Steamboat Lake

The road continued west around open hills and empty ranch land ("next services 47 miles") and then over Muddy Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass into Steamboat Springs. The resort spreads over a wide basin that's at a relatively low elevation where the snow loses much of its depth. I fought a traffic jam through the town's suburban architecture and asked about a good place to go cross-country skiing. I was directed onto a road north. Quickly, I was taken back into the mountains and civilization fell away from me. For a long while, I saw nothing and nobody else except for mule deer, grazing. Culturally, the area seemed more like Wyoming. There weren't many signposts for visitors and a good number of the tourists probably came in on snowmobiles. One or two buildings made a town.

The Clark outpost is a grocery store, a liquor store, a post office, a cafe and a library.

I had driven for the better part of an an hour when I finally tried to locate my destination on a map. Ah. I had not specified that I was looking for someplace nearby. A small visitors center, open for part of the day, directed me to the ski trails on Steamboat Lake. I seem to have been the only visitor. A mountain that dominates the view north of the lake is probably called Hahns Peak, the name of an old mining town down the road.

I was sealed off from the world.

I had forgotten what it was like to stand in the snow and hear nothing at all (snow muffles sound) except for traces of the wind.