How were the condition at Rabbit Ears Pass this morning?
"Fabulous, absolutely FABULOUS!" declares the happy trio when I paused to ask.
But, wait, did I really pause? Yes I did, so you know what that means....
"You stopped, we roll!" demonstrate the snow angel twins.
"Ba Ha Ha, can't believe you stopped and thought we'd continue without this!" states
laughing Zorro :)
We spent the morning on the northern terrain at Rabbit Ears, running the on the endless crust northwest of Dumont Lake. There are a lot of interesting sights to visit in this area. Come along for the fun...
Running by the "cattle staging" pens in an endless snow covered meadow. Imagine how much vegetation there is for cattle to graze on once all this snow melts!
"Where's the beef? No cows here, let's continue on!" says the fast trio gliding by
the cattle pens.
Cruising by the Rabbit Ears SNOTEL. The SNOTEL is the tower in front of this hut (it looks like a small radio tower) while the hut is just supporting machinery for the snotel. A SNOTEL is a device which tracks and measures a wide range of environmental conditions. The most fun measure is the snowpack. As of this morning the SNOTEL reported we are on 38 inches of snowpack at this location. SNOTELs provide great, in depth reports for farmers, ranchers, rafters, fishers, snowmobilers, skiers, wildlife monitors, fire monitors, flood monitors, etc etc... Fun to be able to skijor right by such a great device!
"Hi SNOTEL, bye SNOTEL - nice to have 38 inches today, but wish it was more!" says
the trotting by trio.
Another sight - the CDOT snowplow staging farm. This is where all the snowplows live to clear Rabbit Ears and nearby roads all winter. I thought the photo would come out clearer, but we were just a bit too far away before I turned us around. Oh, well, look very closely. You can see two large blue canisters directly above Rudy and you can barely make out the set of buildings above Jack & Rudy.
"Hey - a snowplow farm! We are snowplows too!" states the trotting trio.
But, the best sight of the day? Endless & wide open meadows with a solid spring crust to run through and make your own path. Come along and watch the fun:
A perfect cool morning to tour the Spring Crust all around Breckenridge while going sightseeing!
Trotting along the perfect spring crust and Peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of Breckenridge Ski Resort
come into view across the valley. The Town of Breckenridge is also in view at the base
of Peaks 8 and 9.
We got up early this morning hoping the temperatures would be below freezing and the spring crust would be solid enough to hold our weight. Success!!! Cool temperatures and a solid crust let us go off trail and go sightseeing all over the terrain. A nice shot of Breckenridge Ski Resort above and three more sightseeing highlights below...
Galloping along as Buffalo Mountain comes into view:
Whee we go as Buffalo Mountain is the snow capped mountain you see in the upper center
in the distance.
Another direction and another open meadow with a solid crust. Galloping along this direction as Baldy Mountain is the sightseeing highlight:
Front and center is snow capped Baldy Mountain. It is actually rare for Baldy to be this snow
covered in mid April as it frequently gets hit by strong winds that blow the snow off the
mountain above treeline.
Finally, this one looked better in person, but I'll still include it. The snow capped mountains in the upper left are Grays and Torreys Peaks. These are two of Colorado's 54 mountains that extend more than 14,000 feet above sea level. The snow capped peaks in the upper right are the mountains that house Arapahoe Basin and Keystone ski resorts. Like I said, it was impressive in person but not as much in this smaller photo. Oh well...
Another section of crust to gallop atop and another great view to take in :)
Using the solid spring crust to have a blast going sightseeing: 8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2016/2017 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 1060.6 miles with 112,100 feet of elevation climbed.
Come along as we go sightseeing atop Rabbit Ears Pass this morning!
"We'll be your tour guides! Hang on as we tow you along!" say two of the most
entertaining tour guides you'll ever meet!
Fun fact about the previous photo: in summer you would be standing on the ground and looking UP at the big hiking & camping info sign behind Max & Zorro. But, today Max & Zorro are as tall as the top of the sign. That's about 5-6 feet of snowpack at this location!
Okay, since you cannot read the info sign buried in snow above, Max & Zorro will give you the tour:
Not everyone knows that Rabbit Ears Pass is an open range in the summer/fall. Once all the snow melts (bringing tons of vegetation to life), it is a incredible natural grazing land for cattle.
"No cows in this pen!" states Zorro looking at the cattle staging pen in front of us.
"None in the pen to the left either!" says Max glancing left to another pen just off camera.
Guess we'll have to come back in July to see the fresh beef :)
Coming up a slight rise in the trail as we come upon the Rabbit Ears Snotel. A snotel is a device that measures snowpack, snow water equivalent of snowpack and other weather readings (temps, wind, etc). The snowpack and snow water equivalent are the primary reason snotels exist as they allow scientists, farmers and water managers to plan for how much (or little) water will be generated from Colorado's annual snowpack. An integral part of farming and managing water relies on this data. Max, Zorro & I, on the other hand, are most interested in the snowpack - as long as the snotel reports sufficient snow, we can go!
"Cool; but wish it had more!" say my snotel guides.
Still going, still more to see... Here we are sprinting along the nice snow crust as Rabbit Ears Peak comes into view to our left. The rock formation atop the peak you see in the upper left are the "ears" from which Rabbit Ears gets its name!
"Here we go, look at the peak if you can; but we are flooring it!" say the sprinting pair.
Finally, the official marker of Rabbit Ears Pass:
"Look quickly as we tow you on by..." say the trotting tour guides.
A fun day sightseeing Rabbit Ears Pass with the two best tour guides I know: 9.3 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2016/2017 Season to Date: 107 days on the trails covering 891.4 miles with 95,000 feet of elevation climbed.
