Rudy 7000

6 year old Rudy surpassed 7,000 career skijor miles this morning!

Way to go handsome & powerful Rudy!

"I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of the 7000 miles!" declares happy Rudy.

For the curious, Jack is roughly 5 months older than Rudy, so his 7,000 mile event happened last month.

What did we do to observe Rudy's awesome milestone? Well, look closely at that first photo again. What do you see in the upper left of the photo? Yes, that is a chairlift! To celebrate "Rudy 7000" we skijored Breckenridge Ski Resort this morning!

We try to make this an annual tradition: skijor Breckenridge Ski Resort within a few days of them shutting down some peaks for the season. Technically, Breckenridge Ski Resort is still open; but, they shutdown operations on 3 of the 5 peaks as we got into the second half of April and leading into May. It is the most fun to skijor the ski resort with a layer of fresh snow (otherwise it is a bit icy for me). So, although the trails on Peak 9 closed for the season yesterday, we waited until this morning to skijor the ski resort as fresh snow was expected overnight. 

Well, the wait was PERFECT! We had a wonderful layer of light snow over the otherwise hard packed trails. Jack & Rudy really love this activity. I can feel their excitement in the force behind the gangline attached to my waist :)

We had fun flying on by trail signage on the resort:

"Don't need no silly signs, we know where we are going!" says the fun kids
flying on by some of the trail signage.

We had fun flying under both stationary and moving chair lifts:

Crossing under a lift, no reason to slow down for that :)

We had fun zipping alongside chairlifts:

Fresh snow all to ourselves as we fly down this untouched ski run
going alongside a chairlift.

When we are out after they close Peak 9, we always run into a few others. There will be the occasional skiers who have skinned up the trails to come back down. But, more common is coming across resort employees. We will see them on both snowmobiles and the occasional moving lift as they are carrying out shutdown tasks on this peak. The employees always smile, wave and cheer us on as they see the crazy guy skijoring a ski resort behind two powerful sled dogs!

Zipping by some resort employees as you see the passenger giving us
a nice wave (I waved back :)

So, let's put it all together for today's video highlight: flying by trail signage, cruising under chairlifts, running along side (a moving) chairlift and encountering the occasional resort employees on snowmobiles and riding chairlifts. All this is set against wonderful active falling snow all around us with the occasional big gust of wind, as you'll see in the video.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

What a fun morning. Let's celebrate with end of run treats in front of the Breckenridge Trail Map in the background:

"That was FUN!" says the happy, happy kids awaiting treats in front of
the big trail map poster.

Remember, ski resorts are designed for downhill skiing, as a result we always trade an increase in elevation for a decrease in distance skijoring the resort: 7.4 miles traveled with 1500 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 131 days on the trails covering 1125.4 miles with 111,400 feet of elevation climbed.

The 6 year olds, Jack & Rudy, have now each surpassed 7,000 career skijor miles! Impressive! 

Perfect

Look at these absolutely PERFECT groomed trail conditions this morning!

Jack & Rudy catching air as we are first tracks on the freshly
groomed nordic trail. Wheeee!

Today is the last day the trails will be groomed at Breckenridge Nordic Center. As a result, we tried to time our outing to be just after the groomer and, hopefully, first tracks on the fresh groom. Well, it was a rousing success! We were first tracks almost all morning long except when we repeated a few stretches of the trail and then were second and third tracks to ourselves. Woo Hoo!

Catching air on our second pass by the Kathy's Viewpoint Warming Hut.
Second tracks to ourselves!

I think Jack & Rudy got the memo that this was the last groom on these trails this season as they were zipping along all day long!

First tracks catching air again!

Now come along for today's video highlight. We are having a great time gliding along this gently rolling (slight ups & downs) section of trail. You can also see some nice "high elevation views" to our right whenever there are breaks in the trees. This was one of the sections of trails I intended to repeat. So, as we glide off trail at the end of the clip to turnaround, we get the usual from the Jack & Rudy comedians: stop, drop and roll before turning around :)

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Temperatures were above freezing during our entire outing. So, I knew I'd get rolling snow angels to cool off from the sillies at every turnaround point of the day:

Yes, another turnaround, roll around from the silly kids.
Nice views from this snow angel vista too :)

Ok, who is enjoying this final groom at Breckenridge Nordic Center:

"We are! WE ARE!!!!!" declares the super happy kids.
Oh, don't worry, they rolled snow angels right before this photo. With
warm temperatures, every pause on the trail this morning was met with
rolling angels.

Thanks for hauling me around this morning guys, how about some end of run treats in return?

"Ready!" says the happy & very focused pair.

A beautiful and perfect final groom at Breckenridge Nordic Center this morning: 10.3 miles traveled with 1200 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 23 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 129 days on the trails covering 1110.5 miles with 109,000 feet of elevation climbed.

1100 Miles

Look at what Jack & Rudy accomplished this morning!

"We could go for 1100 more!" says the proud & happy kids
acknowledging their impressive accomplishment.

Yep, we surpassed 1100 miles of skijoring for this 2023/2024 season this morning (1100.2 to be exact). That's 1100 miles and counting for 5 straight years for the impressive 6 year olds!

Today's outing took us to the trails of Gold Run Nordic Center. But, the nordic center closed for the season last Sunday, so there is no more grooming happening on these trails. For the curious, despite some really nice snow photos today, the majority of the nordic center is lower in elevation on Breckenridge Golf Course and these trails melt quickly in April. The two upper elevation trails are the "dogs allowed" trails. It is always sad when we see how much great snow is still on the upper trails but the route to these trails for the groomer would be over the quickly melting trails on the golf course.

Anyway, back to today. We had a light layer of fresh snow fall overnight and into the morning. With a layer of fresh snow, the leftover nordic trails are safe to ski again (they get too slick for me without fresh snow). So, we started the day on the highest elevation loop of the nordic center. Only a few people had been out on these trails since Sunday and all had stuck to the same narrow set ski track. We intended to repeat this upper section of trail three times (out, back and out again). When I saw the set track was too narrow for Jack & Rudy fit shoulder-to-shoulder, I skied next to it to create another track for the kids to fit. On our repeats of this trail, sometimes Jack & Rudy would make use of the two tracks and sometimes they'd slide far right to enjoy the untouched snow on the side of the trail:

Laying fresh tracks on the untouched right hand side of the wide trail.
Notice the (now) two set tracks to our left.

Laying fresh tracks in the prior photo, then taking a break to run in the set tracks for a bit:

Rudy in the original set track from previous days.
Jack in the new track I made with my skis on the first pass along this trail.
See, I can be useful!!!!!

Today's turnaround entertainment was snow angels, as always, from Jack and wooing today from Rudy - you never know what you are going to get from the silly redhead: rolling, wooing or both :)

"Rub a dub dub!" goes snow rolling Jack.
"Today I WOOOO!" sings wooing Rudy.

After some fun laps in the new snow on the highest elevation trail, we then connected to the next, main trail, to skijor to the trailhead. This trail gets LOTS of usage when the nordic center is open and even after it closes. As a result, I really needed today's light layer of fresh snow to skijor safely behind my pals:

Phew, a nice layer of "safety dust" snow on the otherwise well-worn trail!

Every outing eventually has to come to an end. Whose idea is it when we end? Well, since Jack & Rudy NEVER tire, it is me who eventually calls the fun to an end. Come along and watch Jack & Rudy running strong, as always, to the finish of this morning's 9.6 mile skijor. Oh, and a nice glide on by the dog on the side of the trail near the end of this clip.

[watch on youtube if no video loads below]

Passing 1100 miles for the season, what a way to earn today's end of run treats!

"Ready for 1100 more and READY for those treats!" says the happy
and focused fun kids.

A nice layer of new snow to allow us to get a long April outing: 9.6 miles traveled with 900 feet of elevation climbed and a top speed of 22 MPH.

2023/2024 Season to Date: 128 days on the trails covering 1100.2 miles with 107,800 feet of elevation climbed.