Slick

Jack & Rudy's preferred ways to express happiness & satisfaction :)

Jack: always that happy, happy smile usually with a wag or two (or more)
of his big swooshy tail!
Rudy: happiness & satisfaction are defined by woos!!! "WOO!" is
extreme satisfaction :)

It has been an unseasonably warm start to March which has had our trails melting in the afternoon to then freeze overnight. That means we encountered very icy and slick conditions on the trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. 

The shininess you see "around Rudy" is slick ice.
The trails were dominated by the dangerous ice patches most of the outing!

At some point in March or April, the crust on the snow off trail becomes firm enough to support Jack, Rudy and myself on skis. With super slick conditions on trail this morning, we decided to give the crust a test. It was still too early for the crust to hold us; but Jack & Rudy gave it a thorough inspection!

See the post holes from Jack & Rudy behind them. The crust could
not support them walking yet. But, the good news is the crust is solid
enough to support a snow angel roll without busting through. Almost
time for the spring crust :)

With the crust not firm yet, it was back onto the nordic trails. Once we got far enough from the (heavy use) trailheads, the ice became less & less of an issue. So nice up high and far away from civilization!

Whee up high! No shiny iciness way up here!!!

But, most of the day was spent on slick & icy conditions. Jack & Rudy are PERFECT at slowing down when they hear my skis scraping like crazy to try and keep myself under control. What great partners!

Time to report back in with retired mentor Zorro after another successful skijor outing:

"Glad they kept you upright!" says handsome Zorro.
"Waiting our turn!!!" adds wonderfully patient Jack & Rudy!

A fun day, but boy oh boy was it slick out there!!! 9.8 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 101 days on the trails covering 846.8 miles with 79,800 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Packed

The trails around Sally Barber Mine were VERY hard & fast packed this morning!

Cresting by the historic mine on hard packed snow.

It was an interesting outing around Sally Barber Mine today primarily because I had NO brakes all day long! My usual brake is to snowplow in loose or soft snow or to take myself into deep snow. Well, the trails were hard packed from lots of recent use while the shoulders were punchy from warm days/cold nights. As a result, well, I had no brakes! Good thing Jack & Rudy listen to my verbal cues!

The less popular back side of Sally Barber Mine - hard & fast packed terrain!

The popular, front side of Sally Barber Mine - SUPER hard & fast packed! No brakes today!

Whew, this hard packed surface sure gave my legs a workout!

We did multiple laps up, down & around Sally Barber Mine this morning. Laps often involve stopping and turning around. Turning around often involves goofy Jack & Rudy :)

Turnaround = Roll Around! demonstrates the goofy kids.

Come along for some "hard packed, no brakes" skijoring in today's video highlight. Good thing Jack & Rudy are such good partners and listeners. It's also a good thing we did not run into the one thing that causes them to NOT listen - moose! These trails in are in moose country, so I was on high alert rounding every blind corner as I had no brakes for moose emergencies (except to throw my body down :) Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Whew, that was a fun albeit wild day on super packed terrain. Let's go report in with retired mentor Zorro:

"Glad they kept you alive!" says focused Zorro.
"Hey, we listened and slowed when you asked!!!" reports good, good
Jack & Rudy!

A day of working the human's legs to try and keep under control on super packed trails! 8.4 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 524.9 miles with 49,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Workout

Cute Zorro prodding me to "get with it" and dish out those "end of run" treats :)

"Poke, poke, get with it already!" says prodding Zorro.
"You have my full attention!" adds happy Jack.
"Look who is the 'picture of patience'!" declares mellow Rudy (haha).

We went to skijor an out & back on the upper elevation trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. Typically they run the groomer on these trails on Monday morning to cleanup the terrain after heavy weekend use. But, unfortunately, we got to the trails before the groomer. As a result, we found ourselves on fast packed to extremely slick conditions all morning long. This leads to a real workout for ME as I have to ski, snowplow and drive my skis into the hard terrain in an attempt to keep us under control. I like to pretend I can stop if I need to and slick conditions really test my abilities! Whew!

The closer to the trailhead we were, the more packed and slick the trail was. Look at the shininess of the trail in the following photo - that is packed to the point of slick ice! Yikes!

Oh boy were my legs burning trying to keep the machine under
control on slick stretches of trail!

Luckily the highest points of our outing were a little nicer as not many people make it this far out on the trails. It was still fast & hard packed up high, but at least it was not slick & shiny ice!

Super hard packed trail; but that is still better than slick ice!

Come along for today's loud video clip. If you have your volume on, you will hear my skis in a constant "scrape" as I try my hardest to keep us under control on ridiculously fast conditions. All that scraping you hear is work on my legs - ow :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

At our turnaround point, I was happy to encourage silly antics from the kids while I rested my legs.

A real test of the wide angle of my camera to capture this dual snow angel!
"What silly kids!" says happy Zorro.

I took so long to rest at our turnaround that even mature Zorro lost patience. I thought he was going to go roll a snow angel in the side powder but he decided to chomp down on snowcones while waiting for me instead.

"Yum, tasty snowcones!" demonstrates snow eating Zorro.
"Hey big bro - what do you have over there?" asks onlooking Jack.
Rudy was in his usual la-la-land and never noticed Zorro (and then Jack) eating snow :)

We've now had back to back skijors of "almost too hard packed" conditions. As I look out the window, I see the upcoming snowstorm blowing in over the mountains. We can really use a dose of fresh snow on the packed trails and hope to wake to upwards of 12 inches of new snow tomorrow!

A hard packed, hard on the human's legs day: 6.2 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 85 days on the trails covering 584.7 miles with 54,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Too Packed

What a happy trio. Love enjoying the trails with my partners!

"Do I look HAPPY or what?!?!" asks ecstatic Jack.
"I'm having fun too!' adds happy Zorro.
"Me too, me too!" contributes smiling in the background Rudy.

We only had time for a relatively short skijor this morning. But, since Zorro came with for a full run yesterday, we still let him sit out the first 1/2 of today's outing. Despite having only a short time to be out, the conditions were so fast packed that we covered some serious distance in that time!

We started out in the shaded Sally Barber Mine Trail with Jack & Rudy. Oh boy was the trail fast and packed!

Zoom the kids go!

After a quick run with Jack & Rudy, we added Zorro in to do an out & back in French Gulch. Boy, if I thought Sally Barber was "fast packed" then French Gulch was "almost TOO fast packed"! The transition got us out of the shaded from the shaded Sally Barber and onto the bluebird French Gulch.

What a BEAUTIFUL morning. What "too packed" a trail!!!!

What does "almost too fast packed" look & sound like? Well come along for the ride and listen to my skis scraping for me to keep some semblance of control and watch the camera (and me) bouncing along the ridiculously fast packed terrain! This is the kind of day that really tests the humans leg strength to try and keep the speed under control!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

As I mentioned, we did and out & back in French Gulch. Oh those silly kids at our turnaround point.

"They are at it again, aren't they?" asks Zorro looking back to me over his left
shoulder to avoid looking right at the goofball twins.
"Rub a dub dub - snow angels twins we are!" demonstrate the goofs.

Conditions may have been "almost too packed" for me, but they were perfect for a fast & furious outing for my partners!

All smiles as we glide to the end of a fast, fast day!

Luckily we have a lot of snow in the upcoming forecast to freshen up some of the too packed trails! 6.2 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2019/2020 Season to Date: 84 days on the trails covering 578.5 miles with 53,400 feet of elevation climbed.

Too Slick

It was an interesting and almost too difficult day to skijor Boreas Pass!

"You about set back there?" ask Zorro & Rudy at a break on the trail.
"Boring.... boring... Can we go yet?!?!" asks impatient Jack.
Nice view of the ski runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort on the mountains across the
valley from us.

So, what was interesting and difficult? Well, the primary set track on the trail was only 2 Siberians wide (3 could not fit shoulder to shoulder). In addition, the set track was so packed it was closer to ice than packed snow. So, interesting was the trio could not fit side by side. Difficult was that I could not put both skis in the primary track - it was so narrow and packed that I had no ability to stop or even slow down if I put both skis in this narrow chute. My pals have been taught that if you feel no friction from me then you are allowed to go as fast as you want. They are right 99% of the time. Today was the other 1% as I had no way to introduce friction in the narrow slick track! Yikes.

We cannot all fit, so Jack takes a turn jogging behind Zorro & Rudy.

But, aha, look at my skis in the prior photo. There was a secondary ski track to the left of the narrow and slick primary track. I could put my left ski out in this track and suddenly I had some ability to control our skijoring machine. Phew! Zorro quickly noticed what I was doing and said, "Hey, if the secondary track works for you, then it will work for me!" Smart guy.

Finally able to do a little skijoring with Zorro and my left ski in the secondary track
and Jack & Rudy and my right ski in the primary track.

It was still difficult as I was skiing with each ski in a different track (and the space between the primary and secondary constantly fluctuated); but we did it. Come along for an interesting and difficult skijor in strange conditions :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Rudy caught on to what Zorro discovered too. He and Zorro took turns running in the solo track while the other stayed in the primary track with Jack. Jack tried the solo track once and did not like it. No problem, Zorro & Rudy were happy to alternate and let Jack stay in the main track.

Rudy's turn to run solo with my left ski. Wheeee!

All went great higher up on Boreas where we had the primary and secondary tracks. But, the last 1/2 mile was impossible to skijor. Notice anything in the following photo?

The straight line coming off my shoulders and by my head are my skis mounted on my backpack.
Yes, we are jogging, not skijoring!

So, what happened? Look closely and Zorro, Jack & Rudy are in the set track. It was wide enough for 3 down low (from lots of traffic); but it was also packed to the point of ice, not snow! Now look at the shoulders outside of the set track. There is no secondary track and, in fact, there are post holes all over the place (presumably from crowds stepping off for photos, etc.). So, my skis could not operate outside of the set track but the set track was too narrow and slick to provide any speed control (and my partners would, as taught, take off without friction). Yikes, too dangerous, time to put the skis on the backpack and jog the last 1/2 mile.

This is pretty much the only time that skijoring is at a complete disadvantage over traditional dog sledding. A dog sled has a brake, skis don't!

Oh well, we still had a great time - just a bit more difficult and interesting than planned: 5.9 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 78 days on the trails covering 425.5 miles with 38,000 feet of elevation climbed.