Fast Lane

The primary difference between skijoring and cross country skiing?

The speed at which you move along the trails....

Cross country skier ahead of us on the Sally Barber Trail.

Seconds later and cross country skier behind us on the trail :)

I love the following short video clip. After we cruise through a left and right on the trail, you then see a cross country skier come into view far in front of us. Well, 15-20 seconds later and the "skier far in front of us" becomes a "skier now behind us" - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Today's outing took us up & over the Sally Barber Mine Trail and then out & back on the main French Gulch Trail. The Sally Barber leg was wide & fast, as you see in the video above. The French Gulch leg is usually much narrower as it is not nearly as popular a trail as Sally Barber:

Just wide enough to jog shoulder-to-shoulder as we cruise out the French Gulch Trail.

Eventually all existing ski tracks ended and we followed a moose track into the back meadow of French Gulch before turning around and heading back the same route (I could see far down the trail to verify the moose was not still around).

"Let me survey the meadow for moose before turning around!" says moose scanning Max.
"Let me know what you see tall bro!" says short Zorro resting in the moose track waiting for
Max to report back.

A fast up/over Sally Barber Mine and then laying fresh tracks out/back in French Gulch: 8.9 miles with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 40 days on the trails covering 329.3 miles with 35,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Hi Mom

Saying "Hi Mom" to Nancy as we fly by her at the end of the day's run...

"Hi Mom - great day! See you back at the car!" say the airborne pair flying past Nancy
and giving her a quick glance.

We did a trip up and down part of Boreas Pass this morning. For the "up route", we took a narrow side trail through the forest:

Single file skijoring on the single track through the forest.

After climbing the single track and then trotting up a bit of Boreas Pass Rd, it was time to take a quick break before starting down:

Max rolling his quick break snow angels to cool off.
Zorro eating his quick break snowcones to cool off.

Quick break over, time to fly down wide packed Boreas Pass Road:

Zoom, zoom, zooming along easy Boreas Pass Rd.

Here is the video counterpart to the "Hi Mom" photo above. We are sprinting nicely to the finish of the run as Nancy appears on the side of the trail waving as we cruise on by.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Nancy always gets the best view of the happy huskies as they are always all smiles from the front:

"Hi Mom - wheeee!" say the happy pair.

A gentle run up/down Boreas covering 8.4 miles with 800 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 39 days on the trails covering 320.4 miles with 34,750 feet of elevation climbed.

Sled Dog Party

A sled dog party on the trails at Keyser Creek today!

One of the dog trucks with 5 of our friends unloaded and waiting for the party to start.
"I LOVE sled dog parties!" exclaims giddy Max happy to be at today's party.
"So cool. I have to take it all in!" states intense Zorro getting ready to join the party!

We met up with our group of sled dog friends at the Keyser Creek Trail this morning. Counting Max & Zorro, we had about 20 Siberian Huskies at the trail ready to pull sleds and/or skijor. Many of the dogs were from Sno-Magic Siberians along with a handful of "others" like Max & Zorro. It is so fun to meet up and have a sled dog party - Max & Zorro absolutely LOVE it!

We watched two sled teams hook up and leave before us. Max & Zorro were dying with anticipation watching the party start before them. They kept asking me, "Our turn YET?"....

"Come on... Our turn YET?" ask my occasionally patient pair waiting for their turn to go.

Then, finally, it was our turn. Ok boys, pedal to the metal...

"Go, go go!!!!!" as we launch out the gates to start the party on the trails.

We met up with one of the teams at our turnaround point of the day. I was going to help with a slight issue with the sled; but Max had other ideas. He was a bucking bronco wanting to keep the party going; so all I could do was hold Max back until the sled was set and ready to go. You try explaining to Max that the restart would have been faster if he had shown a little cooperation :-)

"Noooooooo! Let's GOOOOOOO!" states impatient Max determined to make it impossible for
me to help with any issues!

Coming in strong to the finish (the trailhead is just across the bridge in front of us).

"Zoom, zoom - love sled dog parties!"

Oh yea, we did a little solo skijoring to start the day as it takes a lot less time to hookup two skijor dogs than unload, prep and hookup dog sleds. We did a quick up & down an untouched side trail before joining all the dog sleds on the main trail. The best part about breaking a trail up is that you are prepping it for a fun run down....

Breaking trail in 8+ inches of powder up a side trail.

Fun little video of us using our "up tracks" for a faster down run. Look closely and you can see the parallel tracks in front of Max & Zorro that we set on the way up to reuse down - wheeee!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

A great sled dog party day covering 8.9 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 17 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 38 days on the trails covering 312.0 miles with 33,950 feet of elevation climbed.