Sled Dogs Galore

It was a day of "sled dogs galore" as we were running the trails with our local group of dog sled teams and multiple teams from Good Times Adventures.

An 8-dog team from Good Times getting started up the trail while Max & Zorro launch
into "follow the leader" as we join this team along the trail.

We met up with our sled dog friends from Sno-Magic Siberians and Snow Runner Siberians making for about 20+ friends at the trailhead. During the outing, I counted 6 different "8 dog teams" from Good Times Adventures on the trails with us. So, Max & Zorro plus 20+ friends plus 48 buddies from Good Times and we had over 70 happy sled dogs running the trails together today! What a party!

We were first to arrive at the trailhead and, since it is much faster to hookup 2 dogs to skijor than an entire sled, Max, Zorro & I took a quick run out & back on the Middle Fork Trail. Nothing like a nice warmup sprint before starting the real running ;-)

Zoom we go racing along the Middle Fork Trail for our warmup lap.

Today's video highlight comes from a fun sequence playing chase with one of the teams from Good Times. We saw the team on the trail and then gave them a head start before flying along the trail after them. Watch closely at the end of the video as we come around a corner and find bodies spread across the trail (the Good Times team dumped the musher and passenger off the sled). Don't worry, the dog sled team is stopped ahead of the dumped bodies; it was just shocking at first to encounter the bodies before the sled!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finished with our warmup lap and back at the trailhead waiting for our friends to get hooked up and hit the trail again with us!

"Hi guys!!! Come join the fun!" suggest happy Max & Zorro.

Pausing on a side trail to watch one of the Good Times teams come up the main trail:

"Hi! Can I join?!?" asks Zorro.
"Na, let's go forward on our own." suggests focused Max.

A fun day had by all:

"Yep - fun had by all!" say the happy pair at one of our turnaround points of the day.

Tons of fun running the trail with 70+ sled dogs: 12.3 miles with 1150 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 60 days on the trails covering 509.1 miles with 54,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Group Day

It was a great day running the trails at Rabbit Ears Pass with 20 or so of our Siberian Husky buddies!

Approaching the end of our run for the day and following a sled team (quickly) to the
trailhead just around the upcoming right on the trail.

We planned on meeting up with our usual husky friends; but were pleasantly surprised to find another group of 18 or so sled dogs already at the trail head planning to run the same trails as us. This made it a surprise party of 40ish sled dogs all ready to run the Rabbit Ears trails!

Max & Zorro on the left of the photo. Our friend Gillian's 5 huskies in the center of the photo.
The rest of our Siberian Husky friends from Sno-Magic Siberians hidden behind Gillian's truck.
About 18 additional (surprise guest) sled dogs attached to the truck/trailer to the right.
What a sled dog party day!

There was a wet snow falling most of the day, so I did not get any good video footage not obscured by water spots on the camera. But, the sun did come out for a few minutes at our turnaround point of the day:

"Sun - omigod, so HOT! Must roll snow angels to cool off!" say the silly Siberians taking a
quick snow bath before we headed back to the trailhead.

A fun sled dog party day on the trails covering 8.3 miles with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 53 days on the trails covering 442.8 miles with 47,950 feet of elevation climbed.

Sled Dog Party

A sled dog party on the trails at Keyser Creek today!

One of the dog trucks with 5 of our friends unloaded and waiting for the party to start.
"I LOVE sled dog parties!" exclaims giddy Max happy to be at today's party.
"So cool. I have to take it all in!" states intense Zorro getting ready to join the party!

We met up with our group of sled dog friends at the Keyser Creek Trail this morning. Counting Max & Zorro, we had about 20 Siberian Huskies at the trail ready to pull sleds and/or skijor. Many of the dogs were from Sno-Magic Siberians along with a handful of "others" like Max & Zorro. It is so fun to meet up and have a sled dog party - Max & Zorro absolutely LOVE it!

We watched two sled teams hook up and leave before us. Max & Zorro were dying with anticipation watching the party start before them. They kept asking me, "Our turn YET?"....

"Come on... Our turn YET?" ask my occasionally patient pair waiting for their turn to go.

Then, finally, it was our turn. Ok boys, pedal to the metal...

"Go, go go!!!!!" as we launch out the gates to start the party on the trails.

We met up with one of the teams at our turnaround point of the day. I was going to help with a slight issue with the sled; but Max had other ideas. He was a bucking bronco wanting to keep the party going; so all I could do was hold Max back until the sled was set and ready to go. You try explaining to Max that the restart would have been faster if he had shown a little cooperation :-)

"Noooooooo! Let's GOOOOOOO!" states impatient Max determined to make it impossible for
me to help with any issues!

Coming in strong to the finish (the trailhead is just across the bridge in front of us).

"Zoom, zoom - love sled dog parties!"

Oh yea, we did a little solo skijoring to start the day as it takes a lot less time to hookup two skijor dogs than unload, prep and hookup dog sleds. We did a quick up & down an untouched side trail before joining all the dog sleds on the main trail. The best part about breaking a trail up is that you are prepping it for a fun run down....

Breaking trail in 8+ inches of powder up a side trail.

Fun little video of us using our "up tracks" for a faster down run. Look closely and you can see the parallel tracks in front of Max & Zorro that we set on the way up to reuse down - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A great sled dog party day covering 8.9 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 38 days on the trails covering 312.0 miles with 33,950 feet of elevation climbed.

Sled Dog Party

We had a little Sled Dog Party out at Keyser Creek today as we met up with 4 other sled teams to run with on the trails.

Dog trucks, dog sleds and 20+ Siberian Huskies attached to the trucks getting ready to GO!
(Max & Zorro are in the foreground with Nancy inspecting the surroundings)

We intended to run just over 10 miles today and ran 15 by mistake. Oops :)

The party consisted of 2 6-dog sled teams, 1 5-dog sled team, 1 4-dog sled team and our 2-dog skijor team (most of the dogs on the 6 and 4 dog teams were from Sno-Magic Siberians). Our friend Gillian and her 5-dog team started out the day as they were hoping to go the furthest. Max, Zorro & I started second as we planned on doing the second most miles of the outing and the other 3 teams staggered start behind us.

Here is a great video of Max & Zorro shooting out the gates at the beginning of the run. They were sooooo ready to gooooo:

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I said above, our plan was to do a 10 mile out/back on the main Keyser Creek Trail. Well, we made it to the 5-mile turnaround point pretty fast yet had still not caught up with Gillian and her team. So, I said to my partners, "I see Gillian's sled tracks and dog prints, why don't we go until we meet Gillian and then run back with her?" Max & Zorro were in perfect agreement with this plan. Onward & upward we continued, but still never found Gillian and her team. After 7.4 miles, I decided we must have missed them on some side trail and told Max & Zorro we had to turnaround and head back (they were not in agreement with this declaration :)

It turns out that we took a different fork in the trail at just over 6.5 miles, so we never would have met up with Gillian and her team. But, it was a great time had by all, come along for some highlights:

Dead animal carcass on the side of the trail gets only a slight glance from Max & Zorro as they
cruise by (with a little vocal encouragement from me :)  Such good boys to "on by" a carcass!

Zoom, zoom, zoom we go!

Cool off snow angels rolled by all at our turnaround point of the day.
"I love snow!" exclaims giddy Max.
"Rub a dub dub!" states rolling Zorro.

Approaching the end of the run at still going strong after 14.8 miles - sled dog machines!

A great Siberian Husky sled dog party at Keyser Creek covering (an accidental) 14.8 miles with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 27 days on the trails covering 215.7 miles with 23,650 feet of elevation climbed.

25 Siberians - What a Party!

Approaching the finish at the trailhead.
Look at all the fun dog sled equipment
and Siberians spread around the lot.

Today's skijoring outing was a Super Siberian Sledding Party!

We joined up with a group of mushers from Sno-Magic Siberians and Iceberg Siberians to skijor with them on their sledding outing. In all, we had 25 Siberians at the trailhead raring and howling to GO!

We broke down into 3 sets of "6 dog sled hookups", 1 set of "5 dog sled hookup" and one set of "2 dog skijor hookup" (Max & Zorro). Then, one by one, we sprinted off up the trail to have fun in the winter wilderness.

Overall, Max & Zorro kept a pretty good pace with the 5 and 6 dog sets. We could not keep exact pace uphill, but we did maintain a pretty good pace. The 5 dog hookup that started behind us took about 3 miles to catch and pass us; so you could say we were able to keep a pretty good pace with less than half the Siberian power! On the downhill leg, we were able to match the pace of the 6 dog set in front of us for about 3/4 of the way down; then we dropped back a bit in the last 1/4 as everyone was clearly tiring (Max, Zorro & Brad).

This was a fabulous training outing for Zorro as we had to do 4 "on by" events with the other teams. Max is perfect at ignoring other dogs and going "on by". Zorro, on the other hand, needs some practice at this activity. Since most of what we run into in the backcountry is misbehaving loose dogs, we do not get much "on by" practice. We were not 100% in our "on bys" today, but I'll give Zorro a B (and Max an A+) - practice makes perfect and Zorro is improving!

Vital Stats: 9.8 miles; 75m skijoring time (we did not take any breaks - a 4.9 mile sprint up and an immediate 4.9 mile sprint down the same path); 21 MPH top speed; 750 feet of elevation climbed on the uphill leg.

Arriving back at the trailhead. Happy faces
after an exhilarating 10 mile run.

Some of the Siberians who went out with us today. Max & Zorro are currently
getting their "hot dog" treats after finishing the outing. These 3 Sibes look on
wondering "Hey, what are those two getting!?!"

A fun shot of sleds and Siberians spread around the trailhead after we all
finished the outing.