Spring Crust

From yesterday's skijor outing: it's "Spring Crust" time of year!!!

Jack & Rudy catching air on the perfect spring crust. 

While the onset of Spring is always sad because that means our season is winding down, Spring is great for one thing - the Spring Crust! With warm days (well above freezing) but still cold nights (many hours below freezing), a hard crust forms in vast, open meadows every morning. This crust is hard enough to support Jack & Rudy running and me on skis. It really is fun to abandon set trails and just "go your own way" through vast, open meadows. 

Another open meadow, another great crust, another
shot of fast running Jack & Rudy. 

Now look closely at the prior photo. You can see skate ski tracks to Rudy's left and between Jack & Rudy. You can also see a path of classic ski tracks far to our right. Yes, the magical Spring Crust at Rabbit Ears is known to all avid cross country skiers in this area. We encountered four different small groups of 1-3 skiers throughout the day's outing. Whenever there was a skier in front of us, Jack & Rudy floored it to catch up. They love catching anything in front of them :) 

"Here we come, you can't out ski us!" says the fun kids flooring
it to reach the skier in front of us. 

We did indeed catch the skier. As we caught up to him, he stopped to greet Jack & Rudy, laughed and said "You guys are fast, nobody has ever caught me from behind!" (he was a very talented skate skier). 

Of course every meadow comes to an end and that means you turnaround to run back across the meadow you just traversed. Well, the turnarounds do not go unnoticed by Jack & Rudy :) 

"Turnaround, roll around!" goes the snow rolling sillies. 

Each meadow we traversed got the same reaction from the comedians when we turned around to go back across it. Come along for today's video highlight to see what I mean. We had just come to the edge of one meadow when I called out a left to turnaround. Well, watch what really happened: stop, drop and roll from the goofballs. Once they finish rolling they look back to me with such happy faces (they are clearly very proud of their snow angel rolls :) until I say "Ok, here we go," and OFF we go - zoom! Fun and funny kids. 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

To end the day, if you have met Jack you know he is a big kisser. Rudy, not so much, but Jack is a constant kisser. Here's what I mean: 

"SMACK!" goes Jack to my left cheek as I'm getting the end of run
treats out of my right pocket.

Fun day on our first Spring Crust outing of the season: 7.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2024/2025 Season to Date: 93 days on the trails covering 717.3 miles with 69,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Season Opener

Let the 2023/2024 Skijor Season Begin!

Jack & Rudy celebrated the start to a new season rolling snow angels in appreciation :)

The silly kids starting out this season as they did last season - rolling snow
angels at any break during the outing.

Our season opener found us going to the West Summit of Rabbit Ears Pass to find snow to enjoy. My intent was to go to one of the lesser used forest roads on the west summit. I was convinced we needed to stick to established trails instead of making our own trail with less than a foot of fresh snow. But, we do share Rabbit Ears Pass with hunters this time of year and every road had already been driven on by the time we got there. We wouldn't let a few tire tracks get in our way - we simply started out on the snow between the tires - wheeee!

Starting the 2023/2024 Skijor Season on narrow snow between deep
4WD tire tracks. It may look ugly, but it was snow & skis! Wheeee!

After following the road for a bit, Jack & Rudy convinced me to hop off the set road to inspect some very delicious smelling moose tracks:

"Sniff, sniff - FRESH!" declares the moose track inspectors.

I then noticed how effortlessly this moose had moved through the snow. "Ok, who needs set trails, let's go off road!" I declared to Jack & Rudy. They didn't need to hear that twice, they were juiced to follow the moose trail off into the forest!

Remember moose have very long legs.
But, with the freshness of these tracks, Jack & Rudy powered along using
all their strength to follow the moose!

Eventually the moose trail started drifting far away from the trailheads we needed to get back to. So, I directed Jack & Rudy into the forest to break our own trail. I was pleasantly surprised that the early season snow was deep enough to us to travel safely off trail!

Breaking trail as we make our own path through the forest back towards
the trailhead.

I knew that we would eventually intersect with the west summit ski trail. Sure enough, after weaving our way through the forest for a while, we eventually met up with the ski trail. A few others had been out on the trail before us, so that gave Jack & Rudy some nice ski tracks to run in.

Opening up the throttle as we get on set tracks.

Very few people had been out on this trail before us, so the ski tracks were still pretty soft. Come along and watch as hard working Jack & Rudy are towing me along as the run in soft ski tracks. What power these two have!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead and time to climb snow walls to get end of run treats :)

"What a blast! Now dish out those end of run treats!" declares the happy pair.

A beautiful morning to start the 2023/2024 skijoring season with 5.4 miles traveled, 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 14 MPH (conditions did not permit going faster than this :)

Unfortunately, we have some upcoming dry and warm days, so we are in a holding pattern waiting for the next snowstorm before we can continue our 2023/2024 skijoring season.

Pray for Snow!

West Summit

Laying fresh tracks on a trail through the trees at the West Summit of Rabbit Ears Pass!

Freshies! Whee!

We don't usually skijor the West Summit of Rabbit Ears as the trails are very short. We typically go to the East Summit where the trails are long and we can skijor for 10+ miles. But, as we approached the West Summit (from the west) this morning, the fog was ridiculously thick. You could barely see the road in front of you. So, instead of driving further to the East Summit, we got out to skijor the short trails on the West Summit. 

The fog did not really penetrate into the trees. So, that is why the first photo looks so great. But, we had a few open meadows to cross. As we approached each meadow, I had no idea where the trail was. I just left it up to Jack & Rudy (who have incredible trail tracking skills) to tow me where they saw fit. Each time we magically exited the foggy meadow at exactly where the trail was visible into the trees again. Such great partners!

Where's the trail? I have no idea where it is supposed to go across the
upcoming meadow; but Jack & Rudy navigated perfectly!

Back to the trees though. It was a wonderful morning to lay fresh tracks amidst lightly falling snow through the trees. Come along for the video evidence of what I mean. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I said, the West Summit trails are very short. So, I had to convince Jack & Rudy to repeat our initial loop so we could get some real exercise :)

On our second pass West Summit Loop. You can see our first pass
ski tracks in front of us.

A cold, snowing and dense fog morning on Rabbit Ears. What did Jack & Rudy think of that? Well...

"Rolling snow angels to cool our jets!" demonstrates the goofballs
just before we started our second West Summit Loop.

Back to the trailhead and my pals are at full attention for end of run treats!

"Ready!" announces the focused pair.

An entertaining day doing laps on the West Summit to get some exercise and avoid traveling the road in the dense fog: 7 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 27 days on the trails covering 215.4 miles with 18,800 feet of elevation climbed.