Ashes

We took the opportunity to spread some of Zorro's ashes atop Rabbit Ears Pass this June 1st which would have been Zorro's 14th birthday. We sure miss you special Zorro, Woooo!

The black "cloud of dust" directly up from Jack are some of Zorro's
ashes being sprinkled from my right hand.
"Woo, we sure miss you special Z!!!"

It had become a tradition over the past 13 years: to skijor (or dog sled) on whatever snow we could find to celebrate Zorro's birthday with him. Zorro had a true love and passion for snow, so "toes on snow" in some form of skijor or dog sled outing was always the best present Zorro could receive. Still mourning the recent loss of wonderful Zorro, Jack, Rudy & I decided to keep the tradition alive and celebrate what would  have been Zorro's 14th birthday with a skijor in memory of Zorro and a chance to sprinkle some of his ashes atop Rabbit Ears Pass along the way. 

It is June, though, so conditions are naturally deteriorating. Yet, we did find some nice stretches of snow to open up the skijoring engine. Whee:

Great stretch of snow along the Harrison Creek Trail at Rabbit Ears.

But, for every nice patch of snow, we also encountered an ugly patch of exposed ground! Yuck!

Uh-oh.....

When we did get on a nice stretch of snow, it was the usual "go, go, go" from talented Jack & Rudy. Come along for a video look into one nice stretch near the trailhead as we completed this morning's outing in celebration of Zorro.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Not many people in the northern hemisphere get the chance to celebrate Zorro's June 1st with a skijor and toes on snow - Jack & Rudy really appreciated the day!

"Fun, fun! But we sure miss our mentor Zorro!" says the wonderful kids
awaiting 'end of run' treats.

A short run on deteriorating conditions; but still a wonderful June 1st celebration of Zorro: 3.6 miles traveled with 300 feet of elevation  climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2021/2022 Season to Date: 157 days on the trails covering 1306.1 miles with 122,300 feet of elevation climbed.

We may have one more skijor left this season (on Buffalo Pass this Saturday) or today may have been our last outing. Stay tuned to see if we can squeak out one more skijor run...

Birthday Finale

Our final skijor of the 2019/2020 Season this morning, June 1st, for Zorro's 12th birthday!

"Happy 12th Birthday Zorro!" say Jack, Rudy and myself to happy
Zorro awaiting today's 'end of run' treats!

Our goal every year is to skijor in some way on Zorro's June 1st birthday. Some years we have had wonderful extended skijors on June 1st while other years we have been hiking over dirt/mud as we search for extended patches of snow to ski. It all depends on what snow conditions are still available on June 1st.

Today was a slightly less than average June 1st outing. We were able to find a nice extended patch of snow atop Rabbit Ears Pass to skijor but the patch was only about 1/2 mile long. We did an "out & back" on this 1/2 mile stretch with the trio, Zorro, Jack and Rudy. We then dropped elder Zorro off with Nancy with the intent of going further with the kids, Jack & Rudy. But, we were confined to the same 1/2 mile stretch as we ran out of snow and into wide, fast running creeks and rivers on all sides. So, the day's total outing was an "out & back" with the threesome and then another "out & back" with the kids.

Oh well, it was still Toes on Snow on June 1st for Zorro's 12th Birthday! Yay!

Starting the outing on what looks like a pretty nice stretch for June 1st!

We were on one of the main snowmobile trails at Rabbit Ears. So, as you see above, the trail was more packed and smooth than the bumpy snow off trail. But, we still had our share of "hole obstacles" along the way.

Approaching a hole obstacle in front of us as Rudy takes the left of
the hole while Zorro & Jack go right. I went right too :)

A little further along and now Zorro & Rudy go left of another hole obstacle while Jack goes right. I went left with Zorro & Rudy too.

A little bumpy on the remains of the snowmobile trail; but
look at how bumpy it is off trail to our right and left!

Here we go for today's video highlight. It is not the prettiest skijor video ever; but it is Toes on Snow on June 1st for Zorro's 12th Birthday! Yay!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, a shot of the happy trio ending our initial "out & back" with the entire team:

All the smiles are visible despite the bright sun right behind us!

A fun little 2 mile skijor to celebrate Zorro's 12th birthday with a skijor in June!

That brings us to a conclusion of the 2019/2020 Skijor Season. We had an interesting and entertaining season balancing Zorro approaching 12 years old with Jack & Rudy maturing into professionals in the prime of their lives. A great time was had by all as Jack & Rudy eclipsed 1200 miles of skijoring for the season. Meanwhile Zorro came along for every outing but only participated in a portion of most runs as he happily hung with Nancy before and/or after his stint while the kids and I went out for more exercise. As you witnessed from the happy, happy faces in the posts all season long, a great time was had by all!!!

2019/2020 Final Season Stats: 176 days on the trails covering 1204.1 miles with 110,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Elder Zorro's 2019/2020 Final Season Stats: 176 days on the trails covering 626.4 miles with 57,000 feet of elevation climbed.

Zorro Birthday

We had the BEST time celebrating Zorro's 11th birthday this June 1st with a 7.7 mile skijor atop Rabbit Ears Pass. A GREAT time was had by all!

"I am the giddiest birthday boy around!" exclaims super happy Zorro at our turnaround point of
the morning.
"So happy to give this present to our big bro!!!" adds the happy, happy youngsters!

Zorro has had his "toes on snow" every June 1st birthday of his life and he has been skijoring every June 1st since he was 3 (his 1st & 2nd birthdays were "hikes to snow" and the rest have been skijors). Given the time of year, what "type" of skijor we get is always in question. Sometimes we are hiking on dirt/mud between snow patches (bad snow years) while other times we are skijoring a great spring crust (good snow years). Zorro's longest birthday skijor came on June 1st 2016 going 9.4 miles with Max. Today was Zorro's second longest birthday skijor - 7.7 miles on the incredible snowpack atop Rabbit Ears Pass.

Regardless of the conditions, it is always a fun "toes on snow" June 1st. But today was Zorro's second best ever. Come along for a glimpse at the excellent conditions...

Flying sled dog trio as the start of the morning's run. Everyone out-stretched and
flying over the firm spring crust.

We got out plenty early this morning to assure we had a solid crust the entire outing. We were atop Rabbit Ears Pass and skijoring towards Buffalo Park. With such a great crust, we were able to abandon the main trail and fly over & across vast open meadows on the firm spring crust.

Endless meadow of crust as far as the eye can see.
Catching air as we make our own path over the meadows.

Funny shot as we rounded a corner and Jack & Rudy bumped each other.

"Hey! Move left - give me some space!" declares Jack.
"NO! I'll go wherever I want!" responds Rudy.
"Glad I am far to the left!" adds Zorro happily trotting far away from the 'discussion'.

Oftentimes a "bump discussion" like you see above will result in an unapproved wrestlefest on the trail. Luckily, both Jack & Rudy quickly came to their senses and did not take this discussion any further that what you see above. Polite kids to not interrupt Zorro's fun birthday run :)

In honor of sweet Zorro's 11th birthday, come along for a "skijor minute" of incredible conditions atop Rabbit Ears Pass on June 1st!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a fun day giving Zorro his second longest birthday skijor ever!

"That was fun! Love ya man!" says Zorro giving my hand a little lick.
"So happy to give our big bro such a great present!!!" adds the youngsters.

An absolute gem of a June day for Zorro's 11th birthday: 7.7 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 743.0 miles with 69,300 feet of elevation climbed.

Rabbit Hat

We pulled a "rabbit out of a hat" to piece together one last skijor run for Zorro's 10th birthday this June 1st. Happy Birthday Zorro!

"Wanna play before we get going?" asks frisky Jack.
"Really, I'd flatten you (and you'd love it)!" declares birthday boy Zorro.

I said "rabbit out of a hat" as we returned to Rabbit Ears Pass to try and find enough patches of snow to put together Zorro's birthday run. It was truly a piecemeal run we found few contiguous patches of snow with lots of exposed ground in between. The contiguous patches got very narrow at times...

"Still enough snow if you stay behind me!" declares happy Zorro.
"My path is broken!" states happy Jack.

Every time we encountered patches of exposed ground, I would take off my skis and then jog with Zorro and Jack to the next snow patch. At each snow patch, we would pause while I put my skis back on. Well, you know what Jack thinks about pauses during skijor runs... Roll snow angels!

"Ah, feels sooo good - no need to hurry!" says silly Jack.
"Come on, I don't have all day, get those skis on!" states Zorro.

They came off (and then on) so many times, even Zorro decided to join in on the antics waiting for the silly human to get reset to go:

"Okay, I see the fun in rolling while waiting for slow humans!" demonstrates Zorro.
"Hehe, told ya!!!" adds happy Jack.

But, we did find a few extended patches to enjoy our last skijor of this 2017/2018 season. Wheeee!

Go, go, go!!! Finally, go dogs go!!! :)

Finally the fun was over and time to play with little puppy Rudy as we shut down our 2017/2018 skijor season.

Such focus! Such focus!!!

A piecemeal final run with some skijoring and lots of jogging in between patches of snow: 2.2 miles traveled with 400 feet of elevation climbed and a modest top speed of 12 MPH (not enough contiguous patches of snow to hit a real top speed :)

2017/2018 Season Summary: 56 days on the trails covering 342.7 miles with 33,750 feet of elevation climbed.

---

Zorro Birthday

Doing one of Zorro's (and Max's) favorite things on Zorro's 9th birthday:

Catching air while skijoring!

Airborne & flying sled dogs as we catch air skijoring atop Walton Peak.

More fun atop Walton Peak: exchanging pleasantries while flying along the terrain...

"Happy birthday little bro!" yells Max to Zorro.
"I'm 9 and flying!!! Wheeee!" responds Zorro :)

Today's short video clip showcases us having a great time on the top of Walton Peak. If you watch closely you will notice Max & Zorro are in "conversing while sprinting" moods. These conversations can sometimes turn into wrestlefests; but, luckily, I catch sight of them brewing and a few "forward" and "uh uh" commands circumvents the need to wrestle as we keep flying along - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

You cannot have much more fun than this for a June birthday in the Northern Hemisphere, right:

"Oh yes, the BEST present!!!" says happy little Zorro.
"Happy to be part of the present!" adds happy Max.

End of the morning's run and time to discuss & relive how much fun we had:

"Toes on snow in June - need we say more? Loving Life!"

It was a different than usual outing for us at Rabbit Ears Pass. Usually we cover lots of miles on gently rolling terrain; but the big melt is on at lower elevations so we took a steep route to get us as high as possible quickly. As you see in the video above, the terrain was still great once we got up high! 7.6 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2016/2017 Season to Date: 168 days on the trails covering 1397.9 miles with 147,900 feet of elevation climbed.

Zorro Birthday

A 9.4 mile skijor run on June 1st for Zorro's 8th Birthday!

9.4 miles on June 1st?!? Sweet!

Flying... Just flying along January (in June) conditions :)

I tried to write how incredible a June 1st outing this was; but words could not do it justice. Just watch for yourself as today's video is a compilation of tons & tons of fun skijoring Rabbit Ears Pass on June 1st.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A few things to notice in the video... First, if your volume is up then the "clicks" you hear are slush bombs flying off Max & Zorro's feet and into the camera case (and my face! :)  Second, near the end of the video we get to a narrow/dangerous water crossing. You'll note that I do not need to ask Max & Zorro to "slow down" for the crossing. When they hear my skis scrape for an extended time (e.g., a few seconds), they automatically slow down themselves as they know that scraping sounds means to slow the pace to preserve the human. "Better to slow down than break the human toy and end the season!" say the smart pair.

Not many sled dogs in the Northern Hemisphere get to spend a June birthday on snow! Such fun!

"I'm ecstatic, just plain giddy!" declares happy Zorro.
"Fun indeed, what a ride today!" states happy Max.

Finally, for today's humor... Every once in a while one of Max or Zorro will instigate an "unapproved trail interaction" by dorking with the other. For our first 6 years of skijoring, about 75% of these shenanigans were started by Zorro. But, for the last year, about 95% (maybe 100%) have been instigated by Max. We have been laughing all year that Zorro matured at age 7 and turned into an "all go, all business" sled dog. Well, look below.... Zorro turned 8 today and rolled the clock back to his 6 and under years. Tuning in to Channel Z being broadcast from Planet Z as Zorro dorks with Max while sprinting along the trail!

"Hehehe, I'm back from Planet Z!" declares Zorro dorking with Max without breaking stride.

An incredible run on June 1st to celebrate Zorro's 8th birthday: 9.4 miles traveled with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2015/2016 Season to Date: 149 days on the trails covering 1253.5 miles with 136,550 feet of elevation climbed.

Passing 1300

It took some creativity.... But...

Passing 1300 miles of skijoring for the season this morning on Zorro's 7th birthday - yay!

"Toes on Snow in June - we couldn't ask for much more!" declare the happy pair looking
back at me as I remove the skis to hike the last bit to the trailhead at the end of the day's outing.

The temperatures have really risen the last few days and the "summer melt" is in full swing as the trails are quickly drying up all around us. But, we had to find a June 1st outing for Zorro's birthday - have to have "toes on snow" for birthdays! It took some creativity; but we succeeded on a short 3.5 mile skijor up & down the shady side of the Sally Barber Mine Trail.

Conditions were sketchy most of the day as the following photo was "as good" as it got:

All the toes (and skis) on snow as we trot along one of the few wide patches of snow still
left on the trail.

Despite the conditions, we made it all the way up to Sally Barber Mine!

"We made it!" exclaims happy Max.
"Mine, schmine, the real 'gold' is the white stuff under my toes!" declares Zorro.

You know the season is just about over when your only encounter on the trails is a guy jogging in his summer clothes!

Skis off as we trek across this large section of dirt (this is the only part of this leg of the
Sally Barber Mine Trail that does not get some shade).
Sled dogs, skis and joggers - what does not fit?

All we can say about the morning's outing is, "At least we did it (1300 miles and toes on snow)!" A small 3.5 mile trot with 550 feet of elevation climbed.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 152 days on the trails covering 1301.9 miles with 136,400 feet of elevation climbed.

June Joring Season Finale

June 1st was Zorro's 6th birthday and we celebrated with our first ever "outing on skis in June"!

Look at all the snow still on the trails at Rabbit Ears Pass.
What a beautiful June 1st skijor run we had!!!

We have had the sled out in June before, but never the skis. It takes a magical snow season to still have snowpack to ski in June. I do not know of a better present we could have given Zorro for his 6th birthday...

"I LOVE it!!!!!" exclaims happy little 6 year old Zorro!
"In case you did not notice, the snow ends at this cliff!" states lead dog Max making sure
we do not continue on to the rocky cliff in front of us.
Notice that you cannot see any snow in the foreground as we are on what is probably the last
skiable snowpack in Colorado.

Our outing took us to our favorite "south trail" atop Rabbit Ears Pass. It was most likely the final outing of our incredible 2013/2014 Skijoring Season. The pictures & video in today's blog may look amazing; but Rabbit Ears is melting at about 4-6 inches per day right now. So, this is our last outing of the season unless we find some hidden snow gem soon....

Today's video highlight is nothing short of amazing - flying on the trails on skis in June!!! Look out for the slush bomb that flies off Zorro's foot and splatters the GoPro cover near the end of the video...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

June Joring - who thought it was possible (without going to Antartica :-) ???

"The BEST June 1st EVER! What a birthday bash!" declare the happy brothers looking back
approvingly at one of our turnaround points of the day.

Ok, we will say it once more... An amazing outing in June - covering 7.4 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed.

Sadly this brings our 2013/2014 Skijoring Season to a close. But, the tears shed quickly when you reflect back on the season we had. It was purely... shall we say it again... amazing!

156 days on the trails covering 1341.8 miles with 152,800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 26 MPH.

We will compile a "season in review" video during the summer and, who knows, maybe we will surface with 1 (or 2) last surprise outings. But, most likely not, as this is probably the last outing of the season. Thanks for following along with us - pray for snow in 2014/2015!

Season Finale

Today was our Season Finale for the 2012/2013 Skijoring Season.

We pulled out a "June 1st Outing" for one very good reason - today is Zorro's birthday! We were all hoping the end of season melt would hold off just long enough for us to get a small June 1st Birthday Finale - and it did!

"June 1st and we have the sled out on snow! What a birthday bash for Zorro!" exclaim
happy Max & Zorro at our turnaround point on the trail.

Truth be told: our last serious skijor outing was really May 10th. But, we were able to get a couple of fun little sled outings since then. "A little sled outing is better than no outing because that means we still have some snow!" declare Max & Zorro.

So, what do the conditions look like on June 1st? Well, first of all we were on the sled, not the skis as the terrain was far from skiable. Second of all, well, you can see for yourself below:

It looks remarkably good as we started out on the trail.
But, looks can be deceiving in June....

We had many puddles occupying part of the trail or cutting across the trail as
you see above.

We had many sections with nothing more than a "sloped shoulder" of snow as pictured here.
This is a tough one on the musher - the Siberians do not need to slow down; but I need to
ride the right runner on the sled hard to keep the sled on snow.

And, we had a fair number of "exposed ground" sections of trail. The sled can move across
this terrain if there is not human on the runners. So, every time we encountered a patch of dirt
like this I had to hop off the sled and run to keep up with the Siberians!

So, there you have it: some sections of all snow, many sections of growing puddles, many sections of narrow snow shoulders and occasional exposed ground. The outing was certainly worth it for Zorro's birthday, but it is certainly our last outing of this glorious 2012/2013 season.

Our season totals: 1024.9 miles, 137,500 feet of elevation climbed, 120 days on the trail and a top speed of 26 MPH. Wow, what a season! I am soooo proud of my 1000 mile Siberian partners!

A few parting shots from this last day of a great season...

The last outing would not be complete without our usual "cool off" antics at our turnaround:
(1) Max rolling a snow angel to cool off.
(2) Zorro chomping down on snow cones to cool off.

Happy faces as we cruise to the finish. "It has been an incredible year!
We love being '1000 mile huskies'" say cute Max & Zorro.