Silly Huts

Happy & focused trio at the end of the morning's fun run:

"Fun run, now hand out the 'end of run treats'!" declare the happy & focused trio.

We skijored the fast trails at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning. The trails had not been groomed for at least a day and there was about 1/2 to 1 inch of fresh snow on top of the "groomie zoomie" underneath. We took the lower trail on the upper terrain to visit and fly by the warming huts. Rudy has been to the Hallelujah Warming Hut once before. On his first visit, he was intrigued by the hut and wanted to understand what in the world was a "warming hut". Today he could care less about the Hallelujah Hut - been there, done that, wasn't worth the stop...

Flying by the Hallelujah Warming Hut at Breckenridge Nordic Center.
"No reason to slow or stop - it was overrated the last time!" says Rudy flying by.
"Right on little kid, let's fly by!" add Zorro & Jack.

Rudy passed a new milestone in his skijoring life last Friday. He was born on December 29th (2017) and since he turned one year old last December, we evaluate him on the 29th of each month and decide how much more skijoring he can do. Basically he is a "sled dog machine", so on the 29th of each month we add 5-10 minutes to how long he can run (up to 45 minutes now). We will do this until he is 1.5 years old and then we will remove the training wheels completely. Unfortunately for Rudy the 1.5 date is June 29th and, while there will be snow to hike to and roll in, there will not be enough snow to skijor without limits. The poor little guy will have to wait until October or November to skijor without limits.

Anyway, back to today's outing. This was Rudy's first visit to Breckenridge Nordic Center on the expanded 45 minute limit. The result? Well, he got to see the next warming hut on the trails named Kathy's Viewpoint. After staring at the hut for a moment, he agreed with Zorro that warming huts really are a silly concept - no reason to pay them any attention. Jack on the other hand....

"Nothing here, let's go!" says Zorro trying to lead everyone away so we can run.
"I agree big bro - you are really smart! Warming hut, what a silly concept!" adds Rudy who
quickly lost interest in the hut.
"No wait, I found a use for a warming hut! Come back - you roll snow angels at them!" declares
goofy snow rolling Jack.

Eventually Jack rejoined and we went past Kathy's Viewpoint before turning around and coming back on the same trail. After realizing warming huts are no big deal, Rudy had no interest in Kathy's on the second pass :)

"No reason to even slow down!" demonstrate sprinting Zorro & Rudy.
"No really, we stop and roll snow angels. Come on!" says silly Jack to Rudy.

The video counterpart of the prior photo. Come along as we fly by Kathy's Viewpoint on the return pass. No reason to even slow down! :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

After flying by the two warming huts, we took another side trail to reach our 45 minute goal (we were WAY ahead of schedule doing the hut trail :) Up a side trail and time to turnaround. But, a turnaround is a stop so...

"Ok, the huts are silly - we can roll snow angels anywhere!" demonstrates Jack.
"Are you two done YET?!?!?!" asks Zorro.
"Woo - we aren't done yet!" woos Rudy to Zorro with a little tail crank added in :)

Warming huts - how silly! But they are fun to fly by: 6.8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 89 days on the trails covering 494.9 miles with 44,500 feet of elevation climbed.

Cruising

About 1/2 to 1 inch of new snow on the otherwise packed snowmobile trails in Swan Valley.

Perfect conditions to open up the skijor trio as we cruised around the valley!

Nice shot of the out-stretched, sprinting trio. Zoom

How about a nice "shot from the front" to see the happy trio cruising to the end of the morning's fun run?

All smiles all the time! What a fun morning!

We were skijoring in a mix of cloudy skies, light snowfall and patches of sun. Sun then clouds, sun then clouds, etc (with light snowfall mixed in with some of the cloud bursts). When in the sun, you can see the fresh tracks behind the skijor machine:

Flying along in a sun patch as you see the fresh tracks behind Zorro, Jack and Rudy in about
1/2 inch of new snow here.

With a bit of new snow on the trails, I was comfortable letting the group go as they wanted. Come along for a fun 40 seconds of the day's cruise up, down and around Swan Valley.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

One thing that Swan Valley is known for is MOOSE!!!! As we came around a bend in the trial, Jack & Rudy's attention shot to the left. Off the trail to our left is a large meadow where we have seen moose before. I immediately switched into moose awareness but then noticed two things. First, Zorro did not join in - he NEVER misses moose and typically sees them before either youngster. Second, Jack & Rudy did not really break stride; so whatever they were hunting was not close. So, false alarm on the moose although I am still not sure what got the kids' attention (but Zorro's lack of interest proves it was not a moose). Nice to see the youngsters learning how to hunt without breaking stride :)

Hunt-n-Jog Jack & Rudy as Zorro has no interest in what caught the kid's attention.

Finally, here we are with our new "double snow angel" ritual...

"Seriously - every DAY now?!?!?!" says exasperated Zorro.
"Whee, I've converted Rudy!" declares rolling Jack.
"I'm addicted!" adds roll around Rudy.

Great day for a cruise around Swan Valley: 6.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 88 days on the trails covering 488.1 miles with 43,800 feet of elevation climbed.

Skijoring not Skiing

As daily temperatures started rising in March and continuing into April, Rudy has followed Jack's lead to roll at least one (and usually more)  snow angel on every skijor outing!

"Apparently the duo are going to do this every outing now!" says Zorro looking back to me.
"Ahhhh, I was right, it feels great, huh little bro?" asks snow rolling Jack.
"I'm hooked! Love rolling snow angels now too!" adds goofy Rudy.

Sometimes a picture can really demonstrate the difference between skijoring and cross country skiing. A skier needs to fan the skis out to make progress uphill. The skijorer need only put the skis parallel and ride the "sled dog tow rope". If it is very steep, I'll shuffle my feet to help of course, but I am still being propelled uphill and only a shuffle is necessary!

Skijorer (me) - skis parallel as I get towed up the trail.
Skier tracks to the left - note the wide, diagonal strokes the skate skier needs to propel
themselves uphill.

I prefer skijoring. Although to be fair, uphill is easier skijoring than skiing but downhill is harder skijoring than skiing (you try riding 4 feet behind downhill sprinting machines :)

Following snowmobile tracks as you can still make out the diagonal ski strides of
skier while I am still riding the sled dog tow rope :)

Yesterday we introduced Rudy to the concept of "spring crust", today we gave him an extended introduction to the crust. The spring crust is the phenomenon that happens this time of year when the daily temperatures get well above freezing while the nighttime temps are still well below freezing. This daily thaw then refreeze makes for a crust solid enough to hold us on early morning outings.

Trotting along the crust with an inch or so of snow over the crust.

Today's crust was firm but not super strong. This meant we could trot or jog on the crust but if you went too fast, then you would punch through. We took Rudy off the set trail twice to test the crust and he wanted to go too fast to not break through. We went back to the set trail each time. Then, on the third test, Rudy followed Zorro & Jack's lead and kept at their pace and, suddenly, we were gliding along the crust for miles. Come along for a short clip of the "spring crust jog" as everyone is smartly going the speed the crust will support and not a step faster. Smart guys!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Fun day teaching Rudy more skijoring tricks. At a quick pause on the trail and I had the HAPPIEST faces looking back at me. Unfortunately, the GoPro is on my chest and Zorro was barely blocking Jack's face from my chest viewpoint. But, believe me, he had a supper happy smile too!

"He's coming along nicely, what a pack!" says happy leader Zorro.
"That was interesting and FUN!" adds happy Rudy.
"I'm smiling too! I'm smiling too! Down in front!" says Jack.

A nice day of lessons for Rudy. He got to learn about extended runs on the crust and he got to learn that sometimes faster is not better and a jog can send you farther than a sprint! 6.2 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 19 MPH.

2018/2019 Season to Date: 87 days on the trails covering 481.7 miles with 43,300 feet of elevation climbed.