Getting Wild skijoring the freshly groomed Wilder Gulch Trail at Vail Pass. Wheeee!
Absolutely perfect conditions! What an unexpected mid-April treat!!!
Our original intentions were to skijor the spring crust in the open meadows at Vail Pass this morning. But, we arrived to find the Wilder Gulch Trail had been freshly groomed and we were first tracks on the trail. Without saying anything, we all three abandoned the "spring crust plan" and followed the groomie zoomie as far as it would take us - 10.2 miles worth (5.1 out and then 5.1 back).
"Can you believe these PERFECT conditions?!?" exclaim my happy partners when I paused
to check if it was time to turnaround or keep going...
The pictures say more than I can describe...
Zoom we go on the freshly groomed trail all to ourselves this morning!
Today's video clip is what you would expect from a groomed trail - fast, fun and fast! Wheeee!
Perfect conditions but the temperatures were a little on the warm side. You know what that means:
"Must eat snowcones to cool off at our turnaround point!" says silly Zorro.
"Hmmm, I think I have a better idea!" suggests Max.
"AAAAHHH! Now this is how you cool off!" exclaims silly snow rolling Max.
An unexpected surprise finding Wilder Gulch freshly groomed leading to a 10.2 mile outing with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.
2016/2017 Season to Date: 128 days on the trails covering 1070.8 miles with 113,200 feet of elevation climbed.
A perfect cool morning to tour the Spring Crust all around Breckenridge while going sightseeing!
Trotting along the perfect spring crust and Peaks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of Breckenridge Ski Resort
come into view across the valley. The Town of Breckenridge is also in view at the base
of Peaks 8 and 9.
We got up early this morning hoping the temperatures would be below freezing and the spring crust would be solid enough to hold our weight. Success!!! Cool temperatures and a solid crust let us go off trail and go sightseeing all over the terrain. A nice shot of Breckenridge Ski Resort above and three more sightseeing highlights below...
Galloping along as Buffalo Mountain comes into view:
Whee we go as Buffalo Mountain is the snow capped mountain you see in the upper center
in the distance.
Another direction and another open meadow with a solid crust. Galloping along this direction as Baldy Mountain is the sightseeing highlight:
Front and center is snow capped Baldy Mountain. It is actually rare for Baldy to be this snow
covered in mid April as it frequently gets hit by strong winds that blow the snow off the
mountain above treeline.
Finally, this one looked better in person, but I'll still include it. The snow capped mountains in the upper left are Grays and Torreys Peaks. These are two of Colorado's 54 mountains that extend more than 14,000 feet above sea level. The snow capped peaks in the upper right are the mountains that house Arapahoe Basin and Keystone ski resorts. Like I said, it was impressive in person but not as much in this smaller photo. Oh well...
Another section of crust to gallop atop and another great view to take in :)
Using the solid spring crust to have a blast going sightseeing: 8 miles traveled with 700 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 20 MPH.
2016/2017 Season to Date: 127 days on the trails covering 1060.6 miles with 112,100 feet of elevation climbed.
Holy Smokes... What's more impressive "flying Max" or the freshly groomed track atop Rabbit Ears Pass?
Unbelievable shot of out-stretched & flying Max. Zorro is flying too (look at his airborne shadow)
but I am more behind Zorro than Max so we get this great profile shot of flying Max. Impressive!
We arrived at our favorite speed track at Rabbit Ears to find it freshly groomed. There were two fat bike tracks on the snow before us and that was it. Max & Zorro were crazy fast today on the speedy terrain.
Hover husky Max with out-stretched Zorro to his side and a fat bike track in between them. Oh yeah,
and "all white" as far as the eye can see!
I think the fat bike tracks gave Max & Zorro a little extra juice in their engines today. "Must catch whoever is in front of us!" was their motto of the day. Put anything "human powered" in front of us and eventually we'll catch it :)
Catching up to the two fat bikers on the trail in front of us. They got off their bikes to chat with
Max & Zorro (and me too :) Of course, Max & Zorro took the opportunity to flirt back.
After passing the two bikers, we had the freshly groomed track untouched and all to ourselves. Holy smokes did Max & Zorro put that track to use! Watch the short video clip below as we top 24 MPH skijoring the pristine track!
After turning around to head back, we came upon 4 sets of fat bike tracks: the out and then back of the 2 bikers who had turned around a little bit after we passed them the first time.
Hover husky Zorro with out-stretched Max to his side with 4 fat bike tracks to our left.
Since the bikers turned around behind us, you know what that means... Catch and pass again!
"Coming through... Hi again, bye again!" say Max & Zorro to the biker as we catch and
pass him on the trail.
Best way to summarize today's incredible outing? Holy smokes! 10.3 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 24 MPH.
2016/2017 Season to Date: 126 days on the trails covering 1052.6 miles with 111,400 feet of elevation climbed.
