Share

Beautiful morning for a mid-April fresh tracks skijor!!!

It's not a lot of new snow; but enough to open the throttle and
lay fresh tracks for miles and miles! Wheeee!

Rudy was in a particularly goofy mood at home this morning. Yes, "goofy Rudy" has "exceptionally goofy" days!!! I should have known his silliness would carry over onto the trails. Oh that silly Rudy :)

For example, we were cruising along the trail when a stick became visible. Usually if Jack & Rudy are moving, they will ignore and cruise right on by any sticks. But, remember, today was "goofy Rudy" day, so the silly kid decided to pick up the stick to carry along. He barely even broke stride and suddenly he had this large stick in his mouth as he continued to jog. Of course, goofiness is contagious between Jack & Rudy and Jack was quick to notice Rudy's stick :)

"Hey little bro, nice stick! Can we share?" Jack asks Rudy.
Notice Rudy is still jogging with the big stick in his mouth!
Goofy, but talented!

Of course, once Jack noticed, the kids had to stop to share the stick. Sometimes a stick results in a tug of war and sometimes it results in a polite, brotherly share. Today was "share the stick" day:

"Nice find! Thanks for sharing!" says stick chewing Jack.
"Happy to share!" adds polite Rudy.

Ok, stick sharing episode over, back to skijoring. Come along for a fun video clip as we are on a nice backcountry trail following a set of wildlife tracks along the way. We never found the source of the tracks, but they sure were fun to follow! The snow walls you see on & off to our left are wind blown drifts. Jack & Rudy are perfect at navigating through wind blown terrain. Wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The stick and wildlife tracks provided some nice entertainment along the outing. But, we spent the majority of the outing laying fresh tracks in the morning's new & untouched snow. Great day!

Laying fresh tracks again!

Done for the day, let's celebrate with retired mentor Zorro:

"Front & center for that bag of 'end of run' treats!" says focused Zorro.
"Don't drop them!!!" declares Jack.
"Glad everyone enjoyed my extra entertainment today!" adds goofball
of the day Rudy.

Another wonderful outing amidst this nice multi-day mid-April snowstorm: 8.9 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 135 days on the trails covering 1145.5 miles with 106,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Trifecta

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay

topping 24 MPH skijoring yet another day!

Rudy the missile next to Jack the cannonball. Zip-a-dee Zoom!

We had a blast skijoring around the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center. We were all in a real "skijoring groove" as we were flying all over the place all morning long.

But, at one point, I had to stop the team to make sure what I was seeing on the trail was real. What did I see? Well, THREE sets of different wildlife tracks all going up the trail in front of us. After pausing to inspect, I was really seeing this cool trifecta. In this cool shot we have the following: 1) a set of mountain lion tracks behind & in front of Rudy; 2) a set of coyote tracks behind & in front of Jack; and 3) a set of fox tracks to the far right. Wow! I was hoping the following photo would come out better; but I still had to show it. I have put arrows to show the 3 different sets of tracks on the same trail!

1) Large mountain lion prints behind Rudy (notice the HUGE print at
the arrow MUCH bigger than Rudy's own prints).
2) Coyote prints behind Jack (again, the arrow shows the "bigger than
Jack/Rudy" but "smaller than mountain lion" coyote track).
3) Little bitty fox tracks along the right side of the trail.
TRIFECTA!

This trifecta of tracks made for some very juiced kids on the trail. Eventually all three tracks left the trail (at different points) and we had to inspect the exit path each time :)

"Coyote went this way! Can we too?" asks the coyote searchers.
"Ha, no kids, we are not following coyote tracks into deep snow!" I instructed.

Wow, those tracks sure were entertaining! Once all the wildlife cleared from the trail, we had nothing left to do but floor it and lay fresh tracks in the light layer of new snow all morning long. Wheeee!

Fresh tracks fun!

Now come along for the video counterpart to the prior photo. Having a blast laying fresh tracks until we eventually hang a right and reconnect with the more popular "main trail" to continue along. Zoom!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Mountain lions & coyotes & foxes, oh my! Let's tell Zorro all about it:

"I'd rather hear about that chunk of pork in your right hand!" declares
Zorro totally focused on the 'end of run' treats in my hand :)
"Mountain lions & coyotes & foxes, oh boy!" says Jack & Rudy.

A zippy day with a little bit of wildlife juice to add to Jack & Rudy's tank! 11.2 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 117 days on the trails covering 990.7 miles with 93,400 feet of elevation climbed.