Huh

 Huh?

"What did that sign say?" asks Jack zooming on by.
"Huh, what sign?" adds Rudy.

What?

"What? Another one? What does it mean?" asks Jack.
"I'm only three, I can't even read!" adds Rudy :) 

We had a beautiful morning on the fast & fun snowmobile trails at Swan Valley. Come along for a glimpse into the great outing. It was fast & fun all day long!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

In addition to great trails, we also like skijoring Swan Valley as we get to see and run with the dog sled teams from Good Times Adventures. I take Jack & Rudy for a 7+ mile skijor first (their warmup lap) before we enter the trails where the dog sled teams are typically found. On the way to the dog sled trails and look what we encountered - a 2 wheel drive passenger car STUCK in the trail. Oh jeez, this person had to pass a minimum of three "No Vehicles: Nov through May" signs to get to this point! On top of that, how did he get this low end car so far up the trail (we are over a mile from the trailhead at this point).

"Uh, dude, no cars allowed! You can't read signs either?" asks Jack & Rudy
slowing to trot by the 'shouldn't be here' vehicle.

We did not realize at the time of the prior photo that all dog sled teams were being held back at the trailhead until a snowcat could come up the trail and pull this car out. So, Jack, Rudy and I did some laps around the "dog sled trails" wondering "Where is everyone?" Eventually we gave up and came back to meet up with Zorro. Once with Zorro, the car came down the trail behind the snowcat and then all the dog sled teams started out for the morning. So, no flirting and running with the teams on the trails, only a glimpse of them at the start:

Zorro, Jack & Rudy watching a dog sled team head out for the morning.

Oh well, at least we got to see two teams start. Back to the important part of the day: end of run treats!

Such happy faces on Jack & Rudy.
Such focus from Zorro!

A great day on the trails although a stupid car interrupted our chance to flirt and run with dog sled teams: 9.6 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2020/2021 Season to Date: 60 days on the trails covering 474.4 miles with 42,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Extra

Smiles all around during a quick pause on the trail this morning!

"Having a GREAT time!" declares the happy trio.

We went to the trails at Swan Valley this morning and did our usual pattern on these trails. That is, we do a quick out & back on one of the side trails before coming back to the main trail for the real highlights of the outing.

Flying by a silly SLOW sign during our warmup lap :)

"Hey, we are PAST the sign, so it doesn't apply anymore, right?" says the speedy trio.

The highlight of these trails is, of course, running & flirting with the dog sled teams from Good Times Adventures on the main trails. Good Times' contract with the forest service allows them to run sled dog tours through March. So, you can view this year's February 29 as an extra day to run & play with the dog sled teams on the Swan Valley trails!!!

Here we are at a trail intersection as we pause to let an 8 dog team go perpendicular in front of us:

"Hi friends!" says my flirtatious trio.
If you look closely, you can see at least 3 of the team dogs giving flirting
glances back :)

Rudy cracks me up in the following photo. We are at a Y in the trail stopped on one branch of the Y while an oncoming team takes the other branch of the Y. Rudy started out next to Zorro watching the oncoming team. Then, as the team proceeded up the other side of the Y, Rudy backed up, lined himself with the team and tried to get us going parallel with them. It was as if Rudy was saying, "If I line us up with the team, maybe dad will let us go along with them!" Funny Rudy!

"Hi more friends!" says Zorro & Jack watching the team go up the other side of the Y.
You see the two wheel dogs and the dog sled in this photo.
"Lined up to go with you!" adds silly Rudy :)

Watching the teams pass by trail intersections is fun; but the most fun is running with them! Here we are following a team ahead of us on the trail. It helps that the musher is wearing a bright yellow coat. Look in front of the bright yellow to see the dark blobs of the sled dogs in front of the musher.

"Here we come!" says the sprinting trio.

Today's video highlight goes along with the prior photo. We start out FLYING along the fast trail knowing that a dog sled team is far ahead of us. Eventually we come to a bend in the trail and I see the team stopped around the bend so I bring us to a stop too. We always wait and see if the musher group in front is going to wave us "on by" or not (typically, they do and we get to execute perfect passes). But, today the group did not wave us on. So, I cut out the section of video with us paused until the team restarts again and we proceed to fly & follow them on the trail. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

An extra day of "sled dog flirting" this leap year, so we made the most of it! 6 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 109 days on the trails covering 738.6 miles with 67,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Far

Getting some well-earned 'end of run' treats after a fast & fun day on the trails!

"You have our complete attention! Hand them out!" says the focused & happy trio.

We had a blast skijoring around the trails in Swan Valley with the dog sled teams from Good Times Adventures this morning. We saw and ran behind many teams but never got close enough for today's photos to really show the flirting fun. All the teams were very clear to Zorro, Jack, Rudy and I but they were just a tad too far away to come out clear in our snapshots. Oh well, we'll show the day's fun as best we can.

Here's a ridiculously camouflaged team just over the snowbank in front of us. If you draw a line from Rudy's back right hindquarter, the line would intersect one of the sled dogs with the dog sled a smidget behind that. Oh well, we saw & watched them closely!

"Too camouflaged for the camera but not for our eyes!" says the sled
dog watching trio.

Here we go again with an 8 dog team clear to us on the trail ahead but barely visible in the clip.

Draw a line up from Rudy's left cheek and that line would intersect the musher behind
his 8 dog team on the trail ahead. Again, we all saw them CLEARLY!!!

One more time and still too far for a good photo... Start in between Jack & Rudy and draw a line up the trail and it would intersect the musher and team in front of us.

Perfectly clear to me and my partners but just a bit too far to come
out clear in a shrunk down photo :(

Today's video clip is us having fun playing "dog sled chase". Watch closely for the following. The team ahead of us on the trail is visible for about the first 5 seconds (watch for the movement in front of us). Then, after a few curves in the trail, you can see the musher ahead of us about 22 seconds in before he disappears around another bend. Then at about 42 seconds in and the team appears ahead of us again for a short straightaway. Note that we are closer to the team at 42 seconds than at the start - we are gaining on them :) But, after about 15 seconds of gaining, the team turns off the trail onto one of the side trails. I know this side trail is too narrow to follow them and pass, so I gently slow us to a stop at the point where the team disappeared.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Ok, so the dog teams did not come out too clear in today's photos; but the silly signage did :)

"Got it - CAUTION, you better HANG ON back there!" that is the sled
dog interpretation of a CAUTION sign.

Once you are past the sign, it does not exist any more, right?

Maybe we went slow before the sign, maybe we didn't. But we are past
it now so FLOOR IT!

A fun day chasing and flirting with the dog sled teams on the trails but not the best footage. But, some great footage of unnecessary (and ignored) signage: 6.5 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 72 days on the trails covering 497.0 miles with 46,900 feet of elevation climbed.