It's Better Than Summer

The theme for today's "sled dog" outing:

Well, it's better than summer!

"What do you mean 'sketchy conditions'? We could go all day!" say the happy pair simply
excited to be on snow at a beautiful 21 degrees.

We expected degrading conditions for our outing today as Sunday's snowfall was not enough to hold up against multiple days of rising temperatures.

If we are expecting degrading conditions, then we follow two rules: (1) Use the dog sled instead of skis as the sled can handle hitting rocks or dirt and skis cannot; and (2) Get an early start so that any mud from yesterday is frozen ground today. The downside of the sled is that we cannot go as far as our typical outing on skis as 2 sled dogs cannot tow a human uphill like they can when I am on skis. Yet, it is an outing on snow!

How to summarize today's outing... Well, it's better than summer! But, oh my, were the conditions really degraded in areas. Follow along below for the good, the bad and the ugly of the outing:

The Good. Laying fresh tracks in 3-4 inches of untouched snow!

The Bad. Eek, look at all the exposed ground! Thus the reason we were on the sled and not skis
today. But, do notice the "sled frame" at the bottom of the image and you can see I was still
able to keep the sled runners on snow - it just looks really bad.

The Ugly. Egad, not enough snow to keep the runners off ground. But, notice the shininess
of the ground - we are on frozen ground and ice, so the sled keeps going. Pretty ugly, but
it's 21 degrees and it's not summer!

The, um, well... <insert your most distressing word here>... Dog sledding without snow (but
on a sled). Thank dog for frozen ground or we would have been carrying the sled on the poor
human's back at this point!

Max & Zorro's opinion of the day? "Well, it's better than summer! A cool 21 degrees to let the sled move across frozen ground and we are able to run much faster with the human on the sled runners instead of feet!"

A 6 mile sled run today with 850 feet of elevation climbed and the good, the bad, the ugly & the "oh my god" of trail conditions.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 3 days on the trails covering 20.7 miles with 2850 feet of elevation climbed.

10 Miles at Vail Pass

A magnificent mid-October day to skijor 10+ miles at Vail Pass!

Flying along the top of the Shrine Pass Trail at Vail Pass.
Max & Zorro in a perfect "synchronized tuck" as they propel the human through the snow!

A nice snowstorm blew into Colorado on Sunday and that had us itching to hit the trails Monday morning. Since it is still October, the high "mountain pass" trails get the most & best quality snow from a storm. So, we got up early and were thrilled to be first tracks on the trails at Vail Pass!

Our second outing of the season and Max & Zorro already look to be in perfect midseason form. These two are definitely professional sled dogs :-)

Shoulder-to-shoulder in a synchronized airborne stretch as we sprint along the trails
as if the "summer layover" never happened.

Today's video highlight shows this midseason form as we were flying perfectly all day. Excellent conditions to uncork Max & Zorro in mid-October! Woo Hoo!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The network of trails at Vail Pass is virtually endless. But, eventually the human decides it is time to turnaround...

"Well, ok, if you say so! I am having SO much fun!" expresses happy & agreeable Max.
"Turnaround?!? Pfft - I could go for hours more!" demonstrates Zorro pointing in the
'continue forward' direction and pretending he did not hear me say time to turnaround.

Look at the great snow in the pictures and video and you must be thinking, "Go again tomorrow!" Unfortunately, though, the Vail Pass trails are not closed to vehicles for winter until late November. So, we encountered a few 4WD enthusiasts blasting up the trails after we hit our high point of the day and started back down. The Vail Pass trails will be trashed by the end of the day and unusable until the next snowstorm. Oh well, at least we were smart enough to get started at sunrise and enjoy laying fresh tracks for the majority of the day!

Todays outing: 10.1 miles with 1150 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 14.7 miles with 2000 feet of elevation climbed for 2 days on the trails.

2014/2015 Opening Day

October 4th was Opening Day for our 2014/2015 Skijoring Season.

Max, Zorro & I were so excited to be back on the snow!!! Go, go go...

Wheeee! We had the occasional "obstruction free, all snow" straightaways like this.
My pals were SO HAPPY when the human could open up the throttle!

Being on skis on October 4th is certainly a treat. But, you have to expect sketchy conditions with frequent ground exposure. Our outing took us to Buffalo Pass in north/central Colorado. This is a common hunting area this time of year, so we were sharing the trails with ATVs and 4WDs that tend to cut through the snow and down to the dirt. So, most of our day went as shown in the video below: (1) wheeee - we found a nice shoulder to trot & run outside of the ATV/4WD tracks; (2) obstacle upcoming, I think I can slide by on one ski; (3) oops, too much exposed ground - cannot get by, too late to stop my accelerator pals -- catch a rock or mud and wipeout...

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

We had 3 wipeouts like the one in the video during the day. But, the optimist would note that we tend to have roughly 6 wipeouts a season and we already have 3 out of the way - woohoo! :-)

A couple of shots of my "so happy to be back on snow" skijor partners:

The human stopped to assess the terrain before launching down the curvy road.
About ready to go and I asked, "Everyone ready & having fun?"
"Absolutely! I LOVE snow!" answers giddy Max to my question.

Another quick pause point while I make sure the terrain is ok to "open up".
I asked the "Everyone ready?" question again and got this response:
"Quit talking, I'm going!" demonstrates Max.
"I am, you better be - Max is moving out with or without you!" states happy little Zorro.

Our most humorous moment of the day came with an encounter with an ATV driver. When we saw the ATV approaching, we pulled over to the shoulder and stopped to let him pass. As he got even with us, he stopped to ask me if he was on the right trail to the top of Buffalo Pass and how much further to the top of the pass. I gave him a "Yes, right trail and you have about a mile to go." He said "thanks" and then looked at Max & Zorro and tried to startup a conversation about them and skijoring. Here is the reaction he got from Max...

"What? ANOTHER question??? We already gave you directions. You are KILLING me!" says Max
to his attempt to start a conversation. You can see Max lifting his front left leg and swaying his head
to the right in a classic "you've got to be kidding me" motion.

"No more questions - lets go!!!!" demonstrates Max the airborne bucking bronco.
In response to the guy's idle conversation, Max let out an "awoo woo woo" and bucked in
the air to show his displeasure with idleness. The guy looked wide-eyed at Max and said, "Sorry,
I will let you get on your way." Hilarious Max...

The end of our fun, albeit short, run. How was it guys?

"Awesome, just awesome!!! Snow is back!" says approving Max.
"<chomp> <chomp>, snowcones are back!" demonstrates snow-approving Zorro doing his
2nd favorite winter activity of eating snow (skijoring is his favorite activity :)

Tally for the day: a quick 4.6 miles with 850 feet of elevation and a top speed of 16 MPH.