300 and Counting

Laying fresh tracks most of the day in French Gulch!

We surpassed 300 miles of skijoring for this 2014/2015 Season Today - 300 and counting...

"Yes, we are having a great time!" answered happy Max & Zorro when I called out "Everyone
having fun and ready to turn around?"

We skijored through 3 types of terrain in French Gulch today...

(1) Laying fresh tracks on the road leading to the French Gulch Trailhead. If you get to the road early after a night of snowfall, you can often beat the plows to the road and add this easy intro to your skijor outing:

An easy start to the outing as we glide up French Gulch Road.

(2) Taking turns playing "tow truck" with the set single track and shallow shoulders. If the shoulder next to a single track is shallow (less than 4 inches of snow), then Max & Zorro will typically take turns with one trotting in the track and the other laying fresh tracks in the shoulder. Since the guy in the shoulder is working harder, his gangline will be looser and the gangline to the guy "in track" will be taut working as the tow truck (to tow me). About 1/2 our outing on the French Gulch Trail was along this type of terrain...

Max as Tow Truck.
Zorro as Shallow Powder Truck.

Flip... Zorro as Tow Truck and Max as Shallow Powder Truck.

(3) As we got further back into French Gulch, the shoulder snow kept getting deeper and deeper. Eventually it was too deep for either Max or Zorro to plow through the snow out of the track and be able to keep up with the guy in track. So, this 1/2 of the outing the French Gulch Trail was single file skijoring as they took turns running in lead along the narrow single track:

Max in lead, Zorro in "rest position second". You can see the snow wall of the single track
is as tall as Zorro's shoulders - too deep to run out of the single track and keep up.

Flip - Zorro in lead and Max in "rest position second". Notice the snow wall is up to tall Max's
shoulders at this point - that's deep!

And, finally, no trip to French Gulch is complete without a quick hop off the trail to survey the gulch for moose (a thing we frequently see)...

"Quick break for moose scanning!" say the moose seeking pair hopping off the trail at one of
our previous moose sighting points. Both there noses shot in the air before hopping off trail
to the right - the scent of moose must have been very strong!

A nice range of conditions to lay fresh tracks most of the day in French Gulch: 8.2 miles with 1000 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 15 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 37 days on the trails covering 303.1 miles with 33,250 feet of elevation climbed.

Freshies

Playing in 6-10 inches of fresh snow all day - wheeee!

Trotting & gliding along the trail in 6+ inches of fresh snow.

Our last significant snowfall before last night had been the day before Thanksgiving. While the storm before Thanksgiving did give us a 70 inch base, it was getting tracked and packed over a dry 2 week stretch. Well, last night brought us our first significant snowfall in weeks and we were back to laying fresh tracks and breaking trail in soft new snow!

Most of our route today was similar to the following photo: 2 pre-existing tracks (with 6+ inches of fresh snow today) and a deep middle between the tracks. This is the common track pattern to find in backcountry terrain as you do not have machines making a wide trail; but instead typically have 2 narrow cross country ski tracks with deep shoulders and middles between them. Max & Zorro happily split the tracks today and had fun each breaking trail in their own path. I would alternate following behind one or the other.

Following Max along this stretch of trail as each is breaking trail in their own track.

Time to turnaround and head back the way we came, how's the day going everyone:

"Ah, fresh snow again - so fun!" declares happy Max.
"Ok, I'll have fun going any direction!" expresses happy Zorro.

The best thing about an "out & back" trail in deep snow? You get to ride your "out tracks" on the return path - wheee!

Max & Zorro each following their out tracks for a nice return trot as I choose to follow
behind Zorro for this stretch.

Still following our out tracks but now flipped as I am having fun gliding behind Max.

A short day (distancewise) with lots of breaking trail in 6-10 inches of powder: 6.4 miles with 700 feet of elevation climbed.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 36 days on the trails covering 294.9 miles with 32,250 feet of elevation climbed.

Wild Wilder

Today we uncorked the Siberian Engine and got Wild in Wilder Gulch!

Airborne, sprinting sled dogs!
I love getting pictures of Max & Zorro "catching air" as we fly along the trails!

We decided to try a different route than our usual path at Vail Pass today. Instead of our usual Shrine Pass/Lime Creek route, we went the opposite direction and sprinted through Wilder Gulch with an extension to the top of Ptarmigan Pass before returning the same fast route.

It was a gorgeous day and the trail conditions were a perfect Groomie Zoomie - come along for the fun:

"New terrain, let's uncork it!" challenges airborne Zorro to Max as we started off a different
path than we normally take at Vail Pass

Out-stretched, sprinting Siberians from high atop the world near Ptarmigan Pass.

Airborne again. I think you get the theme for the day: zoom, zoom, zoom!

We'll certainly add this route to our list of options at Vail Pass. What did Max & Zorro think:

"Incredible day, I aprrove!" exclaims Happy Max.
"Yes, approve, but why are we stopped?" asks 'no reason to ever stop' Zorro.

A fast 9.1 mile outing with 1500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.

2014/2015 Season to Date: 35 days on the trails covering 288.5 miles with 31,150 feet of elevation climbed.