Patience

Jack & Rudy whipping me around a gentle left in the trail. Sled dog power! Whee!

The fun kids hug every corner very tightly, it's up to me to
try and stay upright and keep pace on skis :)

Today's outing took us on the upper elevation trails on peaks 7 & 6 in Breckenridge. Along the way, we found some snowcat tracks going up one of the Peak 6 service roads. With fresh snow over the snowcat tracks, this was safe for me to traverse on skis, so we followed. Eventually the snowcat turned around, so we did too. Did I say "turn around?" Yep...

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes the snow rolling sillies.
You can see the wide cul-de-sac like turnaround the snowcat did.

Once the kids were done rolling, it was time to go back down the way we came up. This service road gets a bit steep in areas, so I like to take it cautiously. I only have to call out "easy" a few times to Jack & Rudy for them to get the message that we are taking the trail slower until I say otherwise. Great partners!

Believe me, they WANT to go faster than this; but a couple of "easy"
commands from me and they oblige as jogging is better than stopping!

After doing the side tour on the snowcat tracks, it was back onto the main trail on Peak 7. This is technically one of the trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center which is now closed for the season. I had turn on skis to get from the snowcat tracks back onto the main trail. Come along and watch as Jack & Rudy sit SO patiently waiting for me to turn on skis. Once around, I only need to mutter "Ok," and off we GO! I love to reward their patience with the opportunity to floor it :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the video. The tracks (ski and dog prints) you see are our out tracks on this same trail. So, go back and watch again and pay attention to seconds 24-25 in the clip. It looks as though my skis and Jack & Rudy's footprints seem to go off trail. Well, here is what happened at this point on the way up :)

Jack first lunged off trail looking for rodents under the snow.
Rudy, as usual, followed suit with one of his high arching rodent dives.
Together, both nearly pulled me completely off trail! Now you understand
the prints in the video :)

It was actually quite a nice morning with a light layer of new snow atop the (now closed for the season) nordic trails. We will not be able to use these trails again unless there is new snow as they get beat up quickly this time of year.

Whee - what wonderful April 20th conditions!

Back to the trailhead and we are still finding snow walls to climb for end of run treats; but they are melting fast :(

The fun kids found yet another snow wall to scale so we could be face to
face for end of run treats. Fun guys!

Today's tally: 6.8 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 97 days on the trails covering 742.1 miles with 72,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Patience Rewarded

Cool shot of Jack & Rudy in sync cruising along the trail at Breckenridge Nordic Center.

Zoom!

Nancy and I were talking the other day about how Rudy has not done one of his patented fox-like rodent dives in a while. Our hypothesis was that the snowpack was not deep enough to warrant a high arching dive. It's been snowing quite a bit lately, so the snowpack is building. We were laughing that there are two character traits Rudy will NEVER outgrow: rodent dives and wooing. Well, we were right - he's back....

"I sense rodents under the snow!" declares hunting Jack.
"Huh? What? Rodents? INCOMING!" joins Rudy back with one of
his beautiful high arching rodent dives.

Hunting for rodents aside, we had a zippy fast day flying around the upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center. Here's a cool shot of the speedy kids near our high point of the outing (around 12,000 feet elevation):

Cannonball Jack and Missile Rudy FLYING along the fast trail.

Today's video highlight shows my great partners. The clip starts at a turnaround point on the trail. Jack & Rudy had already rolled snow angels (as they do at most turnaround points :) and were ready to restart. But, I had to adjust my headgear and needed a bit longer before restarting. So, come along as the perfect gentlemen are so patiently waiting for me at the beginning of this clip. Then, once I give the verbal release, OFF WE GO! Patience rewarded as we then topped 23 MPH skijoring along this stretch of trail. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We redid quite a few sections of trail at the nordic center this morning (we were going so fast that we were running out of trail so had to keep repeating). Well, here's the standard turnaround photo :)

Turnaround... Roll Around!
"Aaah, feels so good!" declares Rudy.
"Rub a dub dub!" adds Jack.

Thanks for being so polite and patient my great partners. How about some end of run treats?

"You bet! Dish them out!" says the patient again great kids.

Flying around the nordic center all morning long (w/ one rodent hunt along the way): 10.4 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 67 days on the trails covering 581.2 miles with 52,000 feet of elevation climbed.