{"id":1443,"date":"2013-02-13T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2013-02-22T09:15:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T16:15:28","slug":"theres-a-storm-across-the-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/theres-a-storm-across-the-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s A Storm Across The Valley…."},"content":{"rendered":"

This last weekend it\u00a0was\u00a0snowing in the high country both Saturday and Sunday. Forecast was for 1 – 2 feet of snow, and we could see the clouds from our back deck. Since I didn’t want to ride solo in those conditions I left the snowmobile at home and\u00a0 took out my ATV. The weather was good enough for a short trip\u00a0– about 3 hours –\u00a0into Wild Horse Mesa. Yes, there is that much change in weather between our 5,028 foot elevation and the 10,000 foot plus elevation of Grand Mesa.<\/p>\n

As I was heading out the words of John Denver’s “Home Again” stuck in my mind, particularly the phrase “There’s\u00a0a storm across the valley, clouds are rolling in…”\u00a0 To my left I could see snow falling on the south side of the Colorado River. (Ahead of me a cloud bank was on the horizon.)<\/p>\n

\"Storm<\/a>

Storm across the valley…<\/p><\/div>\n

The sun was shining so I knew I had some time before I would need to turn around for home. Here is a shot of the landscape as it looks about 8 – 9 miles out. Note the unusuall purple colored rocks in the center. There is a band of this color throughout the region, but it is particularly evident here.<\/p>\n

\"Landscape<\/a>

Landscape about 9 miles from home, Wild Horse Mesa<\/p><\/div>\n

The road, dry at the beginning of the ride, went through a couple of transitions. At about 11.5 miles out it turned muddy as the snow was melting, mile 13 saw a mix of mud and snow, and by mile 15\u00a0 the road was snow-covered and frozen. It doesn’t seem like the change in elevation is that great, but the changes in road conditions are a reminder that the farther you go the higher you get.<\/p>\n

I rode for several miles observing the landscape and looking at the animal tracks. I didn’t see any wildlife, except for a few birds. As I went I kept an eye on the sky knowing the forcast included a 70 percent chance of precipitation. When I saw this cloud bank\u00a0coming toward me\u00a0I knew it was time to turn around and head home:<\/p>\n

\"Clouds<\/a>

Clouds are rolling in!<\/p><\/div>\n

The fact that it was already beginning to snow – lightly – reinforced my decision. I was 19 miles out and it had taken me about 90 minutes to get here. (That time included photo stops.) The mud and snow zones cut down on my over-the-road speeds and I was not in a hurry.\u00a0 I knew it would take me as long to return as it had to get to this point.<\/p>\n

The ride home was uneventful – \u00a0but colder – as the clouds continued to build and block the sun. I had to stop once to warm up my right thumb as the ATV has no grip or thumb warmers. (These are available as after-market add-ons but I don’t have a set installed on The Griz.)<\/p>\n

Once home I parked The Griz and proceeded to fix myself a nice hot cup of tea. While it was steeping I fired up the Mac, started looking at the photos, and began to plan this post. It was a nice way to finish off the day’s ride.<\/p>\n

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This last weekend it\u00a0was\u00a0snowing in the high country both Saturday and Sunday. Forecast was for 1 – 2 feet of snow, and we could see the clouds from our back deck. Since I didn’t want to ride solo in those conditions I left the snowmobile at home and\u00a0 took out my ATV. The weather was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appleattic.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}