Another BEAUTIFUL May Morning to skijor the great snowpack still available atop Vail Pass!
The "happy foursome" cruising to the end of a beautiful morning!
Three happy, happy sled dogs + one smiling human :)
This time of year, you need to get out early in the morning and, when the temperatures are right, the spring crust is incredible! Today was a great example of perfect May crust skijoring. Temperatures got below freezing atop the pass for roughly 10 hours last night and into this morning. That much time under freezing makes for a solid crust over the snowpack!
We started the day doing a quick "out & back" with Zorro as we made our own trail up and down the crust. Despite a quick stint with Zorro, Jack says an "out & back" is a "stop, drop & roll" regardless of distance ;)
"Can you believe this cracker jack?!?" says Zorro.
"Yeah, what a cracker, who needs to stop/drop/roll after a short stint?" suggests mature Rudy.
"A stop to turn around is a stop. A stop is ALWAYS a stop, drop & roll!" demonstrates goofy Jack.
Once we got Jack upright, it was the return on the firm crust with the fun threesome:
After a quick & fast initial run with Zorro, we handed the elder fun guy off to Nancy and I took Jack & Rudy out for a longer run higher up on Vail Pass. After cruising up for a few miles, the trail levels off for a distance and you find yourself on what seems to be an endless shelf of snow as far as the eye can see!
The fun kids cruising west atop this endless shelf a few miles up from the trailhead!
The kids and I did a longer "out & back" on Vail Pass. While Rudy was trying his hardest to be upright and mature on Zorro's "out & back", he reverted to the usual comical 2 year old with Jack on the longer "out & back":
"Okay.... turnaround = roll around!" demonstrates silly Rudy.
"Haha, I knew you'd join!!!" says goofy Jack.
Upright and turned around and here we are now flying eastward back towards the trailhead. Flying, west, flying east - flying kids all morning long!
Look closely and you can see some fun "snow poofs" coming off Jack & Rudy's feet. And a fun Rudy footprint in the lower left of this shot:
Flying Rudy! Zooom!
Hovering Jack! Wheeee!
We close today with a nice combo video clip. Come along for the initial leg of the outing as we are flying along the solid crust with Zorro, Jack & Rudy. Then, the video transitions to Jack & Rudy "flooring it" on the incredible crust high up on the pass this morning! Wheeee!
Perfect crust all morning long: an initial out/back with elder Zorro and then a longer out/back with just Jack & Rudy: 7.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 163 days on the trails covering 1113.9 miles with 101,700 feet of elevation climbed.
We had stretches of "perfect crust" this morning; but only stretches with lots of sketchy terrain in between!
Perfect crust stretch with Jack & Rudy - wheeee!
Today's outing found us starting with Zorro to visit our favorite "spring crust meadow" close to home and then I was going to take the kids, Jack & Rudy, up & further for more exercise.
Our favorite nearby home meadow was perfect as you see in the photo above. Unfortunately, the GoPro camera was NOT perfect. Unbeknownst to me, it was not working properly for our entire first leg of the outing with Zorro. Oh well, what I should have had was a nice photo and accompanying video like the prior photo but with Zorro, Jack & Rudy.
At least Nancy had her camera to catch Zorro at our handoff points:
Happy, happy trio cruising along!
Once we left elder Zorro off with Nancy, I took the kids out to tour Prospect Hill. It was along the way with Jack & Rudy that I noticed the camera was not recording. It was a quick fix, at least, to then get some footage with the fun kids. We had to abort our plan to go up Prospect Hill pretty early as the conditions were quickly deteriorating. This trail starts in the trees and then quickly gets into wide open and sun exposed terrain. It was getting "iffy" in the shade, you can only imagine once we hit the open hill.
Good job by Jack & Rudy taking the "snow bridge" over open and flowing
water on each side of us!
Once we abandoned the Prospect Hill plan, we improvised and followed the firm crust wherever it lead us. Eventually it lead us to a set of bear tracks in the snow! Bear tracks are rare on skijor outings because they are sleeping most of the season; but it is not unheard of for us to encounter bear prints in October or May. It turns out this was young Jack & Rudy's first time encountering bear tracks while skijoring (they have seen bears many times in summer). What to make of bear tracks?
"Sniff, sniff - delicious smelling!" says the bear print inspecting pair.
You can see the trail of tracks leading away from us and into
the nearby trees.
Hey Jack, what should we do with bear prints in the snow?
"Roll in them!!!!! Of course, ROLL in them!" demonstrates silly Jack
dropping and rolling around in the bear prints.
Hmm, what about you Rudy? What should we do with bear prints in the snow?
"I agree - ROLL in them!!!!!" demonstrates silly Rudy following Jack's
lead to drop & roll in the bear prints!
Ok, bear tracks aside, we did do some fun skijoring this morning. The best part was time spent in our favorite meadow. We did one lap in the meadow with Zorro, then one lap around the meadow with Jack & Rudy and, finally, one last sprint across the meadow with the kids before dipping into the trees for a little "complex navigation" to get into the next meadow to end our outing. Come along and watch the third leg of the meadow fun (sprint, navigate, sprint).
Back to the trailhead to share 'end of run' pork treats with Zorro:
"You have our full attention!" says the happy & focused trio!
Fun day: crust skijoring with Zorro, bear hunting with Jack & Rudy and then multiple laps of crust skijoring with Jack & Rudy: 6.1 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 162 days on the trails covering 1106.7 miles with 101,000 feet of elevation climbed.
A trifecta of milestones on this morning's skijor!
"We could go on ALL year long! Please don't let the snow melt!!!!" says the super happy trio.
What a trifecta of milestones to surpass in the same outing! (1) Young Jack & Rudy surpassed 1100 miles of skijoring for the season (the youngsters' first 1100+ mile season)! (2) Jack & Rudy surpassed 100,000 feet of elevation climbed for the season! (3) Elder Zorro surpassed 600 miles of skijoring for the season! How about a fourth fun fact for the day: elder Zorro is exactly 11 years and 11 months old today! 600 miles for the "approaching 12 years old" Zorro - impressive!
Zorro, of course, has come along for every skijor outing this season; but he typically runs only part of the outing while I take the kids out for more distance to exercise the youngsters.
It was a beautiful bluebird morning at Vail Pass with an incredible spring crust to support the team:
Near the trailhead and the crust is PERFECT!
As you leave the Vail Pass Trailhead, you climb up and into miles of wide open and endless terrain. How's this for an impressive wide angle shot of Vail Pass on May 1st?!?
Perfect as far as the eye can see as the trio sprint along.
Zorro & Jack in a synchronized sprint tuck with
Rudy the Missile powering along on the right.
We did an "out & back" with Zorro as he surpassed 600 miles for his skijoring season. You guessed, I said "out & back" so we have the goofball twins Jack & Rudy:
"I give up, these kids can't turnaround without a drop & roll!" declares happy Zorro.
"Yep... Stop, Drop and ROLL!" demonstrates the goofs.
After completing Zorro's share of the outing, we handed him off to Nancy and the kids & I went out for another lap around the perfect crust. I knew I needed to give Jack & Rudy the little extra to get them past 1100 miles on this same day Zorro surpassed 600.
Here's a fun "two pass" video clip from the morning. The first pass has us galloping along the perfect crust with Zorro, Jack & Rudy. Note that polite kids have pulled back to match Zorro's preferred speed (a gentle gallop). Then, the second pass is the same stretch of crust but now Jack & Rudy can set their pace as we are zooming along. So nice of them to tune down when Zorro is along and then tune up when they are by themselves!
With a trifecta of impressive milestones, I think today's end of run treats were very well earned (but aren't they always :)
"Serve them up!" says focused Zorro.
"Well earned indeed!" adds happy Jack.
"I love skijoring!' declares cute Rudy.
What a beautiful day (both conditions and weather) for a trifecta of accomplishments: 6.8 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.
2019/2020 Season to Date: 161 days on the trails covering 1100.6 miles with 100,400 feet of elevation climbed. Elder Zorro's exact miles for the season: 601.4 - impressive for an almost 12 year old stud!
