Beautiful Morning

A stunning bluebird morning with some awesome views from the trails this morning!

Cruising behind Jack & Rudy as a postcard view of Breckenridge Ski
Resort comes into view across the valley from us.

We started the outing skijoring in snowmobile tracks headed towards the rising sun:

Zipping along in a vast open meadow as the sun starts to peek
over the mountains ahead of us.

We then climbed out of the meadows and into the forest to cruise by old abandoned mining cabins. The county open space department keeps these old relics standing (but not livable) for historic tours through the forest.

"Can we move in here?" asks Jack & Rudy glancing at this 'perfectly
livable to them' old cabin (it has no floors, windows and a hole in the
center of the roof :)

Then it was back into open meadows before turning around to go back the same route. Did I say turnaround? Yep....

"Turnaround... Roll around!" goes the silly snow rolling kids.

On the way back, we get these great views of Breckenridge Ski Resort and the Rocky Mountains. Come along for a video of views to our right. The views appear after we round the initial corner in the video. The trail was a bit choppy & bumpy, so you'll have to excuse my right hand and occasional ski tuck obscuring some of the views; but I had to work to stay upright behind my running pals :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The best view is always my focused partners awaiting end of run treats at the conclusion of the day:

"Ready!" states happy Jack.
"Slurp, I can taste them in anticipation!" adds slurping Rudy.

Beautiful bluebird morning skijor covering 8.8 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 58 days on the trails covering 499.0 miles with 44,400 feet of elevation climbed.

Flying

Jack & Rudy were FLYING around the trails today. Zoom!

A light layer of fresh snow on backcountry trails as Jack & Rudy
open up the throttle and begin to fly :)

We interleaved various types of trails today. We kept alternating between backcountry trails and groomed trails at Gold Run Nordic Center. We'd flying along the backcountry for a bit, then dip onto the groomed trails for a bit, then backcountry again, then groomed again, etc. etc. Regardless of where we went the kids were flying!!!

Flying on wide groomed trails.

Flying again in fresh snow on backcountry trails.

Zooming!

Then flying again on groomed trails - you get the idea :)

Jack in a "sprint tuck" and Rudy in a "sprint stretch" - both still
airborne and flying!

I had a hard time picking just one video clip to showcase the fun & flying morning. I finally decided on this great clip skijoring backcountry trails. If your volume is up, you'll hear Rudy talking about 18-19 seconds into the clip. Talkative Rudy uses volume to speed himself up (silly kid). Watch the kids really kick it into overdrive about 45 seconds into the clip. Like I said, we were FLYING today!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Of course, flying all morning long means you really need to roll snow angels to cool your jets at any break on the trail :)

The speedy kids cooling the jets.

Always fun to celebrate a fast day with end of run treats!

"Ready, dish them out!" says the focused, happy pair.

I was actually quite surprised the GPS reported our top speed at 24 MPH this morning. I was really expecting a 26 or 27 MPH reading (which we do hit a couple of times a season). Oh well, it was a fast 24!!! 10.3 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 57 days on the trails covering 490.2 miles with 43,500 feet of elevation climbed.

You Said

I said, "No wrestling on the trail." to my partners this morning. Well....

"You said, 'no wrestling on the trail'; you'll note we are OFF trail!" go the
wrestling smart alecks taking their antics off trail when I paused for a moment
to adjust my equipment.

Jack & Rudy, the flirts, had another flirtatious day on the trails this morning. Yesterday it was chasing and flirting with the groomer. Today it was chasing snowmobiles to flirt with. We were zipping along the backside of Shrine Pass at Vail Pass when we heard some snowmobiles ahead. A few moments later and we saw the snowmobiles playing in the meadow to our left. Jack & Rudy love to chase and catch ANYTHING you put on the trails in front of them - groomer, snowmobiles, moose, skiers, snowshoers, fox, elk, you name and they'll chase to catch it if is in front of us :) 

"Snowmobiles to the left - must catch so we can flirt!" demonstrates the silly kids.

Once Jack & Rudy saw the snowmobiles ahead and to the left, they switched into "chase & catch" mode towing me along this trail. Come along and watch as the kids keep glancing left to check the snowmobiles as we get closer and closer. Near the end of the clip, I slow us down as I know there is an upcoming left that will allow us to turn towards the snowmobiles. What a couple of fun flirts!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

The group did see us too. The all waved and gave a holler before taking off away from us. So, we only got to flirt from afar :)

"Looking! Why'd they go the other direction?" asks curious Jack.
"Woo - I wanted to WOO & flirt!!!!" adds wooing Rudy.

Skijoring Vail Pass usually provides some stunning view shots of both the Rocky Mountains and the cool sled dogs. But, we need the sun to get the best shots. It was overcast most of our outing. But, as we were on the final leg to finish the outing, the sun finally broke through the clouds for our usual impressive Vail Pass view shot:

Jack & Rudy the cool looking hover huskies in the sun.
Nice views of the mountains around us. Wheeee!

How was today's outing everyone?

"Perfect! We got to wrestle, chase, flirt!" says Jack.
"Excellent! We got to wrestle, chase, flirt and WOO!" adds Rudy.

Zipping around Vail Pass for a fun 10.3 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 56 days on the trails covering 479.9 miles with 42,800 feet of elevation climbed.