Endless

It was a beautiful morning for a skijor on seemingly endless snow covered terrain atop Rabbit Ears Pass:

Starting off the outing on snowmobile trails with snow white covered
terrain as far as the eye can see! Wheeee!

We haven't skijored Rabbit Ears since December, 2024; but yesterday and then again today was a wonderful return to this great snow mecca. Today we got to spend most of the outing with a view of Rabbit Ears Peak and its two "rabbit ears" (huge rocks) atop the peak:

A little closer than the prior photo and Rabbit Ears Peak with its ears
on top is in view in the upper left of this photo.

Eventually we passed the peak, took a turn to the right and kept on going :)

Jack & Rudy's shadows reversed from the last to photos as Rabbit Ears
Peak is now behind us. Different direction, same results - endless terrain!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Such a peaceful day to glide for miles and miles behind my fun pals:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We did pause at the Rabbit Ears Pass official geological marker. Well, paused to look at the marker; Jack & Rudy paused to roll snow angels!

"Rub a dub dub!" goes the silly kids rolling around in front of
the geological marker.

A very peaceful & enjoyable morning, right guys?

"Yep, we had a BLAST as usual!" says the happy kids awaiting
end of run treats.

Today's tally: 7.1 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH. Yesterday we had an equally enjoyable 9.1 mile skijor at Rabbit Ears, I just didn't have time to writeup that outing.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 73 days on the trails covering 567.8 miles with 53,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Success

Rudy is proud to announce the following from his high arching rodent dive this morning: SUCCESS!!!

"Rodents under the snow! Incoming!" says diving Rudy.

Jack actually initiated today's hunt for rodents. We were skijoring along in a solo snowmobile track when Jack lunged out of the track into the side snow. Rudy quickly followed suit and performed his own rodent dive but his target was a little ahead of Jack. Did Jack scare the rodents to scurry forward to where Rudy is targeting? I believe so...

"Got one!" declares proud Rudy.
"Wait! The rodents scurried up there! Incoming!" goes Jack coming to
join Rudy.

Then, sure enough, Rudy's head came up from the snow with a rodent in his mouth. Was it a mouse, vole, or something similar? I'm not sure exactly. I quickly reached down and grabbed the tail hanging out of Rudy's mouth and pulled & extracted it from Rudy's mouth before throwing it out of reach (it was still alive & squirming during this extraction, I'll spare you any photos :) Silly kids,  if you do enough rodent dives, the odds are you will succeed occasionally! This was not Rudy's first successful catch but he does come up empty mouthed more often than not.

Ok, Rudy's highlight of the day described, let's get back to the real purpose of the outing: to go skijoring! We started the outing about 10-15 minutes after sunrise and proceeded to skijor towards Rabbit Ears Peak at Rabbit Ears Pass.

Out first glimpse of the ears which are the two rocks atop Rabbit Ears Peak
that you see in the upper left of this photo. Oh, fun snow poofs behind Jack
and Rudy too as we zip along in snowmobile tracks.

A little further along and the sun has fully risen above the clouds to shine bright on the trail.

Jack & Rudy catching air with cool snow poofs behind them again.
Rabbit Ears Peak and the two ears atop the peak are now much more
visible in the upper left.

Finally, our closest approach to the peak and ears before the trail turned and took us away from the peak:

The ears atop the peak directly up from Jack's head.

Now come along for a nice video showcasing Rabbit Ears Peak up & to our left during this clip. Jack & Rudy are having a blast cruising along as the peak and its ears are visible throughout most of this clip. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Done touring Rabbit Ears and extracting rodents from under the snow (and then from Rudy's mouth) and it is all smiles to end the outing:

"We had a great time!" says the happy, happy kids finishing today's outing.

Sorry I ruined the rodent feast, will you two accept end of run treats instead?

"Well, ok, but I really wanted to finish off that rodent!" states proud Rudy.
"Can't believe you threw it instead of handing it to ME!" adds cool Jack.

Today's skijor tally: 9.3 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 21 MPH and one rodent extracted from under the snow!

2023/2024 Season to Date: 103 days on the trails covering 882.4 miles with 85,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Quick Recap

I only have time to writeup a quick recap of this morning's skijor. But, it was so much fun I had to share some!

We started at Dumont Lake on packed tire tracks left over from the recently completed hunting season in Colorado.

Catching air in the fast packed tracks.

We then turned to follow pre-existing ski tracks out & back around the base of Rabbit Ears Peak!

Love this shot as Jack & Rudy are chest high with me!
They have just flown up a slight rise in the trail that I am about to encounter.

Then, for a real surprise, we hung a left near the Columbine junction and found ourselves laying fresh tracks in untouched snow on days old snowmobile tracks.

Wow, nobody has been this direction until us for days (that's how long
it's been since fresh snow fell).

What was even more of a treat that the fresh tracks segment? Well, back to the first photo. I totally expected the leftover tire tracks from hunting season to be packed & icy this morning. I was ready for slow going until we got onto less used terrain. But, nope. The tire tracks were packed but also SOFT! Wow, what a treat. Come along and watch as we are skijoring in packed tired tracks but you can see snow poofs coming off Jack & Rudy's feet as the tracks were also soft!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

That's all folks! We'll back for a more involved blog on our next outing :)

"We were there, we know how fun it was!" exclaims the happy kids
awaiting end of run treats.

A really nice day skijoring near Dumont Lake and Rabbit Ears Peak: 9.2 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 23 days on the trails covering 186.7 miles with 18,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Ears

Hello from the shore of Dumont Lake at Rabbit Ears Pass!

"HELLO! I'm having a GREAT time this morning!" exclaims happy Rudy.
"Me too, but have to roll snow angels in appreciation!" adds snow rolling Jack.

"Just a smile from Rudy and not a woo or a snow angel?" you ask in astonishment. Oh, don't worry, he belted out a big woo before this smile I was just turned slightly and my arm was blocking the camera as I was adjusting my equipment. 

This morning's skijor fun had us touring around to get views of the ears atop Rabbit Ears Peak. We started far away:

Zipping along as Rabbit Ears Peak is the high point in the upper left of
this photo. The two rocks atop the peak are the "ears" for which Rabbit
Ears Pass is named.

Pretty hard to see the ears in the prior photo, right? Ok, Jack & Rudy will just tow me a little closer:

Rabbit Ears Peak straight up from Jack and the two rocks (the ears) are
more visible now.

Still need a closer view? Ok, how about this:

Rabbit Ears Peak with its ears in the top center of this clip.
Nice work from Jack & Rudy fitting in this narrow single track while
still running fast.

Today's video fun goes along with the second photo of the ears above. Come along and watch Jack & Rudy towing me along this beautiful section of trail. If you can take your eyes off the impressive sled dogs, you'll see Rabbit Ears Peak and its ears coming in and out of view in front of us. Nice scenery!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Other that touring around Rabbit Ears Peak to get views of the ears, what other excitement did we have? Well, fresh smelling moose tracks are ALWAYS exciting and require stopping to inspect:

"Sniff, sniff - very fresh!" declares track inspecting Rudy.
"I know, I know and it went THIS way! We should too!" suggests moose
patrolling Jack. Sorry, Jack, we are not following fresh moose tracks into
the dense trees!

Back to the trailhead and Jack & Rudy found a mini snow wall to climb for end of run treats. It wasn't the biggest wall, but tall enough that I could hand out treats from a standing position.

"This is as high as we can get - ready for treats!" says the happy pair.

A really enjoyable skijor this morning touring around Rabbit Ears Peak: 9.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 18 days on the trails covering 143.2 miles with 14,000 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Night/Day

Love this cool shot of seemingly conjoined Jack & Rudy in a fast sprint tuck!

The conjoined hover huskies.

Naturally, for every "sprint tuck" there is a corresponding "sprint stretch" - still conjoined!

The conjoined Jack & Rudy skijor missile!

It was practically "night & day" between the light we had on this morning's skijor outing. We started in the sun in front of Rabbit Ears Peak. We then followed a great trail that goes along and then behind Rabbit Ears Peak. Once behind the peak, it was very dim as the morning sun had not come over the peak yet. The prior two photos are us skijoring behind the peak, thus the low lighting. Here's how different the lighting was from behind vs in front of the peak:

Same trail as above, just in the morning sun versus shaded from the morning sun.
What a night & day difference in lighting :)

Today's video highlight? Well, a beautiful minute of skijoring in the morning sun behind Jack & Rudy. Come along for a fun, fun ride. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite incredible trail conditions, we did have to pause once. You cannot ignore fresh moose tracks crossing the trail and heading into the trees!

"Moose went this way! Can we too?" asks the moosers.
If you look closely between Jack & Rudy, you can see the tracks continuing
in front of them and into the trees. Oh, my answer was, "No, we are
not following fresh moose tracks into the trees!!!"

Morning sun, morning shade, made no difference to Jack & Rudy - they had a great, great time in all lighting :)

"Ready for end of run treats!" declares Jack.
"Don't forget me!!!!!" adds intense Rudy.

Beautiful morning: 9.6 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 22 days on the trails covering 173.5 miles with 14,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Half and Half

Taking a quick break to roll snow angels after carving our own track through the backcountry snow!

We just turned around to start back and Jack & Rudy need to "stop, drop and roll"
first to cool off before restarting. Fun shot of the ski & foot prints we just
carved in the fresh snow before turning around.

It was a great "half and half" day skijoring from Rabbit Ears Pass towards Buffalo Pass and then returning the same route.

The beginning and ending of the outing found us flying along miles of snowmobile tracks. Zoom!

Jack &  Rudy flying along in the snowmobile tracks.

But, to our surprise, we out-skied all existing snowmobile tracks and found ourselves, as you saw in the first photo, setting our own path in miles of untouched snow. What a treat!

Wow, look at the untouched powder cache we found to explore!!! Fun!

Today's video highlight is a glimpse into our fun carving our own tracks in miles of untouched snow. What an aerobic workout!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The only thing that can top "fresh snow"? Well, how about fresh moose tracks! As we were returning, we encountered some moose tracks on the trail that were NOT on the trail on our initial pass by this section of trail. So, somewhere in the 30-ish minutes between our out & back on this section of trail, a moose had entered the trail, walked for a bit and then exited the trail. 

"These are VERY fresh moose prints!" declares smart Jack & Rudy!

Back to the trailhead to enjoy 'end of run' treats with Zorro at the official Rabbit Ears Pass Marker. Typically, you cannot drive to this marker by late Nov until sometime in June. But, with our light snowpack in November,  we were able to drive Zorro to the marker and start/stop here and enjoy our treats at one of Zorro's favorite "points of interest".

"Ah, the rabbit marker! How about some treats?" suggests Zorro.
"Glad old man Z is with us at the fun marker!" adds Jack & Rudy who
each had many training/learning-to-skijor outings with Zorro which
involved pausing at or passing by this fun marker.

A very entertaining outing this morning: fast times on snowmobile tracks, aerobic times laying fresh tracks out/back in the backcountry and then fast times again returning on the snowmobile tracks: 12.3 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 14 days on the trails covering 103.8 miles with 9800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Ears

The ears, the ears - the Rabbit Ears dead ahead :)

Cruising along the trail as "the ears" come into view.
The two rocks atop the peak (Rabbit Ears Peak) ahead and slightly
to the left of Rudy are "the ears" for which Rabbit Ears Pass is named.

Yesterday was a very fun morning galloping around Rabbit Ears Pass following snowmobile tracks up, down and around the terrain. Here's a fun photo for you... Look to the bottom center of this photo and to the right of my left ski. Is that a "two toed print" and, if so, why have Jack & Rudy run on by such a treat?

Look at that nice two toed print in the bottom center of this photo!

Okay, don't worry, Jack & Rudy have NOT lost their sense and drive for wildlife. We had just come up this section of trail and thoroughly inspected (i.e., sniffed) these prints to establish two things: (1) not very fresh as the kids gave them a little sniff but did not snap to attention as they do with fresh smelling tracks; (2) it's only an elk, not a moose (a moose print would be at least twice the size of this) - yawn, just a silly little elk :) Just kidding, Jack & Rudy would have been VERY excited if this elk track was fresh. Elk tastes (and smells) almost as good as moose!

Here we go for today's video fun. Come along for a glimpse into yesterday morning's gallop atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Pay close attention and you'll see Rabbit Ears Peak (and, thus, the ears) come in & out of view in front of us. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Quick pause early in the day's outing at the official forest service marker of Rabbit Ears Pass:

"Interesting, doesn't smell like rabbits!" declares sign inspecting
Jack & Rudy.

Another quick pause while the human gets his bearings for our location & time on trail to decide what direction to go next. Well, I stopped, so.... oh those silly kids:

"You stop, we roll around! Wheeee!" declares the always snow rolling
twins.

Despite the beautiful snow photos/videos above, the truth is the entrances to the backcountry are still very thin and 1-3 warm days away from being unusable! Boo!

Exposed ground to the left but thin cover for my skis to ride to the right.
Jack & Rudy are in a snowmobile track as the shoulder I am skiing was
to punchy for them to run. What thin cover!!!

Back to the trailhead to practice "full attention" with Zorro as we await end of run treats:

"Yes, you have our FULL attention!" declares the focused trio.

A nice romp around Rabbit Ears yesterday morning covering 6.8 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH. 

But, we are still waiting for winter (i.e., "the snow") to truly take hold this season. In the meantime we are living storm to storm with too much melting in between storms. Pray for Snow!

2021/2022 Season to Date: 10 days on the trails covering 72.5 miles with 7100 feet of elevation climbed.

Rabbit Ears

Gorgeous bluebird morning for a skijor atop Rabbit Ears Pass!

Gorgeous morning, beautiful trail, flying sled dogs! Wheeee!

We spent this morning skijoring around Rabbit Ears Peak. It is an impressive peak that stands out from just about every viewpoint atop the pass. 

Zipping along Jack & Rudy with Rabbit Ears Peak
in the upper left of this shot.

Come along for the fun video counterpart to the prior photo. If you can take your attention off Jack & Rudy, the mountain upper/left from Jack & Rudy is Rabbit Ears Peak. The two rocks atop the peak are the ears for which Rabbit Ears Peak (and Rabbit Ears Pass) gets its name. Nice view of the peak as we cruise along this great trail.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As we continued cruising along, the peak came into view again head-on instead of to our left:

Jack & Rudy still zipping along :)
Rabbit Ears Peak and its "rock formation ears" dead ahead!

Today's comedy moment from the kids is an interesting conjoined snow angel. Here we have Rudy's head and body with Jack's legs. No Jack body or Rudy legs, just a Rudy body with Jack's legs. Silly kids

Rudy's body with Jack's legs from the conjoined
snow angel sillies.

Back to the trailhead and we were able to meet Zorro and Nancy up trail from the Jeep. Time to line up with Zorro and trot back to the Jeep with our original skijor mentor:

Yay, Love to trot with elder Zorro!!!!

A gorgeous morning with lots of fun views of Rabbit Ears Peak: 7.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH

2020/2021 Season to Date: 125 days on the trails covering 1019.4 miles with 85,500 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.

Ears

A cute "Hi Mom" from the two youngsters at our "end of run" meeting.

"Hi Mom! Zorro gets the first end of run treat, so we'll flash you a smile waiting for our turn!" say
cute Jack and Rudy.
"Me first!" says focused Zorro :)

We spent the morning atop Rabbit Ears Pass skijoring along Dumont Lake and then between the lake and Rabbit Ears Peak.

While the spring crust was still nice and solid, we did encounter a few sad "signs of summer"; but fun was still had by all.

Here we are cruising along the main trail to Dumont Lake and look and we encountered to our left - exposed asphalt! Eek! There is a paved road to Dumont Lake Campground in the summer, so this underlying asphalt heats and becomes exposed first during the spring heat up. But, it is still always sad to see! A fun thing to note in the photo: draw a straight line from Rudy to the top of the photo and this is Rabbit Ears Peak. The two rocks on top of the peak are the ears of Rabbit Ears Pass. They look so clear in person but then so small when reduced to a photo. I have been on a never ending quest to get a shot of the ears that looks good once reduced to a photo. Oh well, not yet...

"Eek - asphalt!" I said.
"No problem, plenty of snow on the shoulder!" declares the sled dog trio.
Nice hover from Zorro & Jack with out-stretched Rudy to their left.

As we approached Dumont Lake, we turned to go get a view of the lake. In the heart of winter the snowpack is good enough at Rabbit Ears that snowmobiles can cross over the lake. We went to check the status of the lake. Well, it was EEK again! We are on the shores of Dumont Lake in the following shot and the dark spots you see to our left are exposed water and the super shiny spots are paper thin ice. Eek!

Eek - exposed water and thin ice to the left. This was as close as we allowed ourselves to the lake as
who knows where it really starts under the dwindling snowpack.

After turning away from the lake we headed towards Rabbit Ears Peak. Along the way you encounter the official Rabbit Ears Pass Marker. I paused to get a shot of the marker and, well, I paused...

"Yep, you paused!" say the snow rolling twins.
"When are you ever going to learn! What goofs!" adds Zorro.

Once we were all upright again, on towards the peak. Note all the prior photos are somewhat dark as it was early in the morning with overcast skies. I brightened all of the photos as much as possible and they were still this dark.

Anyway, on the way to the peak and... Bingo - a great shot of the two rock ears atop Rabbit Ears Peak! Also, notice that the clouds parted on our approach - a beautiful sunny shot of the ears!

The ears, the ears, we got a great shot of the ears!!!!!
Oh, nice snowpack & crust up here near the peak too :)

Today's video highlight - cruising towards Dumont Lake with Rabbit Ears Peak in the front/center along the way (far away at this point, but front and center). And, yes, I am pretty far to the left of my team to start. The conditions were slick and icy so I was to the left for safety. Eventually, I sense less slickness so I slide behind the team to glide along the trail behind them.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We finally got a great shot of the ears!!!! 6.7 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 119 days on the trails covering 689.9 miles with 64,600 feet of elevation climbed.