400 miles, 26 MPH - the end???

Surpassed 400 miles skijoring for the season today!

Recorded our top speed of the season - 26 MPH!

Last outing of the season? Probably :-(

Doing my "olympic victory pose" as we finish the day back at the French Gulch trailhead.
I knew we surpassed 400 miles and I knew we hit incredible top speeds.
It's hard to see the olympic victory pose in the right shot, but I am doing it as
Max & Zorro power us to the "finish line" (click to enlarge, but still a dark pic).

Our Route: start at French Gulch winter trailhead and skijor up the gulch all the way to the end of the last open meadow in the gulch; take a short break; sprint back down the gulch to the French Gulch winter trailhead.

The Conditions: started out icy at the lower portions of the trail; transitioned to icy packed powder in the upper portions; degraded to melting slush returning to the lower portions. French Gulch will not be 100% skiable by the end of today - there are growing sections of mud/puddles that will span the trail by the end of the day. To continue skijoring past today we are going to need some serious help from Mother Nature or we are going to have to start hiking (carrying skis) from the trailheads until the conditions become skiable - boo hiss!

The Fun: this is most likely our last outing of the season... We did not want the day to end... The solution: (1) Victory Lap - instead of skijoring straight up the last meadow (as we usually do), we swung out to the right and hugged the trees on the edge of the meadow. High fiving the trees as we did this "victory lap" up the meadow. That still was not enough... (2) Slalom Lap - instead of skijoring straight down the last meadow on the return route, we did wide, sweeping left/right slaloms down the meadow (skijor to the right, "left turn", skijor across the meadow to the left, "right turn" - repeat 5-6 times). We turned that last meadow into 2x the distance it normally entails, before connecting back with the base trail and sprinting back to the trailhead - fun, Fun, FUN!

Vital Stats: 6.9 miles; 70m total time; 58m moving time; 7.1 MPH moving average; 26 MPH top speed; 700 feet of elevation gain (and loss).

Skijoring in the upper sections of French Gulch. Icy, packed powder but
still very skiable (especially compared to the lower sections).

A look back at the last open meadow in French Gulch.
We skijored up the left side of this picture, hugging the trees, on the way out.
We slalomed back & forth across the meadow on the way back.
Anything to extend the fun!

Taking a break at the edge of the last meadow in French Gulch.
Human's definition of "break" - rest, take some pictures, relax.
Siberian's definition of "break" - how deep do you think we can dig into the snow before
the slow human wants to start going again?

Max & Zorro in unison (from the last picture), "Hey, your hole looks better than my hole!"
Max & Zorro in unison, "Rotate, switch to the 'better' hole."

Back at the French Gulch trailhead, Max & Zorro looking over the
deteriorating conditions... "Please don't let the season end!"

Another Siberian Convert ... Lost...

Cruising up Boreas Pass Rd - small layer of fresh
snow (1-2 inches) and fox tracks to guide us ;-)

Today's Skijoring Highlight: 50th day on the trail this season!!!

Today's Siberian Comical Moment: As we were skijoring up Boreas Pass Rd, a pair of snowshoers were on the trail in front of us. Max & Zorro view anything in front of them as an object to catch and overtake. People, dogs, birds, rabbits - you name it, they view it as a target and kick into overdrive to catch the object in front. As we were passing the snowshoe couple, they said the usual comment we get on the trails, "Wow - that's almost not fair how those two are powering you up the trail! We need some huskies!" For a brief moment, another Siberian convert gained...

As we passed the couple Max said, "Target caught and passed, now what?" In an answer to "what", Max moved slightly off the trail into deeper powder, dipped his head into the powder and flicked some snow up in the air (some hitting Zorro). Zorro reacted with his usual comment, "You talking to me?!??" Zorro then proceeded to jump on Max. Max returned the favor by flattening Zorro in the middle of the trail.

The couple came running up to us yelling, "Oh my god, do you need help?" It must have been quite the sight for them to see a Siberian Wrestle Match breakout in the middle of the trail. I responded, "No, they are just playing, it's not as bad as it looks" - and I then proceeded to untangle my wrestling pair and re-explain the object of skijoring to them. On watching this episode, one of the snowshoers said, "Wow - maybe YOU have it harder and it's not fair that you have to deal with them!" Sigh, another Siberian convert lost...


The Route: start at the Boreas winter trailhead and skijor up Boreas Pass Rd for 4.9 miles; take a short break and then skijor back down Boreas Pass Rd - returning to the winter trailhead.

Vital Stats: 9.8 miles; 2h 10m total time; 1h 50m moving time; 5.3 MPH moving average; 15 MPH top speed; 900 feet of elevation gain (and loss). Not a particularly fast outing; but given the rising temperatures, I did not want to push Max & Zorro too hard and risk losing their enthusiasm - so I let them set a pace comfortable to them.

Another shot of Max & Zorro cruising up Boreas.
Notice the fox tracks on the trail in front of us - nothing like
fresh fox tracks to give the Siberian Engine a little extra boost!

Another view of the path up Boreas and that interesting set of fox tracks
sharing the trail with us. It's just us huskies Mr. Fox, you can come out
on the trail (hehehe).

A look back at our tracks coming up Boreas Pass Rd.
Note the blue in the sky - after almost constant snow the last 2 weeks
of April, it appears that Spring has finally decided to make an appearance
in the Colorado High Country...

Did I mention "Spring arrived" today. Max & Zorro were convinced this was the hottest
day in history! Nothing like making Siberian snow angels to cool yourself off!
Love the last shot of Max (upper right) - just finished his snow angel and is smacking
his lips with his tongue - YUM, very tasty snow.

Equipment Failure...

Cruising down the French Gulch trail, approaching
the winter trailhead after 8 miles of skijoring fun!

Top Speed Skijoring today: somewhere WELL over 20 MPH, but we don't know how fast :-(

I have a 13 year old GPS that we use to track our elevations and speeds when skijoring. This old GPS often "loses" us in heavily wooded areas and other remote parts of the backcountry. When looking at the GPS info after an outing, it will have no data for these areas - according to the GPS we disappeared for a while and then reappeared.

The bummer of today's skijoring outing: we were sprinting at incredible speeds in the heavily wooded upper areas of French Gulch. As we were flying, I thought to myself, "This is the FASTEST I have ever seen Max & Zorro in front of me. We have to be breaking our all time speed record!" When we finished our outing, I was disappointed to learn the GPS had lost us in this section of French Gulch and had no data. Instead, it tracked us at 20 MPH in the lower (less wooded) section of French Gulch. There is *no question* we were going significantly faster in the lost section of French Gulch than the lower area. Given that our top recorded speed of the season is 24 MPH, I am convinced we were doing somewhere in the 27-30 MPH range today. This upper section of French Gulch has many dips in the trail - I felt like I was catching air flying down and then up some of these dips. All we can report is "Top Speed somewhere well over 20 MPH, but we do not know how fast." Darned GPS equipment failure... Oh well, we still had an incredibly fun time!

The Route: Sally Barber winter trailhead off Sally Barber Rd; skijor up to Sally Barber Mine and then sprint down to French Gulch; hang a right onto French Gulch and cruise up the gulch until the last private cabin in the gulch; take a short break; then sprint down the gulch to the French Gulch winter trailhead.

Vital Stats: 8 miles; 94m total time; 82m moving time; 5.9 MPH moving average; (somewhere well over) 20 MPH top speed; 1,300 feet of elevation gain (& loss). This is a pretty steep route (1300 feet up in 4 miles), so that is an impressive 5.9 MPH moving average.

Skijoring up the Sally Barber Mine trail - 2-4 inches of fresh, fun powder.

Another shot of us skijoring up Sally Barber Mine trail.
Shoulder to Shoulder Siberian Skijoring Engine!

Taking a break at our turnaround point in French Gulch.
A look back at our fresh tracks.
Notice how heavily wooded the trail is in this area - it was not far
back down from here that Max & Zorro were going faster than I have
ever seen - but the GPS lost us :-(

Max making a serious snow angel as he cools himself off.
Hey Max - where's your head????

Done skijoring at the French Gulch winter trailhead.
Max & Zorro patiently and intensely waiting for me to hand out the
hotdogs they get as a skijoring reward at the end of every outing.