Rippie runs 3 Miles. What?!

Today, Vespi and I took my parents' 10 year old golden retreiver on his first real trail run. A few weeks ago, he had gone on a four mile hike with my dad up to Snowshed and he came back so completely exhausted my mom thought he was going to pant out his last breathe.


So I tied the two of them together and they took off at full speed, pulling me behind them. It was then I realized that Rippie had only two speeds - sprint and stroll. Pulling them to a halt, I shoved the dogs behind me. I always hike is way because I like to be the first thing hikers and bikers come across, not some over enthusiastic animal. Well, Rippie still hadn't mastered the whole pacing himself concept and ran full speed into me, sending me sprawling forward on Rosey's crushed rocks :(





Needless to say, Rippie very quickly realilzed his error and remained safely behind me for the remainder of the run. Nothing a few back kicks can't handle. Now while Vespi and I normally run on the upper bike trails, Killington was packed with downhillers, from beginners to professionals, getting ready for tomorrow's Eastern States Cup downhill mountain biking race. So today we kept out of their way and hung out on Trails 22, 28 and 19, making for a nice 3 mile jaunt.


And I say jaunt because Rippie couldn't hold anything faster than a fifteen minute mile. Vespi kept giving him dirty looks because he was going so slow, but all he could think about was staying alive :) Don't worry, Mom, he was breathing hard - but he was still breathing!


And we found the compressor! I have been playing a game of hide and seek with my snowmaker friends for the past few weeks. Every summer, the resort rents a compressor or two in order to perform their annual inspection of each and every snowmaking pipe on the mountain. This means that they have to move the one compressor around the mountain, like it's own little adventure. So the snowmakers and I play our game. They move the compressor around the mountain - and I have to hike around and go find it! Easy for me, the compressor just showed up at the top of Snowshed today :) Thanks, boys!

And now for something completely different:

If you see a man driving around with his chin strap tight under his chin in this scene out of Monty Python's Flying Circus, don't forget to wave! That's our head honcho of ski patrol cruising around in his brand new Kubota RTV1140. This crazy four wheeler can travel up to 25 mph and hauls up to 1100 pounds. Can't wait to see all the trail maintenance you can do with that, Tait!

See you on the Mountain,
FemaleSkiBum :)

Location:Lower Trails, Killington, VT