Season Opener

Yes, the date on this blog entry is September 23rd...

Yes, the title of the blog is "Season Opener"...

The Colorado mountains got a wonderful blast of early season snow last night and into this morning. Snowfall could be measured in the 3-5 inch range at elevations above 11,000 feet! "Woo Hoo!" we all exclaimed, "We have to find terrain for a Sept 23rd season opener!'

"We've had a whole summer off! We have snow! Here we GO!" demonstrate an excited
Max & Zorro as they lean into the harnesses to take off at the start of our outing.

Ok, so it was not the best of conditions (3-5 inches of wet snow on warm ground/mud), but it was useable snow in September! No complaints from any of us... Given the wet/slushy nature of the trail, we used the dog sled instead of the skis today. Highlights from the wonderful early season start:

Zooming along Shrine Pass Rd. Warm ground + hot Siberian feet meant we left tracks down to
the mud most of the outing. But it was slick enough for the sled to glide - wheee!

Happy Siberians at our quick turnaround break at the midpoint of the outing.

Everyone was in their "midseason form" as Max is rolling his patented snow angels to cool off
while Zorro chomps down on snow cones to cool off. It was like we had no time off at all!

Look closely... That is a deer just ahead and to the left on the trail! Add a little
"deer juice" to the Siberian Engine and you really go!

We headed up to Shrine Pass in the Vail Pass Recreation Area for today's outing. This kept us at elevations over 11,000 feet most of the day and delivered a wonderful September 23rd treat!

Stats for the day: 6.2 miles with 750 feet of elevation gain and a top speed of 15 MPH. A nice little run to get the season going!

K9-4K Race

Today was the annual K9-4K race in Frisco, CO. 

This is a 4K race that you get to run with your dogs to benefit the local L.A.P.S. organization.

How did we do today... Wow - 2nd place overall and 1st place in my age group! Oh boy do Max & Zorro love to run races. You have to see the images and video from the start - it is pure Siberian Husky!

This clip is 3 seconds after the start (I kid you not!).
We are already in first place by a significant amount as Max & Zorro simply "took off" and
quickly separated us from the crowd. I do not remember my feet ever touching the ground!

What form - about 3.5 seconds from the start and I am practically airborne!

Okay, those two clips set the context. Below is the actual video of the start. It almost looks like we are running the race alone until a cluster of people & dogs finally runs by.

Alone at the front of the pack within the first 2 seconds of the race - Siberian Husky Power!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Given this "shot out of the gates" at the start, how on earth did we get 2nd place, you ask? Well, the darned human is slow, the Siberians would not have relinquished this lead! Sorry guys (but, we only lost by about 10 seconds :-)

About 1/3 of the way through the race, the eventual winner passed us. The Siberians are about the only dogs in the race that are running in front of and faster than the human the entire race. As the winner passed us, with his dog slightly behind him trying to keep up, he joked, "I'd like to have those dogs next year!"

About 3/4 of the way through the race, we were passed again and fell into 3rd place overall. But, we kicked it up to another Siberian Gear on the home stretch and sprinted by this person and almost caught the winner. So, 2nd place overall - only because of the slow human. When we did drop into 3rd, momentarily, this runner joked with me as well and said, "I'd love to trade dogs with you!"

Woo - do Siberians know how to race or what!

Season in Review...

What is a musher to do as summer drags on....

How about compile a video of our favorite skijor clips from the past season?

Well, here it is: our best clips from the 2012-2013 season, nicely sync'd to Molly Hatchet's "Flirtin' with Disaster" song. The music and lyrics really compliment the video!

Have fun watching... Be sure to turn on the volume :)

What was your favorite part of the "season in review" video? We love the incident around 2:54 in the video when Molly Hatchet is singing, "It ain't for everybody, hehehe!"