Fun Fast Day

Cruising up the Sally Barber Mine trail.

A "high wind" weather advisory is on the way to Breckenridge today. So, we got out on the trails early, stayed below treeline and did a short & fast outing around Sally Barber and French Gulch today.

There was roughly an inch of new snow on the lower sections of the trail and about 2-3 inches at the higher elevations. Perfect conditions to go fast up, down and around the trails!

Today's Route: (1) Start at the Sally Barber/Barney Ford trailhead and skijor up to Sally Barber Mine; (2) Sprint down to the French Gulch/Sally Barber intersection; (3) Skijor out & up French Gulch until reaching the first of the private cabins in the gulch; (4) Turn around and sprint down to the Reiling Dredge trailhead on French Gulch Road.

Vital Stats: 6.1 miles; 58m total time; 52m skijoring time; 22 MPH top speed; 650 feet of elevation climbed. A short, fun & fast outing!

At our turnaround point in French Gulch. Max is lined up to keep going further
up French Gulch; he's straining backward to say, "What? Sounded like you said
'turnaround'. I must have heard you wrong - lets keep going!"

Max adds, "Well, if you really said something as silly as 'turnaround', then
I am going to snow-angel in the snow while you think about it!"

Zorro says, "Yum, yum - I'll be over here chomping down on snow cones
until you 2 decide if we are going forward or turning around!"

At our finish point and getting our end-of-run hotdogs. Zorro
demonstrating, "Who says I'm short? Look how loooong I can
stretch my neck to become as tall as Max!!!"

Look Out For That...

Cruising up French Gulch - in between team
organization meetings and/or fox hunting,
depends who you ask...

The highlight of Saturday's skijor outing should have been surpassing 200 miles on the season.

The real highlight of Saturday's skijor outing was, "Look out for that FOX!" - as a silly red fox popped on the cross country trail less than 10 feet in front of us, sprinted a few feet up the trail and then shot off the trail.

What do Max & Zorro think of a fox on the trail, you ask... "FOOOOOOD! MUST CATCH! MUST CATCH!" I am not sure if I really went airborne after they bolted towards the fox; but I sure felt like I was airborne! The fox incident lead to 3 states of affair: (1) I had two "super juiced" Siberian Huskies on the hunt for the rest of the day; (2) we had many "team organization meetings" to discuss the objective of skijoring as opposed the objective of hunting foxes; (3) my partners were possessed and I was determined to re-establish myself as pack leader at all costs (thus the team organization meetings ;-)

Despite the "fox possessed" Siberian pair, it was a fun & fast tour up French Gulch and to Sally Barber Mine.

The Route: Reiling Dredge trailhead up French Gulch Rd to & past the French Gulch winter trailhead; up French Gulch to the last private cabin in the gulch; sprint back down French Gulch to the Sally Barber Mine trail; up to Sally Barber Mine; sprint down to the Barney Ford trailhead.

Vital Stats: 8.7 miles (surpassing 200 for the season!); 1h 45m total time; 1h 25m moving time; 6.15 MPH moving average; 21 MPH top speed.

You read that right - an impressive 6.15 MPH moving average (especially given the elevation gains) and an impressive 21 MPH top speed! But, a surprising 20 minutes of "idle time" - did I mention our need for frequent team organization meetings to discuss skijoring over fox hunting????

Taking a break at the last private cabin in French Gulch.
Max & Zorro are convinced the fox MUST be under the snow here!

Nice shot from Sally Barber Mine looking over French Gulch.

Closeup of Sally Barber Mine.

Max raising his nose - "where'd that fox go?"
Zorro digging to China - "maybe the fox is under the snow here!?!!"