Endless Terrain

Miles of endless, rolling terrain high atop Buffalo Pass today - wheeee!

Wide open scenery as we gallop along in fresh snowmobile tracks - beautiful.

Once you get to Buffalo Pass (at the base of Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area in Northern Colorado), you have a handful of trail options at your disposal to explore the wilderness. All of the trails have primarily "rolling terrain", meaning you have peaks & valleys as you tour around the terrain. Some of the trails have steep peaks/valleys and some have gentle ups & downs. Our first two trips to Buffalo Pass this season had us on the steep peaks/valleys; but today we changed it up and went on a fast 9.6 mile tour featuring endless miles of gentle ups & downs.

The video highlight from today's outing should give you a feel of the rolling, gentle terrain we toured for most of the day. Galloping along up, down & flat terrain for the entire day!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Loping along straightaways...

I was gliding on my skis, taking in the scenery, on long stretches of flat trail all day!

Galloping down gentle slopes...

Having fun kicking it up a gear whenever we encountered a gentle down slope.

Jogging up gentle inclines...

A wonderful "uphill glide on skis" as the slope was gentle enough to keep jogging all day!

Our route was an "out & back", so eventually I had to call to everyone to turnaround and head back. A great glimpse of the Happy Huskies as they flash their smiles when turning around:

"Wheee - what a fun day we have been having!" state the happy, happy pair!

A great tour of Buffalo Pass today covering 9.6 miles with a gentle 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 10 days on the trails covering 78.6 miles with 8650 feet of elevation climbed.

Winter Wonderland

A Winter Wonderland on the trails at Rabbit Ears Pass today.

Come along and enjoy the views....

Snow covered trees, endless blue skies and fresh powder to ourselves.
Winter Wonderland!

Laying fresh tracks most of the day -wheee!
"Hey bro, deer tracks to the right, keep your eyes & ears open!" says Zorro peeking
at the tracks and whispering to his brother without breaking stride.

Kicking up powder as we glide through the Winter Wonderland terrain!

Only one thing can interrupt a Winter Wonderland day on the trails... Fresh Moose Tracks!!! Okay, 2 things can interrupt: fresh moose tracks or moose itself! Luckily today was only tracks. As you see above, we can easily glide down the trail with deer tracks - just watch for deer; yet no reason to stop. But, fresh moose tracks are a different thing completely. Such fresh tracks will pull my partners right off the trail as they anxiously search for moose...

"Moose went this way, moose went this way - we want to go this way!" say the intense hunters
looking off the trail in the direction the moose must have gone (notice the tracks just to the
left of Zorro). The noses and ears were firing after encountering these tracks; definitely fresh
and something Max & Zorro wanted to go after!

Back on the trail, let's continue on guys... Everyone ready to go?

"Well, ok, we are having fun in the Winter Wonderland; but we could chase the moose
too if you wanted!" state the happy husky pair.

A beautiful Winter Wonderland day on Rabbit Ears Pass covering 8.3 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 9 days on the trails covering 69.0 miles with 7950 feet of elevation climbed.

Tag, You're It

Fresh Snow on Vail Pass means "Zoom, Zoom a Skijoring We Go!"

Zoom! Need I say more?

You have to love the aerodynamics in the previous photo. Notice how all 4 ears are tightly pinned against the heads. We were sprinting into a strong wind and Max & Zorro smartly turned on the aerodynamics to keep us going as fast as possible into a strong wind.

Normally the ears are up (or partially up) while they sprint as it is clearly fun to "listen & run"; but occasionally they know to use their aerodynamics to maintain speed. Eventually we were out of the strong wind, so it was back to ears up mode:

Ears up, love to take in the sounds of the forest as we sprint along the trail!

Our video highlight from today's outing goes along with the blog title, "Tag, You're It." Watch as we are cruising along the trail nicely with Max & Zorro each in their own track and me in the middle powder. But, about 17 seconds into this clip, Max decides to move over to the right side of the trail and "tag Zorro" and Zorro tries to avoid the tag. Max succeeds with a tag and then it is all over and we resume with our regularly scheduled run along the trail. Just a quick "tag & go" from silly Max!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

At our turnaround point, we had the usual "quick break antics" from my partners:

Max rolling his patented snow angels. Zorro chomping down on his patented snowcones (notice
how full his mouth looks).

After every run, the hard working sled dogs get chunks of pork to replenish the engine:

So focused. "Yum, yum, we love the end of run pork!"

A great early November skijor on Vail Pass covering 9.4 miles with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 8 days on the trails covering 60.7 miles with 7150 feet of elevation climbed.