Endless Groom

It was a fast day on endless groomed trails starting from Dumont Lake atop Rabbit Ears Pass!

The freshly groomed trail went on for miles & miles and Jack, Rudy & I
were first tracks on the fresh groom. Endless fun!

We are members of the local snowmobile club (Routt Powder Riders) who groom the primary trails atop Rabbit Ears Pass. Jack & Rudy are snow machines after all, so we proudly contribute to the club to enjoy their grooming operations. The kids were VERY happy with today's perfect conditions on endless miles of freshly groomed trails. Just ask them yourself :)

"Having so much fun!" declares happy, happy Jack.
"Having a WOOO-nderful time!" asserts wooing in appreciation Rudy.

Every direction we turned was perfect, perfect, perfect! What an amazing day!

Shadows reversed from the first photo but everything else is just
the same - endless groomie zoomie!

Now come along for some video fun from the outing. Watch as Jack & Rudy tow me from the sun into a great and wide trail winding through the forest. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, such great conditions means you need to roll snow angels to "cool your jets" during any pause on the trail. Jack often steps off trail to get in deeper snow for his angels while Rudy tends to enjoy cooling himself on the groomed track.

Snow angel antics from the comedians :)

An absolutely perfect day to report back to retired mentor Zorro:

"I feel the groom on my toes - perfect!" says focused Zorro.
"I can taste the 'end of run' treats in anticipation!" adds slurping Jack.
"Happily waiting my turn!" adds cool Rudy.

What a perfect endless day: 11.2 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 146 days on the trails covering 1232.7 miles with 115,100 feet of elevation climbed.

Perfect

All smiles during our quick break on the perfect trails this morning!

Such happy, happy sled dogs!!!!

Our skijor this morning took us on the trails near Muddy Creek and Dumont Lake atop Rabbit Ears Pass. We were thrilled to find the main trails freshly groomed. An absolute beautiful day to be on perfect trails!

If you are wondering who grooms this terrain, it is the Routt Powder Riders snowmobile club. We are members of the club too as membership provides them funds to do the trail maintenance and grooming. I always love filling out the questionnaire during signup every year and answering the question "How many snow machines do you have?" My answer is THREE. Mine may use meat for fuel instead of gasoline, but they are definitely full blown snow machines! :)

We started the morning with Jack, Rudy and I skijoring about 1/2 the outing before picking up Zorro for the second half. A perfect way to exercise the kids while still giving elder Zorro his proper exercise. How perfect was it? Well 24 MPH perfect for Jack & Rudy:

24 MPH skijoring machine - wheeee!

The kids and I did a quick out & back on a side trail on the way to pickup Zorro. Well, you guessed it, out & back means a turnaround stop and antics from the kids:

"You stop, we roll!" demonstrate the synchronized snow rolling goofs.

Half way into the outing and we picked up Zorro and turned around to head back the way we came. Zooming with the power trio:

Beautiful shot of the beautiful morning and beautiful sled dogs!

We were on wide open terrain for much of the day as you see in all the photos above. But, eventually we had to turn into the trees to get back to the trailhead. Come along for some "in & out" of the sun & shade skijoring fun as we are heading to the finish of the day's run:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

All smiles as we come out of the trees and arrive at the trailhead parking lot.

Such a HAPPY foursome (I'm smiling too :)

Finally, the usual focused & happy faces for our 'end of run' treats:

"We had a GREAT day!" declares the happy trio.

A beautiful morning to take my snow machines for a run on the trails groomed by our snowmobile club :)  6.9 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 122 days on the trails covering 827.9 miles with 75,400 feet of elevation climbed.