

"BINGO - moose to the left and we KNOW it!" declares the moosing kids.

Now the snow is not too deep in the prior photo, but that is due to sun hitting this short stretch. Note the next tree ahead of Jack to the right and here is how deep the snow got as we neared that tree to take a slight right in the trail:

Just moments after the prior photo and we are blasting through powder
again as we veer right by the upcoming tree.

As we came around the corner, all moose broke loose. A big mother moose appeared from our right (not the left where Jack & Rudy were looking moments before) to cross the trail. This was way too close and I threw myself in a snowbank and started reeling Jack & Rudy back to me by the gangline. I am shocked I got any video/photo footage of this as I was totally focused on throwing myself off trail (the best way to stop everyone) and then retreating as fast as possible. But, I got this glimpse through my gloves working to reel in Jack & Rudy.

Whoa! Where'd she come from? Why were Jack & Rudy looking left
when this beast appeared from the right?

I got Jack & Rudy very close to me and proceeded to stay perfectly still as the moose crossed the trail. Moose have very bad eyesight and they trigger off movement. She looked our way and then back forward when she did not see any movement. 

Still everybody, be very still!
Phew, she's crossing!

Why did the moose cross the trail? Well, after she moved up into the trees we then saw her kid was in the trees to our left. She was merely crossing the trail to gather her kid when she heard or smelled us coming. So, Jack & Rudy were right, there was a moose in the trees to our left; but none of us expected the mother to appear (too close) in front of us to cross from the right to left to gather the kid. Wow!

Well that certainly was an interesting skijor outing. What did Jack & Rudy think?

"We loved it all - even the moose crossing!!!" says the silly pair.

A fun day in French Gulch laying fresh tracks early on and then breaking trail further back with one too close for comfort "why did the moose cross the trail" episode: 7.4 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH (lots of deep snow to slow the kids to this modest speed for them).

2023/2024 Season to Date: 55 days on the trail covering 468.5 miles with 44,900 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Powder and Moose

Fresh powder to power through all morning long in French Gulch!!!!

The powder kids, Jack & Rudy, towing me through 3-6 inches of fresh
powder all morning long.

While most of the morning was spent laying fresh tracks out & back in French Gulch, we were in well established moose territory as well. Less than 5 minutes into our outing and Jack & Rudy had to pause to scan the huge meadow to our right for moose. I could clearly tell their noses caught the scent of moose so one must certainly have been nearby. We all scanned the meadow intensely but never found a body to put with the scent...

"We smell MOOSE!!!!!" declares the moose trackers.

With Jack & Rudy catching the scent of moose that early on in our outing meant they were juiced all day long. They kept glancing to our right (into the meadows where the moose hang out) as we were gliding along. Then, at one point, Jack declared, "We MUST go off trail HERE!" There was an opening in the trees and I did not see any moose, so I entertained Jack and said, "Ok, we'll drift off trail for 10 yards or so." Well, we came around one tree and BINGO there was a moose indeed. Oh boy that Jack is a professional moose tracker.

Look straight up from Jack's head and you'll see the moose with its two big
ears up looking at us.

Ok, that was fun and a nice safe distance from the moose. I let Jack & Rudy stare at the moose for a few moments and then I started to back us up. But, as I was backing us up, Rudy let out one of his patented moose screams and holy moly a bigger moose (the mother) appeared from behind a large bush to put herself between her kid and us! I had no idea the mother was even in the area, she was behind such a big bush, until she suddenly appeared!

Yikes, here comes mommy!
You can see the indentation in the snow in front of Jack & Rudy
where we stopped to view the original moose before starting to back up.

If you think the prior photo is shocking, here is a zoom of the same image!

Oh Rudy, why did you scream!!!!!
Way closer than comfort! I QUICKLY reach down, grabbed Jack & Rudy
by the harness and backed us up as fast as I could!

Once mom saw we were backing up, she turned as well and sauntered over to her kid. Phew! 

Ok, moose event over, back to skijoring. We did an out & back in French Gulch and the trail is wide enough that we could lay fresh tracks both directions. Fun!

Blasting through powder on the way back with our "out tracks" to
our left.

Ok, how about a fun powder video. Come along and watch as Jack & Rudy are plowing through the day's fresh snow. In this simple minute video alone, the snow ranges from about 3 inches to about 6 inches in depth. What a fun powder plowing day.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead for some well earned end of run treats.

"Please tell me that is moose meat!" says inquisitive Rudy.
"I'll take ANY meat!" adds focused Jack.
Sorry Rudy all I had was our usual end of run pork, not moose meat :)

A fun powder day with an intense moose encounter: 8.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 54 days on the trails covering 461.1 miles with 44,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Close Encounter of the Moose Kind

Look who is blocking the trail AGAIN!!!

"Hey, no stopping on the trail!" yells Rudy.
"Yeah, RUDE!" adds Jack.

These are the same two moose who where blocking the trail in this EXACT same location 48 hours ago. Now here's the thing, it is rare to unheard of to encounter moose at the same place 48 hours apart. The big animals wander through large spaces to forage in the forest. They already picked the trees in this location clean 48 hours ago, so what are they doing back? So much for "unheard of"...

Today was probably the scariest moment I've ever had on skis, brought to you by these "shouldn't even be here" moose. We were skijoring along, minding our own business, when suddenly the mother moose SHOT out of the forest onto the trail in front of us. Holy smokes!

Big ass moose jumping out from the trees to cut us off.
Pun intended (big ass :)

Come along for the slow motion video of this ridiculously wild moose encounter. As I said above, we are skijoring along, minding our own business, when suddenly the MOOSE pops out of the forest onto the trail and takes off in front of us. I immediately throw my body to the ground to stop everyone. My full body is the best brake I have on this skijoring machine :) My goodness, cutoff by a MOOSE! Whoa!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After collecting myself from this ridiculous cutoff, I got up to see where the moose went. Well, she ran down trail to collect her kid. So, here we were again blocked from proceeding by two moose. A lady we had passed earlier eventually caught up to us stopped for the moose. We all studied the moose trying to figure out how to get them to move.

Rudy screaming at the 2 moose as we all ponder what to do next.

This lady became our new friend for a while. As she and I were discussing the moose with Rudy screaming at them in the background, she eventually said, "I'm surprised they don't leave due to him [Rudy] screaming like that!" I agreed, but Rudy wasn't moving them. 

Here's a zoomed in shot of the two trail hogs.

Mom on the right, kid on the left.
Make note of that bush in front of the kid.

What did we do? Well, Jack, Rudy, myself and our new skier friend skied back up trail to give the moose time to leave. We'd ski a little ways and then one of us would ski back to see if the moose were gone. The moose were moving down trail, but VERY slowly, snacking along the way. Each time we reverified the moose were still in the way, the 4 of us would reverse and go back up trail for a bit. Along the way, Jack & Rudy decided to inspect all the places the moose had snacked. Remember the bush next to the kid in the prior photo? Well, here it is up close...

"Sniff, sniff - juvenile moose slobber on this bush!" declares Jack sniffing
the bush that the kid was snacking on in the prior photo.

Not to be outdone, Rudy found where the mother shot out of the forest when cutting us off.

"Sniff, sniff  - big mama slobber! Even better than kid slobber!" declares
Rudy inspecting the bush the mother was apparently eating before shooting
out of the forest in front of us.

Our new group of 4 tried to get past the moose 6 times, each time going a little further on the trail but still running into the moose eventually. On attempt #7, we finally got clearance! Our new friend is pointing out where the two moose are FINALLY off trail. Of course, Jack & Rudy already alerted me to their location; but still nice of her to point it out.

"Thanks for pointing, but we are already ON it!" says the moose spotters,
Jack & Rudy.

Finally clear and it is back to the trailhead for some much deserved end of run treats!

Given the situation - being cutoff by a moose, Jack & Rudy were incredibly
good today listening to me and turning around 6 times due to moose
blocking the trail!

Yowza, what were those two moose doing in the same location 48 hours apart?!?! Unheard of!!! Anyway, 11.2 miles traveled with a top speed of 24 MPH and 800 feet of elevation climbed.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 123 days on the trails covering 1096.0 miles with 99,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Moose

NOT what you want to see in the middle of the trail after rounding a corner at 20+ MPH!

 MOOSE! Yes, it's hard to see in this shot, but I wanted to show how hard I'm
driving left ski and right pole into the trail to try and come to a stop. The light
brown you see ahead in the middle of the trail are the bottom of the moose's
legs (better photos below once I got stopped :)

This was moments before the moose encounter. We alway take this corner at the nordic center fast, little did I know what we'd find around the corner!

Innocently zooming as usual, so I thought.

Okay, now I've got Jack & Rudy stopped. Here's the moose...

Dead ahead of Jack. 

Such deceivingly camouflaged creatures... Here's as zoomed as I can get in the prior photo without it getting too blurry:

MOOSE!

This was a juvenile moose. I started backing Jack & Rudy up and it started to come our way! So, I stopped for what seemed like forever and the moose stopped too. Rudy was, of course, screaming at the moose; but it just stood there. I tried to backup a second time and it came forward again! So, we just stood there for a while (okay, I stood, Rudy screamed and Jack kept trying to lunge forward). I've seen juvenile moose alone before when the mother is trying to wean them off being dependent. In the past, the mother had always been nearby, just trying to let the kid mature on its own. But, after Rudy screams, the mother usually shows up quickly - not today, though! I was starting to worry this was an orphan moose and was worried that it kept coming forward whenever I tried to back up. Well, FINALLY the mother showed up! I guess she decided the kid needed some advice on how to deal with Rudy screams (don't we all need advice on Rudy ;) The mother and kid started to go the other direction, yay! Once they got out of sight, I proceeded forward cautiously with Jack & Rudy until just around the bend in the trail and they were stopped again. This time Rudy screamed and the mother took a step forward. That was ENOUGH, I collected Jack & Rudy and retreated the other direction!

Hard to see the mom & kid; but this was as close as I was going to get!

A little context on the section of trail. We were at Gold Run Nordic Center and you can consider the nordic center as consisting of two independent networks of trails connected by a single trail. Just behind us was the upper network which would have given us lots of trail options to get around the moose. Just behind the moose was the lower network which could again have given us lots of trail options to get around the moose. But, we were in the single connector with no options but to use this trail. Anyway, we retreated for about 20 minutes before attempting to come back through this "only option" stretch of trail...

So, come along for today's video with some "cautious skijoring" from me as I scan the trail for moose. At about 20 seconds into the clip, you'll see all my "ski marks" from when I had to stop and reverse Jack & Rudy when the encounter happened. About 32 seconds in and all you see are moose tracks on the trail (we had turned around before here) - notice Jack & Rudy inspecting the tracks as as we go. About 44 seconds in and the tracks disappear - yay, the moose left the trail! Then around a corner and there's another skier coming up trail so we know the moose are clear and off we go.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Safely back to the trailhead and let's climb snow walls for end of run treats :)

"That was fun, but why did we retreat?" asks the happy kids.

We had a great 10ish mile skijor on groomed trails then an interesting 2 mile addition while we waited for the moose to leave: 12 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 122 days on the trails covering 1084.8 miles with 98,700 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Moose

Cruising by the historic Sallie Barber Mine on this morning's skijor. 

On by we go.... Wheeee!

We had what began as a very peaceful skijor at Sallie Barber Mine this morning. There was a couple of inches of new snow with a couple of pre-existing ski tracks on the popular frontside of the mine and no existing tracks on the less popular backside of the mine. We skijored up the frontside, then down & back up the backside and finally back down the frontside. 

The backside has some fun dips & lifts along the trail where Jack & Rudy rise above my waist height as they go up a lift before me. This makes for some cool photos:

Jack & Rudy higher than my waist as they crest over a little lift in the trail
before I do.

For today's video highlight, we'll show one of our favorite stretches of trail on the frontside of the mine. Come along as we start in a straight section of trail. Then we get to dip into a sharp left, glide around a gentle right and finally really open the throttle in an extended straightaway. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As we were nearing the end of what was a "peaceful skijor" all moose broke out :) As we came upon a corner near the end of the outing, Jack & Rudy stopped suddenly and low & behold there was a moose laying right off the trail! We had been by this corner just 40ish minutes earlier and there was no moose! I thought this was a pretty big moose at first, little did I know...

Jack & Rudy locked on the moose laying down just feet off the trail. Yikes!

I quickly got Jack & Rudy under control and moved backwards to get a safe distance away before deciding how we were going to avoid this moose and still get around the corner. Well, as I was backing the kids up, Rudy let out one of his patented "moose screams". The scream caused the moose to stand. As I was watching the large creature stand, suddenly another moose arose from the other side of the tree. Much to my amazement, the original moose was actually a kid and the second (that I did not see at first) was the mother who stood to tower over the kid. I continued moving Jack & Rudy back until we were at a safe distance. Meanwhile, the mother meandered over next to her kid while we all decided what to do with each other :)

Mother and kid standing with mother slightly behind the kid!

Not convinced there are two moose the prior photo? Ok, let's zoom in as much as I can before the photo gets too blurry:

You can now make out at least 6 separate legs. Yep, 2 moose.
Oh, 4 very interested husky ears too :)

What happened? Well, Rudy saved the day. He belted out another round of moose screams and the mother got sick of listening to him and gathered her kid and sauntered off into the trees away from us. Of course, Rudy didn't want the moose to leave; but luckily he cannot keep his mouth shut and the moose did not want to listen to him :)

Moose out of the way, time to safely get back to the trailhead to share our usual end of run treats:

"Got any moose meat in that bag?" asks the curious kids.
Sorry guys, no moose in here, just the usual pork treats!

A peaceful quick run around Sallie Barber this morning with an exhilarating moose encounter to end the day: 7.2 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 83 days on the trails covering 722.6 miles with 66,450 feet of elevation climbed.

Butt Brake

Scanning the terrain for rabbits at the official Rabbit Ears Pass Forest Service Marker :)

"Where are the rabbits?!?!?" asks scanning Jack & Rudy.

Little did I know what a foreshadow the prior photo was. Foreshadow of rabbits, you ask? Nope, foreshadow of moose! Oh my! Come along for yesterday morning's moose encounter...

Flying along with Jack & Rudy. Nothing but normal, fast skijoring
at this point...

Ok, enough foreshadow, now onto the real excitement of yesterday morning's outing. I'll give a few frame shots first to set the event and then you can watch it in real time on video.

We were cruising along a nice snowmobile packed trail when suddenly Rudy started scanning the surroundings and Jack started dipping his nose in/out of the ground (mostly in). I noticed moose tracks that Jack was dipping into. Given their intensity, the tracks were fresh (thanks to Jack for pointing that out) and the moose were still "in the area" (thanks to Rudy for pointing that out).

Ok, so moose in the area, I was on high alert to stop/avoid any moose. But, we then come around a corner and three things happen to throw me off: (1) we encounter 3 moose slowly exiting the trail; (2) there is exposed ground all over the trail (if my skis hit this, I'll wipeout); (3) Jack & Rudy see the three moose and are juiced to chase! Yikes...

"MOOSE!" declares intense Jack & Rudy.
I have put arrows to the three. One was still on trail and the other two were
exiting up the side and are very camouflaged against the brown landscape.

Zoom of the prior shot. Trust me, we were much closer to the moose than these photos imply!

Yikes!

Ok, moose + moose juiced Jack & Rudy + exposed ground all over the place. What did I do? Well, I used the old, reliable Butt Brake (planted my butt on the ground) to stop the developing catastrophe! Turns out I planted right next to some moose prints :)

My knee (left), moose print (right). But, at least we are stopped!

Now, come along for the video counterpart. We are cruising along nicely on this trail. But, then, watch at about 50s into the clip and you'll see "Rudy scanning" and "Jack dipping" as I get plenty of warning from my pals that there are moose in the area! Then, about 1m28s into the clip and you'll see the 1 moose on trail and 2 off trail moving. Around this same time and you'll see the "oh no" trifecta: 3 moose, juiced Jack & Rudy and too much exposed ground. Shortly after, I plant the Butt Brake to bring the event to a close. Note that I also call out "wait" to Jack & Rudy as we all come to a halt with my butt. Phew!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We need to report this event to Zorro!

"Any chance you have 'moose meat' for 'end of run' treats today?" asks Rudy.
"Yeah, moose meat for all!" suggests Zorro & Jack!

I do not need it often, as Jack & Rudy are excellent at listening & obeying my verbal commands, but every once in a while, the Butt Brake comes in handy! 6.6 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 21 MPH and three moose on the trail!

2021/2022 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 178.2 miles with 16,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Second Verse Same as the First

Opening up the skijoring engine on the fast packed French Gulch Trail. Zoom!

Zoom, zoom, zoom we go!

Today was a "second verse same as the first" skijor :)

On Sunday, we encountered a moose less than a 1/4 mile from the trailhead. The moose ran all the way out the packed section of French Gulch and then stopped when he ran out of packed terrain and got into the 7+ feet of snow we had in the last week.

Today was second verse same as the first. We returned to French Gulch and were peacefully skijoring when, after about 1 to 1.5 miles we encountered the SAME MOOSE on the trail again. Once again the moose saw us and took off running out the French Gulch Trail. Once again he never left the trail to go into the forest (which is the typical moose behavior unless the snow is incredibly deep). Once again he went to the end of the packed section of French Gulch, hit deep snow and turned around to declare "the trail ends here". Second verse same as the first:

Almost the exact same point he turned around on Sunday.
He had his head lowered and swaying back & forth declaring, "None shall pass!"
Not a problem Mr. Moose, we will happily turn around!

I convinced my partners to admit defeat and retreat from the moose. I got them a few yards back and then I heard the moose snort. Yikes, we stopped again and stayed still until he finally lost interest in us and then we high tailed it out of there!

"Jeez dude - you trail hog! We were leaving until you snorted at us!" say my intense partners.
Luckily everyone listened to my "wait, easy and quiet" commands until he lost interest!

A week ago we were on French Gulch and encountered fresh moose tracks. This got everyone very energized (and me very cautious around all blind curves). But that day all we encountered was a big Newfoundland on the trail. I jokingly said, "Almost a Moose, Just a Newf".  Well, today was the same newf (he is a local we encounter often). But, after having just seen the moose, I take back the "almost a moose". Even a big newf pales in comparison to a moose!

"Hey Newf, you are CLEARLY not almost a moose!" say my partners as we pause to let
the newf & owner get under control before passing.

Another day, another moose close encounter! We need the snowpack to melt a little to let the moose back out to the forests; but we have another foot of snow in the forecast! End of an exciting run, time for end of run treats:

"You have our full attention!!!!" say the focused trio.

Another day, another moose: 6.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 72 days on the trails covering 387.2 miles with 34,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Another Moose

Another day, another moose "close encounter" on the trails this morning!

"Two days in a row of 'close encounter moosing' - we love it!" declare the silly moose
seeking trio.

Ok, come along for today's interesting moose tale. We went to skijor French Gulch this morning. Within 20 yards of the trailhead we saw moose droppings and footprints on the trail. But, no moose in sight, so I relaxed a bit. About 1/4 mile later we came around a bend in the trail to see a moose dead center in front of us running the French Gulch Trail too. Luckily it was running the same direction as us, not at us!

The black dot in the center of the trail (draw a line directly from Zorro) is the moose running
French Gulch in front of us.

The moose was running the same direction and a moose is much faster than us, so no problem I thought. I let the trio tow me out French Gulch at a ridiculously fast pace, but never fast enough to catch the moose.

Before we get further into the outing - a little context. It has snowed 89 inches in Breckenridge the last 10 days ending yesterday, March 9th. That 89 inches is the "mid mountain" measure, so it is a little less lower and a bit more higher. Well, French Gulch is basically "mid mountain and higher" the entire outing. But, French Gulch also gets plowed after 10+ inches falls. So, you see the high snow walls in all our photos from plowing and you know there is 89+ inches of fresh snow if you exit the main trail into the forest.

Normally, if you encounter a moose in French Gulch, it will run away from you for a bit and then exit the trail into the forest and all is ok. As we ran out the gulch, I kept looking for evidence that the moose left the gulch and went into the forest. But, I just kept seeing moose tracks on the trail in front of us. If you go far enough in the gulch, eventually you get past the "plow section" and get into untouched backcountry - here you would find 89+ inches of fresh snow!

As we were approaching the end of the plow terrain, we rounded one last corner to find the moose coming BACK AT US! Clearly the moose found 89 inches too deep for even a moose. I was shocked to see it coming back and it was NOT happy. He was swaying his head back & forth coming back towards us, letting us know he was not retreating into the deep snow!

Yikes - he's coming back!!!! He was swaying his head back & forth to warn us as I stopped
to gather my pals to turn around.

We retreated a little bit but the moose kept coming. One thing about moose - they "charge movement" and ignore you if you are still. As he kept coming, I stopped to let him lose interest in us being still. Until the photo below, I assumed the moose was female as it did not have an antler basket. But, look closely in the photo below and you can see a tiny antler on the head. This was an adolescent male just starting to grow antlers.

YIKES - he's still coming at us. I stopped everyone until he stopped showing interest.
Good boys keeping still with my commands to "wait" and "easy".

Once he lost interest, I backed up a little more then paused again. He looked up and then lost interest again. At this point I think Zorro got the message that the moose "means business" and he retreated back with me:

"I think he means business, maybe we should go!" says Zorro.
"We are planting ourselves to wait for the moose!" say the silly youngsters.

Luckily,  Zorro did retreat from the moose with me and we were able to convince Jack & Rudy to abort too. I'm pretty sure Jack & Rudy got the message from Zorro that this was getting dangerous. Moosing is all fun & games until the moose gets serious!

Safely away from the moose and it was time to skijor again :)  We have had so much snow that even heavily used French Gulch looks lightly used! Come along as we all start in a narrow single track trying to open up the throttle. Eventually, Rudy realizes there is a semi-packed track to the right and he can get some elbow room and run over there. Jack realizes he can drift in/out of the left shoulder powder and share the single track with Zorro. All aligned and off we go...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We have had so much snow, even the moose think it is deep and are coming out of the forest and onto the trails! Second day in a row with a close moose encounter! 5.8 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 71 days on the trails covering 380.8 miles with 34,000 feet of elevation climbed.