"Eek - The Creek! What happened to our trail?" ask an astonished Max & Zorro.
We have had just enough snow the last two days to make the upper section of French Gulch Road skiable. It is always fun to add the road as an extension to the trail system. We started today's outing at the Reiling Dredge trailhead and skijored up French Gulch Road until we connected onto the French Gulch Trail. It was a good thing we had this "road extension" as we were not able to skijor as far back into French Gulch as we normally do. See the photo above - we ran into an exposed French Creek that forced us to turn around sooner than we would in the heart of winter.
Cruising up French Gulch Road with just enough snowpack to make the road skiable.
On the real trail. We were first on the trail today and had the pleasure of laying fresh tracks
all the way out French Gulch (until we ran into French Creek and turned around). Whee!
It is still early November, so no complaints from any of us on having to turn around at the exposed creek - skiing anything in early November is a real treat! A fun 7.7 mile outing today with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.
Sunday night brought just enough fresh snow near home for us to hit the local trails first thing Monday morning.
"Ok, if we are turning around, let me cool off first." says snow angel rolling Max.
"I see absolutely NO reason to turn around!" exclaims Zorro surveying the trail to
continue in front of us.
We did one of our frequent "close to home" routes today: skijoring up & down Sally Barber Mine and then out & back in French Gulch.
Peacefully cruising along the trails in French Gulch. Standing on the skis, letting the Siberians propel me along - whee!
The trails we skijored today are some of the more popular trails in Breckenridge. So, we were pleasantly surprised to be laying fresh tracks almost the entire day! Woo, first on the trails after fresh snow is always soooo much fun!
First on the trail laying fresh tracks the entire route up to Sally Barber Mine!
Second on the trail coming down from Sally Barber Mine with one set of existing tracks.
The Siberians prefer laying fresh tracks, so they are sprinting down the untouched snow
to the left.
First on the trail, again, in French Gulch as we lay fresh tracks this entire leg of the outing!
A very peaceful and serene day laying fresh tracks over most of the terrain - 8.2 miles with 950 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.
November started with a dump of 12 inches of new snow on Rabbit Ears Pass. So, a 3-day road trip was in order while we wait for the local trails to get in shape...
"Wow, look at the deep powder we found!" exclaim happy Max & Zorro at our midpoint
break of day 2 of our outing. Notice Zorro's front legs are completely submerged - that is
about 10 inches of powder!
We spent November 1, 2 & 3rd high atop Rabbit Ears Pass cruising through tons of new powder. Along the way, we passed 100 miles of skijoring for our young 2013-2014 season. Yep, that is 100 miles by Nov 3rd; we are on pace for an incredible season!!!
Day One: Storm Day
We arrived at Rabbit Ears late morning on Nov 1st and found a brutal wind whipping across the pass and at least 8 inches of new snow in the parking lot! There was nobody but us Siberians out to brave the intense wind. But, the wimpy human was getting beaten by the wind, so we cut day 1 short and did a short 5.3 miles in 6-12 inches of fresh snow.
Snow covered trees, fresh snow, cool temperatures and a strong wind - Siberian Hot Tub.
"We don't know why the human cut this day short!!!"
Our first stretch of "single file skijoring" of the 2013-2014 season. We drop into single file
mode when the snow gets so deep that short Zorro wants to ride behind Max and his
long trail breaking legs.
Day Two: POW Day
The wind stopped and skies cleared for day 2 of our outing. We went to one of our favorite starting points on Rabbit Ears and found the trail completely untouched. It was an extreme day of nonstop trail breaking. We were in about 6-8 inches of fresh snow at the trailhead, and that was the shallowest we saw as we found ourselves breaking trail in snow as deep as 12+ inches. 7.3 miles of nonstop trail breaking: what a Siberian Workout. Woo, did we put the POW in powder this day!
It started deep, it got deeper and it got to "single file depths":
It started deep...
This was "as shallow" as we saw all day.
It kept getting deeper.
Siberian power blasting through the snow.
And it got so deep that we all had to hop in behind long-legged, trail-breaking Max.
Day Three: Fast Day
We decided to make the 3rd day of our Rabbit Ears party a "fast day" by following recently set snowmobile tracks. When we arrived back at the pass, we found our trail from day 2 had been ridden by some snowmobiles. So, we started on the same path as day 2. The difference between "extreme trail breaking" (day 2) and "snowmobile packed trails" (day 3), you ask? Well, we only covered a modest 7.3 miles breaking trail on Nov 2nd while covering a fast 10.4 miles on Nov 3rd (in much less time)....
Same trail as yesterday!
Snowmobiles turned our "extreme trail breaking" route into a "sprint track".
Trotting along, slowing momentarily until coming over a rise in the trail and then putting the pedal to the metal once we see the open straightaway. [watch on youtube if no video loads below]
A funny scene from the outing is below. Normally, my Siberian partners are only mildly distracted by wildlife tracks. They can pass over fox tracks, rabbit tracks, squirrel tracks & more and they typically acknowledge the tracks with a quick sniff while trotting by (without breaking stride). The exception to going "on by tracks" is MOOSE TRACKS! It is impossible for them to ignore moose tracks crossing the trail.
"Moose Tracks! Moose Tracks! The moose went this way!" say distracted Max & Zorro.
The summary of our 3-day adventure: 5.3 miles with 650 feet climbed + 7.3 miles with 800 feet climbed + 10.4 miles with 950 feet climbed = 23.2 miles with 2400 feet of elevation climbed - bringing us to 109 miles for the season on only Nov 3rd!
