Thompson Divide

15 miles of dirt and pavement, then onto the snow.

The last week of warm weather and sun melted and baked the snow into a hard crust. Then it refroze, and a dusting of powder fell and made the traction perfect.

Down into the divide rolling on tracks left by a snowcat-atv hybrid monster thing.

I found a good spot to camp in the pines by Thompson Creek, and setup my luxurious camp.

Someone was nice enough to leave a pallet sitting around for me.

So I lit it on fire and had a beer.

By 7:30 I was almost out of firewood, and it was getting close to ten degrees. So I puffed up both of my sleeping bags and crawled under my tarp to pass out.

I woke up before dawn the next morning. 4:00. Dammit. Back to sleep.

Up again a couple hours later. Close enough to sunrise. Packed up, onto the trail, and back up the hill.

And back to Carbondale, where I had breakfast with my tiny girlfriend then went to work smelling like pallet fire smoke.

Not a crazy ride or impressive ride, but it sure was nice to get out for a night.