Despite the great winter we’ve had in Colorado, here in the central mountains the snow has mainly stayed at higher elevations.  In town, it’s been mostly dry.  I’ve been riding what has felt like dusty, dry August trails for the last month.  

Then it snowed.  Heavy, wet spring snow.  Six to eight inches of the stuff around our house and all that dusty, dryness was converted into a winter wonderland.  Now where’d I leave my fat bike?  

The thing is, spring snow is ephemeral.  Here for a brief while, then gone.  With afternoon temperatures forecasted to get into the 50s, I headed out early to get the goods.  I set out to do what I call the Methodist Mountain short loop, an eight-mile lollipop route from our house that takes in most of the trails on the west side of the Methodist trail network.  When dry, this loop takes no more than an hour.  With powder snow, it’s typically two to two and a half hours.  With heavy, wet spring snow I figured I’d need a full three.  Exercise that’s more anaerobic than aerobic, like doing squats one leg at a time. Challenging for sure, but god, what a gorgeous way to suffer!

The Little Rainbow covered in white.

The high peaks of the Sawatch catching the morning sun while down in the valley, Salida is still socked in with clouds.

Tunnel of snow.

Snow covered bench-cut section.

Fortunately, I’ve got traction by Surly.

Views from along the Little Rainbow.

By the time I reached the far west end of the network where the Little Rainbow meets the Double Rainbow, the clouds in the valley were starting to break up and the sky was turning blue.  

The Spartan West trail marks the turn-around point on the loop. I saw the first sign of human activity for the morning other than my own in the form of hiker footprints.

Spartan West connects to Spartan East and I was back to untracked but noticeably melting snow.

Methodist Mountain covered in white.

Loop completed, only one more mile home.

My tracks from earlier that morning.  Still the only ones on the trail.

No wonder that chain was jumping around so much!

Nothing like springtime in the Rocky Mountains!