Soft

Fun shot from the front of the happy, happy sled dogs towing me to the finish of today's skijor outing.

Smiles all around - such happy kids to be towing me in the snow!

We started the day laying fresh tracks in the backcountry. I was a bit surprised how much fresh snow there was as we had less than an inch or so at home. But, we'll take any and all fresh powder!

Wheeee - fresh tracks fun!

After touring around the backcountry, we dropped onto the wide trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. The nordic center's traditional big, heavy snowcat groomer is out of commission; so they are using snowmobiles towing grooming sleds to maintain the trails until the snowcat is repaired. As we dropped onto the nordic trails, we came across one of the snowmobile groomers:

"Hey, cool setup!" says impressed Jack.
"Interesting!" adds curious Rudy.
You can see the "grooming sled" behind the snowmobile that is being
towed to try and maintain the nordic trails.

There is one primary drawback of a snowmobile + grooming sled versus a grooming snowcat: the snowmobile is no where near as heavy as a snowcat. We have had upwards of 4 feet of new snow fall in the last 4-5 days; so the lightness of the snowmobile really shows. While a heavy snowcat packs snow pretty firmly, a light snowmobile leaves a very soft trail behind when there has been a lot of new snow. The result? Well, it is quite a workout for my pals to gallop through soft terrain. No complaints from anyone in our team, it is just quite a workout - compare this to running in sand!

Impressive Jack & Rudy still catching air despite the very soft trail
conditions. These kids are professionals :)

Now come along for the video counterpart to what I described above. Watch as Jack & Rudy are running hard and getting quite a workout on the soft trail (notice all the snow poofs and their footprints deep in the snow to get an appreciation for how soft it was). What a fun workout for all!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The trails at Gold Run are in a known moose habitat. Along the way, Jack & Rudy pulled a sharp right off the trail to inspect a deep moose trough leading into a very moosey meadow:

Only a big moose can walk through snow this deep and not leave any
indentations in the snow from its belly - just deep moose legs posts!
"Moose went this way! We should too!" suggests silly Jack & Rudy.
I vetoed this suggestion :)

Since we failed to get any moose meat, we might as well settle for our pork end of run treats instead:

"Ok, we'll accept the pork; but why couldn't we go find the moose?" asks
the happy kids.

A little backcountry fresh tracks fun followed by a nice workout on soft nordic trails: 9 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 58 days on the trails covering 435.8 miles with 41,400 feet of elevation climbed.

 

26 MPH

We achieved our top speed of the season skijoring this morning - the GPS registered us going exactly 26 MPH! Zoom!

Jack & Rudy flying along the stretch of trail where they went
26 MPH.

Jack & Rudy regularly hit 24 MPH as their top speed on our outings when the conditions are great. But, then, a few times a season they'll hit 25 MPH and 1-2 times a season we will exceed an impressive 26 MPH as our top speed. If you think skijoring sounds like a wild ride, try it at 26 MPH :)

We actually started this morning's skijor in the backcountry and passed through the Dry Gulch Ghost Town along the way:

Skijoring the backcountry through an old mining ghost town.

After some fun backcountry touring, we dropped onto the groomed trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. We did two laps around the upper Preston Loop and found ourselves first tracks on the fresh groom for lap one and second tracks (to ourselves) on lap two. Along the way around the loop, though, the kids got distracted by a very fresh smelling trough of moose tracks leading off trail:

"Sniff, sniff - these are fresh!" says the moose inspectors sniffing the
moose tracks in the deep trough made by the moose's legs.

Aside from one moose trough distraction (they only hopped in the trough on the first lap and then went on by the second lap), we were flying around the freshly groomed Preston Loop. It is usually January or February when we top 26 MPH as the snow & trail conditions are usually fantastic during those two months. Well, come along for a minute of fast skijoring as the GPS registered us going 26 MPH during this stretch of trail. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After our two laps around the Preston Loop, it was time to get on the main trail to finish the outing. We often encounter other skiers on this trail as it is the main path out from the trailhead parking lot:

"Coming through, made you smile!" goes Jack & Rudy who love flying
by oncoming skiers and making them smile.

Almost 11 miles later and we arrived at the trailhead with smiles all around:

"Whee, what a fun day!" says the happy kids.

Speed and distance - what a way to earn your end of run treats!

"These are going to taste good today!" declares the happy kids.

A great day on perfect conditions: 10.7 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 26 MPH!!!

2023/2024 Season to Date: 67 days on the trails covering 566.5 miles with 55,200 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Single Track

The comedians, Jack & Rudy, rolling snow angels in a deep snowmobile track we found to follow for miles and miles into the backcountry.

"Rub a dub dub!" goes the snow rolling sillies.

That snowmobile track in the prior photo looks wonderful, right? Well, it was indeed. When we could, Jack & Rudy got side by side in this track and ran, ran, ran :)

Whee! Making use of a wonderful snowmobile track.

But, this snowmobile track was not too fresh as we found lots of places where the track had been wind blown and got very narrow and choppy. In fact, we spent the majority of this morning's outing in single file skijoring as the track was not wide enough to fit Jack & Rudy and stepping out of the center of the track was too deep, soft and choppy for either to run in and keep pace. Not a problem, Jack & Rudy are very experienced at running in narrow single tracks and taking turns who runs in lead:

Too narrow to fit side by side and too soft/choppy to run out of the narrow
track. No problem, single file skijoring. 

Along the way, Rudy got quite distracted by rodents under the snow off trail. Incoming!

"Rodent dive! Incoming!" goes high arching, fox-like Rudy.
"What's going on back there?" asks Jack glancing back to see what Rudy
is up to.

Jack didn't participate in the rodent dive and Rudy hopped back on trail quickly. I guess the rodents were not too active under the snow. Or, was Jack saving himself? Saving for what, you ask...

"Big Moose went this way!" declares Jack & Rudy hopping off trail to inspect
a very deep trough of moose tracks. Moose sure are tall!

Rodent dives, moose troughs (we actually came across 4 different moose track troughs) and a lot of single file skijoring, what an interesting day!

"Yes, and we had a BLAST!" says the happy kids climbing a snow wall
for end of run treats.

8.1 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a modest top speed of 17 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 27 days on the trails covering 218.2 miles with 21,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Second Tracks

Beautiful morning to lay fresh tracks up a gentle rise in the trail!

Whee we go laying fresh tracks as I ride the Siberian Tow Rope!
Those are fox tracks to the left of Jack; but not very fresh/recent as neither
kid showed much interest in them.

We were on the upper trails of Gold Run Nordic Center this morning. But, the nordic center closed for the season on Monday; so no more grooming of these trails and we'll need fresh snow (as we had today) to use them for the rest of the season. 

Anyway, we were first on the morning's fresh snow until we rounded a corner and found evidence of moose:

"Whoa, what a deep moose trough!" states Rudy inspecting the deep trough
leading into (or out of) the forest.
"Sniff, sniff - moose came OUT of the forest here, it did not leave to go
into the forest!" declares track inspecting Jack.

So, which was it? Did the moose leave and to into the forest here or come out of the forest and onto the trail? Well, it turns out Jack was right, the moose came out of the forest here and sauntered along the trail we were about to embark on. As we started along this trail, moose tracks were very evident going the same direction as us for a while.

Big two-toed moose print in the lower left corner of this photo and then
a line of moose tracks going along the left side of the trail. Rude moose
didn't know you are not supposed to step in the classic ski track :)

So, it turns out we were second tracks to a moose for part of this morning's outing, Luckily, we never encountered the moose itself. Come along and watch today's clip as there are moose tracks along the trail during this entire video clip. The tracks are mostly to the left of Jack and are most visible around 10 seconds, 30 seconds and 55 seconds into the clip (but, they are there the entire clip). You better believe I was on high alert as we rounded every corner!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Eventually the tracks left the trail and back into the forest, yay! Once clear of moose, it was time to really floor it again :)

Cool shot of the flying kids as we are rounding a gentle left in the trail.
Zoom!

Finally, onto the main trail taking us back to the trailhead. This stretch of trail is very sun exposed and always the first to melt out every Spring. This may have been our last skijor along this stretch for the season :(

Catching air on what might be our last run along this particular trail.

Back to the trailhead to climb snow walls for end of run treats. What are Jack & Rudy going to do when the snow walls melt?!?!?!?

"Coming up for end of run treats!" declares the happy, wall climbing kids.

A peaceful morning laying fresh tracks most of the outing with a short stint of "second tracks to a moose" but luckily no actual moose encounter! 8.4 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 1132.9 miles with 102,700 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Rabbit Pair

Sunday and Monday provided two wonderful skijor outings atop Rabbit Ears Pass!

Come along for the fun....

Sunday morning, BEFORE we started our outing.
Jack & Rudy rolling snow angels to stretch out before starting our run :)

Rabbit Ears got over a foot of snow Saturday and into Sunday. As we began our outing Sunday morning, we found snowmobile tracks to use for miles & miles of fun!

Reusing a set of snowmobile tracks to let us open up the skijor throttle.

Eventually, though, the snowmobiles turned away from the direction we wanted to go. No problem, we'll just break trail instead!

Impressive shot of Jack & Rudy, the powder twins, blasting through
over a foot of fresh snow!

We returned to the same general area Monday morning to cruise around the pass again. Here are the power kids towing me up the Muddy Creek Trail, whee!

Riding the skis behind the power twins :)

Monday, though, turned out to be a day of moosing! We caught a glimpse of a young bull moose off trail at one point. But, he was young & timid and ran off before I could stop, get us under control, and square my camera at him. Oh well, all three of us saw him :)

Then, after that initial sighting, we encountered moose tracks crossing the trail 5 different times! Jack and Rudy HAD to stop so inspect the tracks each time. Jack has an incredible moose radar and he can direct us to a moose anytime I allow. When safe, I'll sometimes say, "Which way Jack?" and he knows I'm letting him set the path to search for moose (until we find one from a distance and then turnaround :) Well, on Monday's outing, Jack REALLY wanted to follow one set of moose tracks into the trees (must have smelled very fresh). Ha, no chance Jack, we are not going into thick trees to accidentally run into a camouflaged moose!!!

"Please say 'which way Jack', I WANT to follow these fresh tracks!" declares Jack.
"Sniff, sniff, very fresh!" confirms Rudy.

The fifth set of moose tracks we came upon were at my planned turnaround point of the outing. Apparently the moose had the same trail plans as us as the tracks made a u-turn at our planned turnaround point.

Jack & Rudy standing in a moose track trough. You can see the moose drifted
over to the trees in front of us before u-turning back down the trail.
"Sniff, sniff, it's still in the area!!!" declares the moosing twins :)

For video entertainment, we'll use a fun clip from Sunday morning showing us cruising along the edge of Rabbit Ears Peak. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Two great outings on Sunday/Monday, we wore Rudy out :)

"Ready for end of run treats!" declares happy Jack.
"Woo, you two wore me out!" adds satisfied Rudy.

Sunday: 7.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

Monday: 8.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 11 days on the trails covering 74.1 miles with 6250 feet of elevation climbed.

Entertaining

Paused to watch a dog sled team cross perpendicular on the trail in front of us!

"Hey friends! Wait for us!!!" says focused Jack & Rudy.
Look up from Jack's left ear and that is the musher and sled.
In front of the sled, the "8 little dots" are the sled dogs :)

It was a very entertaining day for Jack & Rudy skijoring Swan Valley this morning. We got to do both of their favorite activities: moosing and sled dog flirting!

We started the morning doing some warmup laps on the Middle Fork Trail. Partway along the trail and we found fresh smelling moose tracks going up trail. Jack & Rudy kicked it into overdrive to search for the moose. But, all we found was the moose's "exit point" where it eventually left the trail and went back into the forest. Did it hear us coming and leave the trail just ahead of us? I think so given how intense Jack & Rudy seemed at the freshness of the tracks. Big, long-legged moose sure leave deep troughs when they exit the trail!

Jack submerged in the "moose track trough" as he checks for freshness.
Rudy has himself propped up on the edge of the trough as he is
studying the trough of tracks leading into the forest.
This trough of tracks was apparently VERY fresh!

We never saw any moose; but it was still very entertaining for Jack & Rudy to sniff & follow the tracks and study the deep trough leading off trail :)

Once done moosing in Middle Fork, it was time to go flirt with the dog sled teams from Good Times Adventures. Here is a fun shot of Jack & Rudy flying up one trail while an 8 dog team and musher are going the same direction up a trail parallel to ours. Here we come, wheeee!

Jack & Rudy flooring it as we are gaining ground on the
8 dog team. Love to play "sled dog chase" :)

A little further along and we spotted another team visible but far ahead of us on the trail. Ok, a target to chase!

Flying along Jack & Rudy as you can make out the sled+musher
directly down the middle of the photo. A few of the "sled dog
dots" are also visible in front of the sled+musher.

Today's video contains the prior shot. Come along as we are having fun gaining on the dog sled team far ahead of us on the trail until we have to go right whereas the team went straight. If you look really close, you can make out the team far ahead during parts of the video clip (maybe try watching in full screen mode). Once we turn right, we stop to yield to a bunch of snowmobiles coming along the trail. Well, stopped means you roll snow angels, right Jack? Right! Funny kid!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Moosing and sled dog flirting: what an entertaining day! Let's tell Zorro all about it:

"Unless you brought me some 'moose meat', let's get on with
the 'end of run' pork treats!" suggests focused Zorro.
"So much fun this morning!" adds satisfied Jack & Rudy.

Beautiful morning for a 10.1 mile skijor with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 114 days on the trails covering 933.6 miles with 79450 feet of elevation climbed.

Brrrr

 It was -4 (F) when we started this morning's skijor (yes, 4 BELOW zero). What do you think Jack & Rudy thought of the temperatures?

"So HOT, must roll snow angels to cool off!" demonstrates the snow rolling goofs.
4 degrees below zero and the silly kids need to cool off?!?!?

We started the morning on narrow side trails:

Pretty trail winding through the trees as the morning sun starts to peek through.

Then we eventually transitioned onto wide and fast trails of Gold Run Nordic Center:

Flooring it on a "Zoom Stretch" of trail.

Did I say fast? You bet. Come along and watch on of our favorite sections of trail to really open up the throttle. We topped 23 MPH on this section of trail today. This is the same stretch of trail where Max & Zorro once topped 27 MPH. I keep waiting for Jack & Rudy to hit 25 or 26 MPH on this stretch this season. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

If you've paid attention through the years, you also know that the trails at Gold Run Nordic Center are known for moose. No moose sightings today but we did find a very entertaining trough of moose tracks just off trail:

The kids standing in a trough of moose tracks.
"I think the moose are ahead in the trees!" suggests Rudy.
"No, I think they are across the trail and behind dad!" states Jack.

I was scanning the forest ahead of Rudy for moose and then spun around when Jack gave this stare the opposite direction. I expected to find moose behind me; but, alas, no moose were in sight.

Back to the trailhead for our group 'end of run' ritual with retired Zorro:

Patiently waiting our turn. Zorro, then Jack and then Rudy.

I cut the outing short this morning since I thought it was cold, despite what Jack & Rudy thought: 6.8 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 44 days on the trails covering 343.0 miles with 31,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Tear

 Fun shot of the "ears" on top Rabbit Ears Peak:

View of the ears from the northwest side of Rabbit Ears Peak.
The two rocks atop the peak are the ears. At least Rudy and I were
entertained. Oh silly, snow rolling Jack :)

I got a tear in my eye today skijoring one stretch of trail along Rabbit Ears Peak:

Jack & Rudy skijoring Rabbit Ears Peak Nov 2020.

Max & Zorro skijoring the same trail at almost the same location
in Oct 2017.

Why the tear? Well, the Oct 2017 photo was one of Max's last ever skijors. Add that this was young Jack & Rudy's first ever skijor on this particular trail. In addition, Rudy & Jack are wearing Max & Zorro's "orange hunting season" skijor harnesses. We have an orange set we wear in Oct/Nov and then Jack & Rudy switch to their green & purple harnesses once we are out of hunting season. Well, Rudy is roughly the same size as Max and Jack is roughly the same size as Zorro. So, we get to see Rudy in Max gear and Jack in Zorro gear this time of year. Thus, the tear in my eye knowing we were flying along one of Max's last trails in his and Zorro's gear!

It was a fabulous outing on Rabbit Ears Peak this morning as we found a solo snowmobile track to follow forever:

Endless snowmobile track for endless skijoring!

Come along for a video counterpart to the prior photo. Endless, endless fun! Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The only thing that can distract Jack & Rudy from an endless trail? Moose tracks!

"Moose went this way!" declares Jack standing in a trough of moose
leg prints leading into the deep snow off trail.
"Really? How fresh? Shall we follow?" asks curious Rudy.

Done running one of Max's last trails and time to celebrate the outing with elder Zorro:

"Did they do justice to the karma in those harnesses?" asks Zorro.
"We did, we did!" adds happy Jack & Rudy.

An nostalgic tribute to Max run this morning, miss you Max! 7 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 9 days on the trails covering 62.4 miles with 6000 feet of elevation climbed.

Sunrise

Happy boys finishing off an early morning skijor!

"We have fun ANY time of day we are running on snow!" says the happy trio.

We start this morning's skijor a few minutes after sunrise and were first on the trails to lay fresh tracks on the Sally Barber and French Gulch trails. Early morning freshies - what a treat.

The first 1/2 of the outing was just Jack & Rudy towing me up, over and down the Sally Barber Mine Trail. Here's a fun "sunrise photo" of the mine:

Laying fresh tracks as we crest on the trail at the historic mine.

Jack & Rudy are ridiculously fast going up, over and down the Sally Barber trail. I was wondering if we were going to make record time on this trail when we got distracted by a moose trough going from the trail into the trees. We had to stop and inspect the trough, of course, so it wasn't a record fast outing given the pause for moose inspection :)

Jack noticed the trough first and was deep into it before Rudy or I even noticed it!
But, Rudy was quick to see what Jack was onto and hopped through the
deep snow to look for moose too (we didn't see any).

Done with the Sally Barber Mine Trail and it was time to join with Zorro for an out & back in French Gulch. It was still near sunrise, so we got some "early morning" fun in French Gulch too.

Cool shot of the sun just starting to come over the mountains in front of us
as we lay fresh tracks in French Gulch!

I said, "out & back", didn't I? So, you know what that means from the crazy kids at the turnaround point. It was 2 degrees F when we started the outing and -2 F when we finished. Cold enough for Jack to forego rolling snow angels? Ha, it's never too cold for that! Love the frosted beard and mustache on Zorro in this shot:

"Never too cold to roll!" declares goofball Jack.
"Never to cold to eat snow!" says goofy Rudy.
"Oh those kids!" adds 'frosted face' Zorro :)

Once the kids were upright again, it was time for a fast return leg in French Gulch. Come along for a short glimpse into the morning's fun:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, you may have noticed Jack far right of Zorro & Rudy at points in the video (and as I have shown below). The pattern for French Gulch is two set tracks on each side of the trail and the set track is really only "2 Siberians wide". So, what you see is Zorro & Rudy in one track while Jack is in the other track. Smart guys figure out how to best configure themselves for fast fun!

Zorro & Rudy in one track while Jack is the the other track.

A beautiful "sunrise skijor" laying fresh tracks on Sally Barber and French Gulch: 8.1 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 99 days on the trails covering 676.4 miles with 62,050 feet of elevation climbed.