Powder Plows

Paused at the historic Iowa Mill on Baldy Mountain. Anyone besides me into history?

"Nope; but you did stop...." goes stop, drop & roll Jack.
"Nope, but WOOOO!" adds wooing Rudy.

We spent the morning on Baldy Mountain to enjoy the new snow that fell overnight. The amount of new snow was in the neighborhood of 6 inches with a little less lower in elevation and a little more higher. Baldy is so much fun to skijor when there is fresh snow!

At one point, I directed us off the main trail and onto an unused and untouched side trail. I love this sequence of action shots of Jack & Rudy the powder plows:

Following my "left" command and launching into the deep and
untouched side trail. POW!

After every plow launch comes a lift to dolphin swim through
the deep powder.

Plow, lift, plow, lift - you get the idea :)
So off we go snorkeling along this untouched side trail.

The powder plowing was a short distance as I knew that particular side trail would connect back to more established trails quickly. But, it was still so fun to break trail in over 2 feet of untouched powder cache for a little ways.

We spent the majority of the morning, though, on the popular trails around Iowa Mill. On these trails, we were running in shallow powder in set tracks from all the skiers that had already been out to get some of the morning freshies. What to do on the main trail? Well, flirt & fly of course:

"Hi... Bye... Made you smile!" goes Jack & Rudy entertaining the
skiers paused to watch us fly on by.

Finally, we get to today's humorous video highlight. If you put anything on the trail in front of Jack & Rudy, they want to chase and catch it. I literally mean ANYTHING - skier, moose, squirrel, dog, fox, ameoba - you name it, if it is in front of them, they want to catch it :) Come along for today's video demonstration of this. The clip starts with us stopped as I am letting a skier in front of us get a big head start on this final stretch of the Baldy Mountain Trail. Then, once I give the command to go and you'll see Jack & Rudy gaining on the skier in front of us until we eventually catch him at the trailhead gate. Fun guys!

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Deep powder, flirt & fly, catch the skier - what a fun batch of activities to combine in one outing!

"We had a blast!" says my happy, happy pals.

Powder day fun: 6.7 miles traveled with 1100 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 21 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 65 days on the trails covering 561.6 miles with 49,700 feet of elevation climbed.

Flirt and Fly

Jack & Rudy flirting with the skiers as we fly on by on Baldy Mountain this morning.

"Hi... Bye... Made you smile!" says the cool kids running on by the crowd.
We heard an "oh wow" gasp, a cheer and a "so cool" comment from this
group as we cruised on by :)

We did an interesting combination route on this morning's skijor. We started on Baldy Mountain, as shown in the prior photo. We skijored up & down the path to historic Iowa Mill on Baldy. After the fun Baldy lap, we went deep into the backcountry to skijor an extremely technical connector from Baldy to Sallie Barber. Very few ski both Baldy and Sallie Barber in the same day; but I have sled dog assistance :)

Once on Sallie Barber, we skijored the backside down and then back up:

Flying along the backside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail.

After doing the backside, we crested at the mine to transition to the frontside:

Cruising by the historic Sallie Barber Mine.

Then it was fast & fun skijoring the frontside of the Sallie Barber Mine Trail:

Wheeee!

Back to the first photo and our Baldy lap. Come along and watch the fun. This clip starts with us flying along the fast & fun Baldy Trail. Then, we come upon the group of 4 skiers who gasped and cheered as we went on by. Look closely at the 33-34 second point of the clip - you'll see Jack give a flirting glance to the lady to our left who gasped "oh wow" as we went on by. Then, it's back to fast running until we come upon the next skier to flirt with and fly on by. The flirts, Jack & Rudy, really love this trail :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

How was the outing this morning guys?

"Oh so fun!" declares the happy, happy kids.

A fast & flirting lap on Baldy then fast laps at Sallie Barber Mine: 8.3 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 64 days on the trails covering 554.9 miles with 48,600 feet of elevation climbed.

Front

Fun "shot from the front" as we fly by Nancy near the trailhead this morning!

"Wheeee - look at happy, happy meeee!" says both kids flying by Nancy
on the side of the trail.

My original plan was to skijor a route similar to yesterday where we'd mix up single track side trails with wide groomed trails on Gold Run Nordic Center. But, once we got onto our first side trail, it was "uh oh!" as the trails got a lot of traffic on this busy holiday weekend since yesterday morning. The result? Well the side trails were slick to icy - yuck!

What did we do? Well, I quickly guided us onto the groomed trails of the nordic center. Then, I talked Jack & Rudy into doing the upper Preston Loop 3 times before continuing on the main spur back to the trailhead. The nordic trails were perfect and recently groomed. It was zoom, zoom, zoom from that point on!

Zooming on the wide groomed trail!

It is so cool sometimes to watch Jack & Rudy take corners. They pack their bodies as far left or right as possible depending on a left or right bend in the trail. I, on the other hand, have to swing out far in the opposite direction to have any hope of getting through these bends with them. Here's what I mean:

Jack & Rudy hugging the right side of the trail as we just came out of a
right corner in the trail where I needed to swing far out left to make it too!

Come along for pass #2 of our 3 passes along this upper loop at the nordic center. If you are paying close attention, you'll see me drift far left twice even though the trail is straight. Look closely at the exposed dirt under the low tree branches at these two points. First, I can't fit under the low branches :) Second, my skis can't touch that exposed ground without me wiping out! Good thing I know this trail well enough to already drift left for just the low branches! Top speed in this clip? 25 MPH! Zoom.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

I've never asked Jack & Rudy to do three passes on the same loop before. We'll often do two passes on a fun loop; but I know a third is pushing my luck at they may balk as we've already done it twice. Here was the reaction when I announced we were doing a third loop:

"Well, I've got to stop, drop & roll before any such silliness!" says Jack.
"Woooo! Really? Well, woooo!" responds wooing Rudy.

Don't worry, after a snow angel from Jack and woo from Rudy, both agreed to zoom around the loop again.

Back to the first photo, it was a "Hi mom, bye mom!" fly by Nancy today. Sometimes they'll slow to flirt with her and sometimes they just want to impress her by FLYING on by. Today was fly day :)

"Bye mom - we've got end of run treats to get to!" announces the fast
kids flying on by Nancy.

A nordic zooming outing: 9.8 miles traveled with 600 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 25 MPH.

2022/2023 Season to Date: 63 days on the trails covering 546.6 miles with 47,700 feet of elevation climbed.