Scrapes and Glances

Uh-oh....

An unauthorized session of "tag & tackle" breaking out as we reached the
historic Sallie Barber Mine this morning :)

You know what came after the prior photo! Yep, BOOM, tag, tackle, wrestle, flip, flop, duck, dodge - you name it, the playful kids did it!

Prior photo aside, we really did skijor the Sallie Barber Mine Trail this morning. We are still dealing with the aftermath of last week's super windstorm as we have not had new snow to cover any of the tree debris littered on the trails. For the most part, it is just minor debris that we can easily run and glide amongst:

Zipping along with minor tree debris scattered on the trail.

But, there are locations where large and often many trees fell across the trail last week that had to be removed by chainsaws. Unfortunately, in removing these large downed trees, a lot of sawdust and tons of little branches remain littering the trail. While not as bad as exposed rocks, my skis still made a awful scraping noise each time they grazed a pile of dust & twigs. Check this out, for example:

You can see the remnants of the large trees that fell forward and to our left.
You can also see the dust & twig debris covering the trail.

Jack & Rudy are great partners, of course, and they automagically slowed when we approached difficult debris for me to ski over. In fact, each time either of my skis made a scraping noise, one or both of them would glance back to check on me. Such great pals:

"You ok back there, that didn't sound good?" asks the great kids glancing
back to check on me after one of my skis scraped across a patch of twigs.

Now come along for the video fun of what I'm talking about. This clip starts out with us galloping along amidst minor, no issue, debris on the trail. Then, about 30 seconds into the clip and we get to a swath of heavy debris from downed tree removal. Watch as Jack and/or Rudy glance back to check on me a total of 7 times (each time one of my skis scraped) as we pass over this swath of debris. What great partners to keep checking on me!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I was happy as can be to dish out end of run treats to my perfect partners who had my well being in mind as we scraped through some sketchy patches of trail!

"We'd rather slow, glance and keep you upright than not skijor at all!" declares
the great kids awaiting end of run treats atop a mini snow wall.

A fun, albeit short, outing on the parts of Sallie Barber Mine that have had the downed trees removed (there are sections that are still blocked by trees): 4.1 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2025/2026 Season to Date: 16 days on the trails covering 94.9 miles with 11,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Wind

Cruising by the historic Sallie Barber Mine on this morning's skijor.

Zipping on by - wheeee!

The prior photo is about the cleanest I footage I have from the entire outing this morning. What do I mean by that? Well, it has been ridiculously windy across just about the whole state of Colorado starting yesterday, through last night and into (and through) today! Come along to see the "wind impact" on this morning's skijor outing.

To begin with, we started our skijor on the road leading to the trailhead due to a downed tree across the road. This wasn't really a problem as the road was snow covered (albeit very hard packed); but it made for an interesting start to the outing:

Starting the skijor on the road to the trailhead because of a downed
tree across the road behind us.

The real impact, though, was downed trees on the trails. Take a look at this interesting obstacle to get by. In this case we had to dip down into the deep snow off trail to the left, go around the trees and then come back up onto the trail. This was easy for Jack & Rudy to do; but you try it on skis!!!!

Uh-oh, trail completely blocked by downed trees!

A little further along and more downed trees; but at least this one hit a tree on the other side of the trail and has a gap to the right that I can fit under!

Slow down, move to the right and DUCK :)

Total tree obstacles for this morning's short outing: 5 - 1 blocking the road to the trailhead, 2 blocking the entire trail (requiring us to dip off trail in deep snow to get around) and 2 crossing the trail but with enough clearance for me to duck under.

Even when the trail was clear of downed trees, it was littered with wind-blow tree debris!

A nice open stretch as Jack & Rudy are catching air but notice
all the wind-blown tree debris on the trail.

Today's video highlight is, of course, Tree Debris Skijoring! Come along and watch as we are still able to open up the throttle but there sure is a lot of tree debris to navigate around and slow my skis!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Despite a day of tree debris and downed trees, a great time was still had by all!

"We still had a blast!" declares the happy kids.

I mentioned two of the impacts of the ridiculous wind: downed trees and tree debris littered trails. The third impact? Well, the wind chill was approaching -20 F (yes, 20 degrees BELOW zero). As a result, the wimpy human cut the outing short this morning: 5.2 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 60 days on the trails covering 507.3 miles with 48,500 feet of elevation climbed.

 

Above the Clouds

Who was enjoying this morning's skijor outing?

"We are! We are having a BLAST!" exclaims the happy, happy kids.

This morning found us skijoring out & back on the beautiful Harrison Creek Trail at Rabbit Ears Pass. Once we got up in elevation a bit, the conditions were wonderful. See for yourself:

What a perfect trail in mid-May! Wheeee!

See those clouds far to the right in the prior photo? Well, here's those same clouds at our turnaround and highest elevation point of the outing.

Cool, we are higher than the clouds!

It was a interesting day contrasting the trail conditions in the shade/forest versus in the open and sun. In the shade, the snow was quite covered with needles & moss that had fallen from the trees.

Lots of needles & moss littering the trail. Buy, hey, it is snow in May
so we'll take it :)

Come along for today's fun skijor clip of us flying through the forest. Even though the snow is a little dirty from tree needles & moss, we were out early enough that the needles/moss were still frozen into the snow so we could glide over them. Later in the day, once the snow softens, these needles/moss would lead to sticky conditions. Good thing we are early birds :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Then, back to the great trail conditions in the open:

Zipping along the clean snow again.

Such a fun outing this morning, let's celebrate with end of run treats:

"Ready!" declares the happy & focused fun kids.

Another great May outing: 8.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 157 days on the trails covering 1382.8 miles with 125,800 feet of elevation climbed.