Our usual interaction with other skiers on Baldy Mountain: Jack & Rudy flying on by as the skiers step aside to smile and watch the cool sled dogs cruise on by!
We had a really fun "packed and powder" skijor on Baldy Mountain this morning. We spent the majority of the time on the main Baldy Mountain Trail which had a nice packed track just wide enough for Jack & Rudy to fit side by side:
Zooming along the packed & fast main trail.
If you look closely above, you can see that the snow outside of the packed track was quite fresh and deep. How deep? Well, we went "off trail" a handful of times to veer away from the main trail before returning to it. The side trails were DEEP and untouched - see for yourself:
Jack & Rudy breaking trail as they bust through 2+ feet of untouched powder!
Now come along for a fun video clip putting it all together. The clip starts with us on one of the side trails as we are making our own path through the deep snow. Then, we intersect with the historic Iowa Mill. The mill is a popular "meet & congregate" point on Baldy, so you see lots of random tracks going every which way that Jack & Rudy pick their way through. Finally, we cut around the mill and onto the fast packed main trail and off we goooooo! Wheeee! Powder to Packed fun.
Of course, all that work in the deep side trails means you need to roll & cool off at any break along the way :)
The "stop, drop & roll" goofballs doing their thing!
Back to the trailhead to meet up with retired Zorro and let him know Jack & Rudy were in goofy moods all day long :)
"I'm right here!" declares wonderfully focused Zorro. "We are playing king of the mountain!" says Rudy. "I'm king... No, wait, end of run treats? I'm ready!" adds silly Jack.
A beautiful morning to do a couple of laps on Baldy Mountain with the occasional POW powder side trail added in for fun: 8.2 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2021/2022 Season to Date: 56 days on the trails covering 446.1 miles with 42,100 feet of elevation climbed.
Starting our skijor "from the garage" this morning. Fun time!
Jack & Rudy rounding the corner out our driveway as you see our garage and house behind us!
Every once in a rare while, we are able to start our skijor from the house and do laps touring the town. A few things need to happen for this to be possible. First, we needed to have a big dump of snow the night before and continuing into the morning hours. When this happens, the town plows cannot keep pace with the snow as the snowfall out paces the plow clearing! This is actually quite a feat once you think about it. The town has a huge arsenal of plow & snow removal equipment and they get out well before sunrise to clear the streets and sidewalks in town. It is MUCH easier to clear snow before sunrise than deal with 100s of stuck tourist cars after sunrise :)
Anyway, with heavy snowfall overnight and continued snowfall all morning through and past sunrise, the plows could not keep up. When this rare treat happens, we like to start our skijor directly from the garage (as you see above) and skijor around the town before the plows catch up. Just how deep what is where the plows had not been? How about upwards of 2 feet of snow?
Jack & Rudy plowing through almost 2 feet of untouched snow less than 5 minutes from our house!
We started the day by touring around our quiet neighborhood. Some streets were plowed and some weren't. But, even the plowed streets had received enough new snowfall since the plow that we could still skijor. We had a blast touring the neighborhood and waving at neighbors doing their own snow removal!
"Hi sir, coming on by!" says Jack & Rudy trotting nicely on a plowed road as we pass a neighbor snowblowing his driveway.
After waving at all our neighbors and not encountering a single car or plow, we decided to get a little braver and headed towards the center of town. Along the way we encountered many skiers and snowboarders on their way to the slopes to get some of the great morning snow. Jack & Rudy showed everyone the fastest way to get to the slopes - by skijoring!
Passing a group to show them the "way to the slopes" :) Silly Rudy is backing off a bit until the 3 people noticed him. Once they acknowledged him, he wooed and then shot up with Jack to show them the way. "Woo, follow me!" says Rudy!
The side streets leading into the heart of town were pedestrian filled but still pretty void of cars and plows. Well, if that's the case, then we might as well skijor Breckenridge Main Street itself. This is a VERY rare treat to be able to accomplish ahead of the town snow removal. A plow had been on Main Street (both street and sidewalks) but the ongoing snow had already recovered it enough to be safe to ski!
Fun wide shot of Breckenridge Main Street as we skijor on by a couple out for some morning coffee. What fun!
We ended up going up & down Main Street twice we had so much fun. Of course, we put smiles on everyone we passed and had many cars with open windows taking video of the cool sled dogs and the crazy guy skijoring Main Street :)
"Made you smile!" says Jack & Rudy trotting along. The oncoming car to the right had windows down and smartphones out to record the cool sled dogs on Main!
What is skijoring Main Street like? Well, come along for a quick video glimpse. What is impressive is that Jack & Rudy know the "snow cover" is thin, so they keep their speeds to a gentle trot. This amazing pair of partners will auto-magically slow whenever the snow cover is thin for my skis. I seriously do not have to say anything, they know a gentle trot preserves the human for another day on thin conditions Smart guys!
Finally, back to the house after skijoring our local neighborhood, the outskirts of town and then two laps on Breckenridge Main Street itself (and finally returning home). Remember doing this Zorro?
"You bet! I loved home starts!" declares our favorite retired mentor. "So cool!" says attentive Rudy. "Don't forget me over here!" adds cute Jack.
The rare "start from home, beat the plows and skijor the town" outing: 7.4 miles traveled with 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 16 MPH.
2021/2022 Season to Date: 55 days on the trails covering 437.9 miles with 41,100 feet of elevation climbed.
Nice wide angle, fresh tracks shot of Jack & Rudy propelling me along this morning!
Laying fresh tracks for a good part of a fun outing! Wheeee!
Our outing this morning started in the backcountry (see photo above) and eventually had us drop out of the backcountry and onto the trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. Once on the nordic center trails, we did some more "fresh tracks skijoring" until we finally met up with the groomer out on the trails. We always have fun meeting up with the groomer and talking & flirting with the drivers.
The groomer!!!! Time to meet up with the driver and discuss skijoring (Rudy woo'd at him, that's his form of discussion :)
Come along for a fun "two pass" skijoring clip for today's video highlight. The first 30 seconds finds us laying fresh tracks in the morning's new snow. We did a loop on this trail and the groomer had come by during our loop. So, the second 30 seconds is the same stretch of trail as the first 30 but this time we are first tracks on the freshly groomed trail. A fresh tracks pass followed by a first tracks pass. Fun!
Fresh tracks & first tracks all morning long, that makes a couple of 4 year olds quite frisky. How frisky? Well, too frisky! :)
"Let's play!!!!!" says play bowing Jack. "You bet!!!!" responds 'never back down' Rudy! We all know what happened next! Unauthorized wrestling on the trail!
There was a strong wind developing during our outing. I kept expecting us to get caught in a wind-blown whiteout, but we narrowly escaped every such wind event!
A wind whiteout crossing the trail in front of us. The whiteout was in front of us and in back of us, but not on us! This happened multiple times. How lucky were we?!?!
Finally, for a humorous 'end of run' treats shot. Oh those silly blacks (Zorro & Jack)!
"Are we close enough to get treats?" asks Zorro & Jack mugging me! "Ahem, I'd like it known WHO is the mellow good boy!" adds patient, but historically wild, Rudy :)
It was quite a fun morning zooming around the trails and out running the wind: 10.8 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.
2021/2022 Season to Date: 54 days on the trails covering 430.5 miles with 40,600 feet of elevation climbed.
