Entertaining the curious onlookers as we fly by skijoring Baldy Mountain this morning :)
Entertaining the crowds who always pause to watch & smile at fun Zorro launching
me along the trails. Wheeee!
Baldy Mountain is an interesting mix of two types of terrain. The bottom half takes you through heavily wooded forests and everyone shares the same main trail to go up & down. The upper half, though, starts just below treeline (with thinning trees) and continues up above treeline. Without a dense forest, you can pretty much pick your own path to go up & down the steep terrain.
Zorro and I chose to break trail, reuse our own trail and reuse a snowboard trail as we had a blast at and above treeline in the morning's fresh & deep snow.
Making our own path as we break trail high up on Baldy:
Getting an aerobic trail breaking workout with super Zorro!
Going up for a ways and then turning around to reuse the track we just set to sprint down:
Out-stretched Zorro taking advantage of our the track we set up to sprint down.
Coming across a recent snowboard track, so we hopped in this to take a rest from breaking trail while still sprinting along.
Following the snowboard curve down Baldy for a bit. Fun!
Once you get back into the thick trees, you are on the main trail shared by everyone. This trail gets packed quickly and becomes a fun fast track. Come along and watch and watch as Zorro and I open up the skijor throttle on the fast packed lower terrain and fly by curious (and entertained) onlookers watching the impressive Siberian Husky towing the crazy human along the trail :)
Almost done with the morning's run, so we hook up little Jack for a short sprint to the finish.
All smiles as the happy brothers join to finish the morning's run!
A steep day with lots of powder fun at/above treeline and lots of fast fun below treeline: 6.2 miles traveled with 1300 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.
2017/2018 Season to Date: 33 days on the trails covering 241.3 miles with 21,600 feet of elevation climbed.
Rolling Snow Angels was the "comedy of the day" on yesterday's skijor outing :)
Silly Zorro rolling to cool off as he also has his head and face doused in fresh powder :)
Notice the ski tracks through deep snow to our left - this is the trail Zorro carved for
me to follow deep in French Gulch. No wonder he needed to cool off!
It was a risk/reward day on the trails yesterday morning...
The risk? Well, lower French Gulch has suddenly become over-plowed this season. We had 15 inches of fresh snow the last 48 hours yet the lower trail had only a thin 1/4 to 1/2 inch of snow over frozen dirt. Argh - hate the city folks who have decided to destroy French Gulch this year!
Yikes, this is "risky skijoring" as my skis could catch a rock or dirt patch any second!
Why endure the risk? Well, the reward is the beauty of upper French Gulch and its miles of deep snow and scenic terrain.
Such a beautiful shot of Zorro towing me along the single track trail while a glorious
bluebird morning develops around us!
In addition to the great snow in upper French Gulch, the other reward is getting onto some of the deep snow side trails from the risky lower trail.
Come along and watch as Zorro and I skijor the narrow single track trail of Little French Gulch. Backcountry skijoring at its best! I love the end of the video as we approach the drop from the backcountry onto the lower main trail. Zorro automagically slows to a slow trot/walk as we approach the dropoff (without a word needed from me). He keeps the slow pace until he hears my soft "OK" letting him know it is ok to take the drop and restart preferred speeds. You have to have your volume up real high to have any chance of hearing my soft "OK" - but this was all Zorro needed. He knows unsafe trail conditions and will slow (without command) until hearing my release. Such a good skijor partner!
Rounding out the day as we picked up little Jack for a short wind sprint to finish the outing. Jack says, "Whew - what a wind sprint! I hear rolling snow angels to cool off is the theme of the day!"
"Chomp, chomp - eating snowcones is in order too!" says Zorro as you can just make out a
mouthful of snow he is chomping down on.
"Rub a dub dub, aaahhhh!" says silly puppy Jack.
Risky skijoring down low; but worth it to get to the incredible terrain up high and off to the sides: 7.3 miles traveled with 850 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.
2017/2018 Season to Date: 32 days on the trails covering 235.1 miles with 20,300 feet of elevation climbed.
Another fun morning flirting with the dog sled teams from Good Times Adventures on the trails.
"Hi friends!!!!" says Zorro to the two wheel dogs of this paused team we skijored on by.
The dog sled teams love flirting with Zorro as much as he loves flirting with them. Notice the guy in second position (just behind the lead dogs) who is wooing (howling with his nose to the sky) as we pass on by :)
"And a WOO to you too!" is what Zorro is flashing back with his smile.
Even from a side trail, Zorro will toss happy glances to his pals as we wait for them to pass to we can start a chase.
"Hi again! I'll be right behind you!" declares Zorro watching and preparing to GO!
On to the day's video - "flirting" of course! Come along as Zorro and I are sprinting along the trails until we come upon a paused dog sled team. We then slow to a gentle jog to pass by safely (and exchange pleasantries) before restarting again. Wheeee!
