Treat!

It was -6 degrees (F) when we started this morning's skijor and only 2 degrees (F) when we finished.

What did this mean for Jack & Rudy?

"Never been so HOT! Must roll snow angels to cool off!" declares silly Rudy.
"Not just snow angels, must eat snowcones to really cool off!" goes snow 
rolling & eating Jack.

With upwards of 2 feet of snow falling Saturday night through Sunday, we heard rumors that Breckenridge Nordic Center was running their snowcat out on the trails to pack & preserve this special October dump. The nordic center is not open yet, but will be early in Nov, especially if they can pack & preserve this snow! 

So, off to the upper elevation trails of Breckenridge Nordic Center we went this morning. Oh boy were we in for a perfect treat. Part of the morning found us running in snowcat tracks:

Jack taking the right track, Rudy taking the left as they tow me along
in a perfect set of snowcat tracks.

We then found stretches where the snowcat had put down its groomer blade to smooth the trail and then a couple of inches of new snow had fallen on top of that. Fun time laying fresh tracks in this light layer of new snow!

Fresh tracks with awesome Rocky Mountain views!

Then the snowcat came out again today and put down its groomer blade again on the main trail. Oh my, it doesn't get any better than this in October! What a treat!

First tracks on a freshly groomed trail!
Love the snow poofs coming up from Jack & Rudy's feet!

Put it all together and you get this fun stretch of video footage. We start out in snowcat tracks on a side trail. Then, this trail connects to the main trail which had just been freshly groomed! Once on the groomie zoomie and Jack & Rudy know what to do with a groomed trail - ZOOM! 

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Back to the trailhead to celebrate a super fun (albeit a bit chilly for me, not Jack & Rudy) October groomed treat skijor!

"That was FUN!!!!!" declares the super happy kids awaiting end of run treats.

Beautiful morning to skijor 8.9 miles with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.

2023/2023 Season to Date: 3 days on the trails covering 21.7 miles with 2400 feet of elevation climbed.

October Super Powder Day!

Look what we woke to find on the ski mountain this morning!

Yes, that is the snow stake at mid-mountain of Breckenridge Ski Resort
showing about 17-18 inches of fresh powder in the last 24 hours!

The ski resort is not open for the season yet, but, as you see, the snow stake is still up and operational. With all that new snow on the ski mountain, Jack, Rudy and I HAD to hit the ski resort trails this morning to enjoy the ton of fresh powder!

Unfortunate side note: I have a new GoPro this year and I'm still learning how best to position it on my body. Well, today the cameras was way too low on my body, argh! As a result, Jack & Rudy were barely visible in most of the footage and the low angle did not capture any of the wonderful ski resort scenery around us. Darn. Well. here's what photos I do have...

There was kicking powder and we flew along in untouched snow!

Fun kids kicking up powder as we cruise along one of the ski
runs of Breckenridge Ski Resort.

Of course, other powder hounds like us were not going to let this great snow go unused! We intersected set tracks from other skiers on & off throughout the morning. What to do with a set track? Well, hop in it and floor it!

Jack & Rudy squeezing into a set track to put the pedal to the metal. Wheeee!

But, a lot of the day was spent making our own path. Jack & Rudy love breaking trail!

Cruising along in the 17+ inches of fresh powder all to ourselves for
this stretch of trail.

Despite the bad camera angle, I still had to make a short video of the morning's fun. Come along as we start out cruising in a set track. Then, about 20 seconds into the clip and the track goes right while we continue forward into untouched powder. POW!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

At our turnaround point of the morning it was smiles from Jack and woos from Rudy.

"Having a blast!" smiles happy Jack.
"Me TOOOOOOOO!" woos approving Rudy.
That is 10 Mile Station on the ski mountain in front of us. My badly
positioned camera barely got any ski resort footage.

At least Nancy had a properly aligned camera as we finished the outing. Here's the proof we were really on the ski resort since my footage did not capture our surroundings:

Happy, happy kids as we finish the skijor at the base of Peak 9 at
Breckenridge Ski Resort.

A wonderful powder day with unfortunately clumsy video footage from me: 7.4 miles traveled with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 18 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 2 days on the trails covering 12.8 miles with 1500 feet of elevation climbed.

Season Opener

Let the 2023/2024 Skijor Season Begin!

Jack & Rudy celebrated the start to a new season rolling snow angels in appreciation :)

The silly kids starting out this season as they did last season - rolling snow
angels at any break during the outing.

Our season opener found us going to the West Summit of Rabbit Ears Pass to find snow to enjoy. My intent was to go to one of the lesser used forest roads on the west summit. I was convinced we needed to stick to established trails instead of making our own trail with less than a foot of fresh snow. But, we do share Rabbit Ears Pass with hunters this time of year and every road had already been driven on by the time we got there. We wouldn't let a few tire tracks get in our way - we simply started out on the snow between the tires - wheeee!

Starting the 2023/2024 Skijor Season on narrow snow between deep
4WD tire tracks. It may look ugly, but it was snow & skis! Wheeee!

After following the road for a bit, Jack & Rudy convinced me to hop off the set road to inspect some very delicious smelling moose tracks:

"Sniff, sniff - FRESH!" declares the moose track inspectors.

I then noticed how effortlessly this moose had moved through the snow. "Ok, who needs set trails, let's go off road!" I declared to Jack & Rudy. They didn't need to hear that twice, they were juiced to follow the moose trail off into the forest!

Remember moose have very long legs.
But, with the freshness of these tracks, Jack & Rudy powered along using
all their strength to follow the moose!

Eventually the moose trail started drifting far away from the trailheads we needed to get back to. So, I directed Jack & Rudy into the forest to break our own trail. I was pleasantly surprised that the early season snow was deep enough to us to travel safely off trail!

Breaking trail as we make our own path through the forest back towards
the trailhead.

I knew that we would eventually intersect with the west summit ski trail. Sure enough, after weaving our way through the forest for a while, we eventually met up with the ski trail. A few others had been out on the trail before us, so that gave Jack & Rudy some nice ski tracks to run in.

Opening up the throttle as we get on set tracks.

Very few people had been out on this trail before us, so the ski tracks were still pretty soft. Come along and watch as hard working Jack & Rudy are towing me along as the run in soft ski tracks. What power these two have!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Finally, back to the trailhead and time to climb snow walls to get end of run treats :)

"What a blast! Now dish out those end of run treats!" declares the happy pair.

A beautiful morning to start the 2023/2024 skijoring season with 5.4 miles traveled, 500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 14 MPH (conditions did not permit going faster than this :)

Unfortunately, we have some upcoming dry and warm days, so we are in a holding pattern waiting for the next snowstorm before we can continue our 2023/2024 skijoring season.

Pray for Snow!