Snowing, Blowing, Going

Snow Covered Siberians

Steady Snow Falling

Siberians Hauling

A nice layer of snow on both the Siberians' backs as we lay fresh tracks along Shrine Pass Rd.

The plan for the day was to make a quick run on Vail Pass. The intended route was to take Shrine Pass Rd until the Lime Creek intersection and then follow snowmobile tracks into the forest and back up to the top of Shrine Pass. Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately the snowmobile track we chose started the right direction and then eventually lead us into the middle of nowhere! So we had to backtrack and restart once we got into terrain we recognized. Oops, we did an accidental 10 mile run on what was supposed to be a short & quick day...

"This doesn't feel like the right direction!" I said as I paused to check the GPS.
"It's GREAT - let's keep going this way!!!" says powder happy Max.
"Rub a dub dub, Zorro in a snow tub!" plays silly little Zorro.
I fell for Max's happy attitude and let him lead us further into the forest.

Hmmm, we popped out of the forest and into a meadow we have never seen before.
No idea where we are, the GPS says nowhere near Shrine Pass. Time to retrace our steps.

Finally, back on known terrain. The snow was really starting to pick up, the wind was
starting to gust, I could not keep the camera from getting constant water splotches.
Good thing we are almost done!

A 10.1 mile run on Vail Pass with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a visit to an unknown meadow in the middle of nowhere :-)

26 MPH Day

The GPS clocked us at a top speed of 26 MPH today! Woo Hoo - we were flying!

Ok, so the top speed was really 25.8 - that's 26 :-)

The summary of today's outing will be a video summary. I could write about how fast we were going all over the trails; but watching is even better...

Is this where we hit 26 MPH - could have been.

A fun winding & sloping section of the South Fork trail. Turn up the volume and you'll
hear me let out a happy "woooo" as we come out of this complex section of trail and
into the open. And, yes, I am partially snowplowing at 20+ MPH during this sprint!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Is this where we hit 26 MPH - could have been.
Flying along the Middle Fork trail - about 8 seconds in the Siberians' ears go flat
as they put the pedal to the metal on the straightaway.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A fun "video from the front" as Nancy caught us on her iPhone happily cruising
to the finish of our fast outing.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

"Hi! What a fun & fast day!" say my happy pals as I called out time to turn around and
head back to the trailhead.

Perfect speed conditions to fly around Swan Valley Recreation Area today: 9.2 miles with 1050 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 26 MPH!!!

Siberian Math

"Hi Mom! We didn't get any exercise today!" express
Max & Zorro as they climb this tall snow pile to greet
Nancy at the end of our run.

Today's outing was a lesson in "Siberian Math" or "how much exercise did we really get?"

Our outing covered 8.4 miles with 6.4 of the miles on a single track trail that prevented the Siberians from jogging shoulder-to-shoulder. So, we spent 6.4 miles in our single file skijoring configuration with Max & Zorro splitting time in lead versus jogging in second position.

Now, with single file skijoring, the guy in front is doing double duty as he is running in lead and pulling the gangline taut to haul the human (so, in essence, the guy in front is doing all the work). The guy in second is jogging behind his brother with a loose gangline.

We have a had a long-standing saying that a Siberian jogging with a loose gangline is actually resting & recharging! That is, unencumbered jogging is really just resting for them. I have seen this again and again: the guy jogging in second slot, with a loose gangline, is actually resting while jogging.

Ok, follow the logic of this... Jogging in second position in single file skijoring is really just resting, not working. Now, our outing today was 2 miles of shoulder-to-shoulder skijoring (everyone working) and 6.4 miles of alternating single file skijoring (one Siberian working). Thus, each Siberian really worked for 2 plus 3.2, or 5.2, miles of the outing. "HEY! We only worked for 5.2 miles - what a ripoff of an outing! We want MORE!" exclaim Max & Zorro after applying Siberian Math and determining that there was no reason to stop "so soon" today :-)

Max in lead as we cruise along. Notice Zorro is airborne - this tells you that we actually go
pretty fast in a single file configuration. On flat or slight incline/decline terrain, we can
easily maintain an 8 MPH moving average with bursts over 12 MPH. That is pretty
fast for such a tight configuration.

Zorro in lead, Max resting as we jog along.

We had about 2 miles of shoulder-to-shoulder terrain as shown above.

An interesting 8.4 mile outing today with 950 feet of elevation climbed but only a measly 5.2 miles of work for each Siberian - you have got to love Siberian Math!