Quick Recap

Rudy showing off his new trick this season: rolling a snow angel and then finishing it off with a WOO!

Always rolling Jack, of course, is nothing but constant snow angels :)

"Stop, drop, roll and WOO!" demonstrates multi-talented Rudy.
"It will always be stop, drop and roll for me!" adds always rolling Jack.

I only have time for a quick recap of today's fun skijor outing. But quick is better than nothing!

We spent the morning skijoring around Dumont Lake at Rabbit Ears Pass. Most of the day found us on an abundance of snowmobile tracks all over the trails. Luckily the tracks were just soft enough to comfortably ride in skis behind Jack & Rudy. If they had been hard & icy, it would have been very painful on my knees trying to keep under control!

Soft enough tracks to comfortably let Jack & Rudy open it up. Wheeee!

The best of the outing, though, was when we got away from the main trail and found less snowmobile tracks and more shallow powder:

Ah, this is really nice on my old legs :)

But, again, most of the day was dominated by tons of snowmobile tracks thankfully soft enough to ride in. Come along and watch today's video clip to see what I mean. You might ask, "What keeps getting Jack & Rudy's attention to our left (especially) Rudy?" Well, I have no idea. This is known moose territory; but I glanced left every time one of them did and never saw anything. Goofy kids :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Another enjoying outing with my pals, let's celebrate with end of run treats:

"You have our full attention!" declares my happy & focused partners.

A quick outing with a quick recap in today's blog as well: 8.2 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 122 days on the trails covering 1051.8 miles with 103,200 feet of elevation climbed.

Wildlife Alert

Everybody having a great time on this morning's skijor outing?

"YES! We are having a BLAST!" exclaims the happy, happy kids
at our turnaround point at the Jumbo Overlook.
Oh, don't worry, we had two turnaround events today and the first was
executed with the usual "stop, drop & roll" from the snow angel brothers :)

Today's outing was very similar to yesterday's with a few modifications along the way. We once again started on the backcountry trails in Dry Gulch:

Zipping along in the backcountry as Jack & I are focused forward while
nosy Rudy glances for anybody to flirt with on the trail going left :)

Once again, after doing a backcountry lap, we dropped onto the wide trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. The secondary trail (Preston Loop) had not been groomed since yesterday morning. So, it was a little tracked up and had a few "deep fat tire bike indentations" in the trail to avoid; but still groomed enough to open up the skijoring throttle!

Jack & Rudy flying along the somewhat tracked up nordic trail. 

As we were on the trail in the prior photo, I heard the groomer running nearby. So, I knew once we transitioned onto the main trail it would be a fresh groomie zoomie. Indeed it was as we were first tracks on the freshly groomed main trail! Wheeee!

Hovering Jack next to Rudy the Missile as we floor it on the freshly
groomed nordic trail!

One significant difference from yesterday's outing was Jack & Rudy catching the "scent of moose" and running on high wildlife alert!

Rudy glancing left into the trees while Jack is in "high alert" body
language as we cruise along.

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. For background, we are in well known "moose territory" during this clip and we have seen moose and evidence of moose many times. I know Jack & Rudy's body language and both are on clear wildlife alert during this clip. You'll see Rudy making frequent glances into the trees to our left and Jack is running "on alert" (I know his wildlife alert body language). Once I saw their body language, I was on high alert too, constantly scanning the trees for moose. Despite the intensity from Jack & Rudy we never actually saw a moose, phew. This clip may be only 45 seconds long but it feels like an eternity in real life when you see them this "on alert" and are scanning the trees yourself!!!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Another successful skijor outing means another enjoyable "end of run" treats session with my pals:

"Fun! But too bad we didn't find the stinky moose!" says the happy kids
up on a snow wall for end of run treats.

Another quick, but very entertaining, outing this morning: 6.2 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date; 72 days on the trails covering 607.6 miles with 59,100 feet of elevation climbed.

1400 Miles

The 5 year olds, Jack & Rudy, first season surpassing 1400 miles of skijoring this morning.

1406.0 miles to be exact and still going! 

"Ready for 1400 more!" declares happy Jack.
"YES, 1400 MORE!" belts wooing Rudy.

While we surpass 1000 miles of skijoring almost every season, our pack has only surpassed 1400 once before and that was with Max & Zorro in 2016/2017. Well done Jack & Rudy, well done!!!

Today's outing took us to the upper terrain of Harrison Creek at Rabbit Ears Pass. After a steep initial climb, these trails flatten out in some vast upper elevation meadows that typically have the best snowpack at Rabbit Ears this time of year. Today was no exception:

Out-stretched as we round a corner on wonderful conditions up high!

Along the way, we had a short stretch of very distracted driving by Jack & Rudy in front of me!

Distracted by wildlife to the left, but not breaking stride.

It is only moose or elk that can distract Jack & Rudy this much along the trail. But, a couple of seconds after the prior clip and it was distractions to the right this time:

Distracted by wildlife to the right without breaking stride again.

Now come along for the video counterpart of the prior two photos. Watch as Jack & Rudy are distracted to the left, then distracted to the right, then distracted to the left, then distracted from behind, then distracted by prints on the trail, then left again, etc. etc. But also notice that we continue onward skijoring without breaking stride. Pretty impressive that they maintained forward momentum despite tons of distractions!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

You better believe that I was whipping my head left & right too just in case something was close by. But we never actually saw any bodies. Yet, given Jack & Rudy's level of intensity, they could clearly smell moose or elk nearby. I am suspecting it was elk since they travel in much bigger herds than moose and that would match the number of times they are distracted in every direction.

Once we were past the "scent of elk (or moose)" both kids promptly threw themselves on the ground to roll snow angels to cool off from such intense activity :)

"Must cool off after sprinting amidst elk aroma!" declares the silly kids.

Back to the trailhead and time for end of run treats. This was also the trailhead we started at yesterday and the snow wall for end of run treats is still there :)

Atop the snow wall for "eye to eye" end of run treats!

Some sketchy terrain near the start but VERY nice up high: 8.8 miles traveled with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 160 days on the trails covering 1406.0 miles with 127,400 feet of elevation climbed.