Groomie Zoomie

We invented a new phrase today: the Groomie Zoomie!

Ears pinned back & kicking up dust in our tracks - ZOOM!

We spend at least 95% of our skijoring miles on either ungroomed backcountry trails or following snowmobile trails. But, we do get the occasional chance to really uncork the skijoring engine on professionally groomed trails. It always amazes me the speeds we hit & distances we cover on groomed terrain. Part of our usual route at the Vail Pass Recreation Area contains a section of professionally groomed trail. As we were flying along today, it occurred to me how to refer to our rare chance to skijor on groomed trails - the Groomie Zoomie! Watch the video below and you'll get it :-)

Flying along the groomed section of Shrine Pass Rd. Wow, do these two FLY on
groomed terrain!
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Our favorite route at Vail Pass takes us on snowshoe trails for about 25% of the time, on Groomie Zoomie for about 25% of the time and on snowmobile trails for the remaining 50% of the outing.

Hauling the human up the snowshoe track to the top of Shrine Pass.

You have to see what must be the world's dumbest squirrel we encountered along the snowmobile trail going up Lime Creek. Max & Zorro are typically really good about ignoring wildlife when we are skijoring. But, put "fresh meat" on the trail right in front of them and no sled dog could avoid that temptation!

First the Siberians get the squirrel in their sights.
Then the stupid squirrel runs AT US!
Then he gets a momentary brain and runs away.
And, finally, he loses his brain and runs across the trail - barely avoiding becoming lunch!
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A great tour of Vail Pass today covering 12.4 miles with 1600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH on the Groomie Zoomie section of trail.

"Time to turn around? Really, already?" ask my curious pair when I called out
the "time to turn around" command.

"Ok, but a turnaround requires a snow angel and chomping down on snowcones first!"
demonstrate the funny Siberians.

"Snow angels done, snowcones consumed - but we are still unsure about the
'turnaround idea' - why don't we keep going instead?"

2013/2014 Season to Date: 62 days on the trails covering 533.8 miles with 62800 feet of elevation climbed.

All Conditions

We had the full range of conditions today skijoring at Vail Pass: breaking trail, narrow single tracks and fast groomed tracks; and, to top it off, we surpassed 300 miles of skijoring for the season today.

December 6th and we are already to 300 miles - it is gonna be a big total this season!

It was "single file skijoring" early on as the set track was narrow with deep snow
on the sides.

It was "shoulder to shoulder breaking trail" as we got further into the terrain.

It was "hop behind long legged Max" as we got extremely deep for a while.

And, finally, it was a wide open sprint track when we connected onto the groomed
sections of Shrine Pass Rd.
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The temperatures during today's outing were below zero to start and single digits when we
finished. That didn't stop the Siberians from rolling snow angels to cool off after we finished
the deep trail breaking and got onto snowmobile tracks.

An aerobic 12.1 miles today with 1800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH - bringing us to 300.7 miles with 34450 feet of elevation climbed for the season to date!

Fast & Pretty Day

It was a "fast day" with lots of pretty views skijoring around the Vail Pass Recreation Area.

Nice views of the snow covered Rocky Mountains all day.
It even looks like Max & Zorro are taking in the scenery :-)

We did a 13 mile tour on the Vail Pass snowmobile trails today. The trails were packed but not icy - just a perfect day to go fast up, down & across the terrain...

Having a great time galloping along the top of Shrine Pass - whee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

(1) It was fast uphill:

Sprinting up the fast trail on Lime Creek Rd.

(2) It was fast downhill (as always):

Hitting some nice speeds along a down section of Lime Creek Rd.

(3) It was fast along the straightaways:

Sprinting across a flat section of Shrine Pass Rd.

Basically, it was a fast day with tons of great views of the Rockies... Our outing totaled 13.1 miles with 1650 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH. A beautiful outing...

15 Mile Day

Tuesday was a real power day: 15.1 miles, 2100 feet of elevation climbed, a top speed of 20 MPH and one potential speeding ticket - WOO!

Well, the sign says "15 MPH" as we approach a blind curve in the road.
I did not check the GPS for our exact speed, but I do know that whenever Max & Zorro are
in an "airborne sprint" (as above) then we are going well over 15 MPH and in the 20 MPH
range. Oops - good thing cops do not patrol the trails in the winter!!  :-)

Tuesday morning was a beautiful day at the Vail Pass Recreation Area. Blue skies all around and fast, packed trails for miles and miles. Vail Pass is popular with snowmobilers, so the trails were packed for speed and went as far as we wanted to go. We opted for an exhilarating 15 mile run through a range of elevations as follows:

1) Out Direction (just over 7.5 miles): 900 feet up, 600 feet down, 300 feet up, 300 feet down, 300 feet up - take a quick 3-5 minute break.
2) Back Direction: 300 feet down, 300 feet up, 300 feet down, 600 feet up (rest the human for a quick 3 minutes) and 900 feet sprint back down to the trailhead.

Sprinting along Lime Creek Rd, approaching the "15 MPH" sign at speeds
well over 15 MPH :-)
[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Most of the day was spent cruising around the trails in perfect form. Yet, every once in a while an "instigator" starts something on the trails. I refer to the source of the instigation as either the "z-stigator" (Zorro started it) or the "red-stigator" (Max started it). Typically the z-stigator starts 90% of the instigations; but now & then silly big Max will get all giddy and declare, "I'm going to mess with my brother!" - as shown below, the red-stigator:

I can just hear Max... Poke, jab with his right arm, "Hey little bro, look at this fast track,
what do you got? I'll race ya!" instigates Max with "no-back-down" Zorro who will try
to meet any challenge (even though tall Max can out sprint him on any terrain :-)

"Really? That's all you got? Catch me if you can!" toys Max with Zorro as he lunges ahead
and looks back to continue messing with his little brother...

Naturally, the instigations never last very long as the "will to go" overrides the "will to instigate" within seconds or minutes - it is just hilarious to watch the red-stigator or z-stigator start something and let it play out... But, back to professional skijoring shots:

"Hey bro - wide open fast conditions! What do you say we uncork it for some real speed!"
Max & Zorro say to one another as we crest from our initial 900 foot climb onto a fast and
flat track before hitting the upcoming sprint down a 600 foot decline.

At our midpoint break, 7.5 miles out from the Vail Pass trailhead. As you can see, the
Siberians were not sold on needing a break or deciding to turn around, "Look at the
beautiful trail continuing in front of us, why stop? Why turn around? Woo!"

Beautiful views, far reaching blue skies, wide open & packed trails as far as they eye can see!
Wow, what a perfect day for a 15 mile run!

This was our longest single run at Vail Pass - maybe next time we'll try for 16+ miles! Tally for the day: 15.1 miles, 2100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

Timeout - Snow Angel

Wonderful fresh 2-4 inches of snow at Vail Pass today. We were laying first, fresh tracks the entire day! Wooo!

In our skijoring team, we refer to Max as the "lead dog" because he (almost always) listens and we refer to Zorro as the "wheel dog" because his primary interest in life is "faster, forward, faster, forward, ..." But, occasionally Max will say, "Well, I'm the lead dog and I feel like doing something different!" Max's most common form of 'something different' is to declare an impromptu timeout to roll a snow angel in the middle of the trail! Silly Husky!

Max: "Timeout, I'm hot, I declare a snow angel break - right here in the middle of the trail!"
Zorro looking back at me to say, "And you call *him* the lead dog and me the crazy one from
Planet Z??? Jeez!" 

As you can see in the previous photo - we had a "fresh trail" all to ourselves today. A great day laying fresh tracks in 2-4 inches of snow for 8.6 miles. More fresh tracks shots below:

Trotting along at the summit of Shrine Pass - fresh fun snow!

An 18 MPH sprint along Shrine Pass Rd. Notice the nice tracks in about 4 inches of snow behind
Max & Zorro!

At our midpoint break - Max demonstrating a perfect "entry" into a snow angel. Rolling an angel is
always approved at our midpoint break, it's the random "snow angel timeout" that Max declares
impromptu in the middle of the trail that is unapproved :-)

Vital Stats of Today's Outing: 8.6 miles, 1450 feet of elevation climbed, 18 MPH top speed.

Vacation Albums

One of Max & Zorro's favorite "happenings" on the trails - Getting in so many people's Vacation Albums!

When we are near any busy trailheads, the excitement and interest of the onlookers is always so impressive. We are almost guaranteed to have a least one person pull out a camera and take shots or videos of us skijoring on the trails. Occasionally we will stop and discuss skijoring with interested groups; but, typically, we fly by the crowds and hear the gasps of "Oh My God" or "That is so cool" or "I want to try that" or other excited remarks from the onlookers.

With my new GoPro, I can now get shots of the crowd taking shots of us as we cruise by. Some fun shots from yesterday's outing:

Trotting by a group of 3 onlookers. The lady to the right has her video
camera out recording the event. The comment from the pair on the left,
"Oh My God - look at them go!" :-)

Fast approaching another pair of curious onlookers. I had to include this clip with fully
airborne Zorro sprinting down the trail!

Flying past the same two from the previous clip. You can see the iPhone in the lady's right hand
recording the sprinting machines. The comment I heard as I whizzed by, "I have never seen
anything so cool!"

Yesterday's outing found us on Shrine Pass Rd and Lime Creek Rd in the Vail Pass Recreation Area. Max & Zorro were in "mid season form" today even though this was only our 6th outing of the season. We covered more territory on Vail Pass than we ever have in the same amount of time! We were trucking. I can hardly wait to see what "mid season form" will really be this year! A few more shots from the outing...

What a fun shot of the happy huskies! We are at our "break point" and about to get our
hot dog treats before starting back. Such good boys focusing on my every word!

A nice clip of us Max & Zorro towing me along at a nice 11-12 MPH pace.
Sorry the video is a little grainy, I'm still learning how to crop high quality
clips out of my longer GoPro videos...
[see the video on youtube if it is not loading below]

Vital Stats of Yesterday's Outing: 9.6 miles with 1400 feet of elevation gain. Top speed of 17 MPH - the terrain is still "too shallow" in snow for me to really uncork the pair and let them hit their desired top speed (too shallow meaning too dangerous to catch an exposed rock if going 20-26 MPH!)

Season Opener!

Snow FINALLY came! Break out the boots, collect the gloves, get out the goretex, fetch the sled: SNOW IS HERE!!!

At our "break point" - Max doing his patented "snow angel" to cool off; Zorro doing
his patented "snow chug" to cool off. "Winter is here: Wheeeeee!" say Max & Zorro!

Snow came to the Colorado mountains Friday night and into Saturday. "We MUST use the snow!" exclaimed Max & Zorro - I was thrilled to try! It wasn't much, but anything white, cold and fluffy is better than the dirt of summer.

We headed up to Vail Pass this morning as the forecast called for snow in that direction. Here is what we found:

1. 2-5 inches of "first snow of the season" over a rocky and/or muddy terrain.
2. Not enough snow (given the rocks or mud just under the surface) to skijor - but plenty of snow to dog sled. So, we hooked Max & Zorro to the sled and hit the trails.

Now, remember, with just 2 huskies, the musher has to get off the sled and hike/run/sprint up steep hills. It is too much to ask them to carry me up a steep incline. So, we did a mild 7.5 miles for our first outing of the season; but WE WERE ON SNOW!!! Woo Hoo - let the season begin!

Highlight of the season... I won a GoPro in their "daily giveaway", so we have HD-quality video queued up for the upcoming skijoring season. This ought to be fun to watch...

Here is a great clip from today's video of Max & Zorro trotting at a cool 10-12 MPH pace through the fresh snow:

Now, people have often asked me "what" Max & Zorro do if we stop. Well, "stop" does NOT happen very often. But, we do stop at either the "high point" or "midway point" of all of our outings. It is usually a short 4-6 minute break (mostly to rest the human). The following video shows our typical stop point...

A few things to note:

1. The Siberians look like they haven't even started yet!
2. Max & Zorro get hot dogs at our stop points. Cute Max climbing all over the musher for his treat; polite Zorro sitting right in front of me before each of his treats.
3. Once the hot dogs are passed out: (a) Max doing his typical "snow angel" roll in the snow to cool off; (b) Zorro doing his typical "snow gulp" to ingest snow to cool his jets.

The 2012-2013 season is ON! Bring on the snow... Now, before you think it was perfect conditions, pause to see the following:

Encountering a Forest Ranger far back on the trails. "Quit crushing our trail!"

The final approach to the trailhead. YUCK - what happened to our snow!!!

Vital Stats: 7.5 miles; 900 feet of elevation gain; 16 MPH top speed. A pretty good first outing for sketchy conditions...

Planet Z

Max "hamming it up for the camera" as we
approach our finish at the Vail Pass trailhead.

Those who have met Zorro know he is the "court jester" of our pack. Usually a go with the flow character, we all know Zorro is one "flip of the switch" away from operating as the looney court jester.

We affectionately refer to this flip as Zorro operating on Planet Z - he's in his own dimension of lunacy and antics that leave you wondering and scratching your head (read last season's top moment from Planet Z)...

Today's skijoring outing had many intersections with Planet Z. The antic of the day from Planet Z - finding it necessary to frequently decide Max needs a "neck nibble" as we are cruising over the terrain. The 4 I remember clearly (there were more, just ask Max ;-)

(1) Not more than 10 yards from our start, Zorro decides Max's neck looks tasty and takes an affectionate nibble. This nibble escalates into a posturing standoff as I try to regain control of the skijoring vehicle.

(2) Less than 1/2 mile into our outing - repeat of #1...

(3) About 3 miles into our outing we are flying down a small dip and I notice Zorro dipping his head into Max to mess with him. "Kid, we are *flying*, what are you doing?!?!" I think; "Forward Zorro!" I call out to no avail. "I'll show him," I decide and I swing to the left and start passing Zorro as he is pecking at Max. Well, one of the most consistent character traits of Zorro is "NONE Shall Pass!" As soon as he noticed me starting to pass ... Zoom! forward he went in a dead sprint, no more interest in messing with Max. Success (for now)...

(4) About 6 or so miles into our outing we are sprinting down a long downhill stretch and I notice Zorro again dipping into Max to annoy his brother. Well, this time Max finally had enough of Planet Z. Tall Max simply lept into the air and hurdled over the short pest from Planet Z. Unfortunately this led to a complete tangled mess of the gangline and I had to quickly cut to a stop to realign the crew.

Neither Max nor I will ever understand Planet Z - where is this kid coming from?!?! Lunatic :-)

The Route: (1) Start at the Vail Pass winter trailhead and skijor out and up Shrine Pass Rd; (2) Take Shrine Pass Rd for a rolling series of ups/downs for just over 4 miles to Turkey Creek/Lime Creek fork in the road; (3) Hang a right up Lime Creek Rd for about a 1/4 mile and do a 180 turn and fly back down to the Turkey Creek/Lime Creek junction; (4) Take a quick break; (5) Sprint back the same path along Shrine Pass Rd to the Vail Pass trailhead.

Vital Stats: 8.6 miles; 89m total time; 74m skijoring time; 23 MPH top speed; 1100 feet of elevation gain. A pretty fast overall outing, especially when you factor in the distractions from Planet Z!

The Turkey Creek (left)/Lime Creek (right) fork in the trail. We took the right
and sprinted up Lime Creek for about 1/4 mile before sprinting back down to
this same point to take our short break.

An unnamed trail going up and into the forest at our break point. Clearly Max
and Zorro are lining themselves up to explore this path. I, instead, suggested
we return back the same route we arrived on and...

Max and Zorro said, "Boooring - return the same route? Pfft, we'd rather dunk
our heads in the snow than do that!" After a little negotiating, we agreed to return
on the same path *IF* I agreed to go FAST!

Roller Coaster Route

Returning to the Vail Pass trailhead.
As you can see, conditions are deteriorating
near the trailhead - need more snow!

Highlight of today's outing: hitting 23 MPH as our top speed of this early 2011/2012 season!

Today's skijoring outing was an tour of endurance over rolling terrain.

- We skijored up a 600 foot incline.
- We skijored down a 1000 foot decline.
- We skijored up a 1000 foot incline.
- We skijored down a 600 foot decline.

There were a few smaller dips mixed in these 4 major segments; but, in all, it was pretty much a roller coaster of 1600 feet of ups & downs spread over 9.9 miles. A total BLAST!

We returned to the Vail Pass Recreation Area. But, as opposed to yesterday when we went off trail, today we followed the major snowmobile paths around Vail Pass. What a difference a day (or a change in trail) can make. Yesterday was breaking trail in up to 24 inches of untouched powder. Today was sprinting on snowmobile tracks through the rolling roller coaster terrain.

NOTE: Max, Zorro & I will entertain co-existing with snowmobiles early on weekdays - someone out the same time as us is serious and experienced about snowmobiles. We will happily share the trails with good snowmobilers - we always move off the trail when they approach and we get a respectful wave from the driver who appreciates trail ettiquette. On the other hand, I will never ever attempt to share the trails with snowmobiles on weekends or holidays - put a bunch of clueless novices on dangerous machines and watch out!

Today's Route: (1) Start at the Vail Pass Rest Area trailhead and skijor out Shrine Pass Rd and eventually hang a left onto Turkey Creek Rd - cruise through the 1st half of the roller coaster over this mixed terrain; (2) take a break to roll in the snow; (3) return the same path - reversing the roller coaster fun.

Vital Stats: 9.9 miles; 120m total time; 100m skijoring time; 23 MPH top speed; 1600 feet of elevation gain. A nice gentle outing having fun rolling up & down through the beautiful terrain.

Near the beginning of our outing. Cruising uphill on snowmobile
packed terrain.

Deeper into the backcountry. The trail is noticeably narrower, but still a
gentle sprint up snowmobile packed terrain.

Taking a break at our midpoint. What better thing to do during a break
than bury your head in the snow???

Coming up for air - look closely, both Siberian heads are covered in snow.

A look back at the trail we sprinted down before taking our midpoint break.