When the second week of March came around here in Milwaukee we knew our snow season here in the Midwest was cashed. But later in the winter we had booked a trip to Grand Mesa, Colorado with our friend Mark Stewart at his Thunder Mountain Lodge for the end of March. We figured that would be right about the time we would run out of snow in the Midwest, but it turned out that EVERYWHERE got warm early in March this year.

We were close to canceling the trip because we saw the temps even in the high elevations of the Colorado Rockies were in 60+ Fahrenheit. We saw more people around Milwaukee hauling boats than snowmobiles which didn’t help our attitude either. But we decided to tough it out and go on the trip and we are extremely happy we did!

Driving up to the top of the Mesa we saw the snow pack steadily increase to about 6-8 feet at the lodge and even more in the bowls and play areas behind the lodge. Mike Duffy of Avalanche1 was our guide and also took each one of our 4 riders through personalized avi-training. If you have never taken his class (or any avalanche instruction for that matter) you need to get educated! Check it out at http://avalanche1.com/

For several days we climbed, side-hilled, and explored our way through this vast snow filled mountain playground. Temps hovered between 50-70 degrees Fahrenheit and with the blazing sun and blue-bird skies we had some extremely enjoyable spring riding.

If you haven’t checked out Thunder Mountain Lodge recently, much of it has been totally remodeled and Roscoe’s restaurant and bar has some of the best food you will find literally anywhere. We are already hoping to book a trip for next year at this same time!

Check them out online at www.thundermountainlodge.net