Irish Mike, Powderhorn shuttle bus driver
The island of Maui has a famous drive, the Hana Highway, with its numerous one lane bridges, cascading waterfalls, and scary hairpin curves. These curves may have a cliff on one side and a wall of a cliff on the other, or even worse, a local Hawaiian speeding around the corner with a beefed up 4×4, ready to run over a tourist. Many of these curves have signs that read, “Blow Horn”, and this may at least help in a warning. Hana Highway also has the reputation as “Divorce Highway”, with the fear and terror inside of rental cars.
The drive up from I-70 to Powderhorn Ski Resort is not as terrifying as Maui’ Hana Highway, but a drive to at least have all enjoying the view. At first, the canyons to drive through have wall close to the road 500 feet high. The last half of the drive, the fields on the sides of the road had more wild animal tracks than anywhere we had visited. A day drive seemed safe, however, I wonder of a night drive.
Powderhorn is like a secret stash in Colorado. Close to Grand Junction, high on a plateau, with a good mixed mountain terrain, and a local ski resort feel. “Trisha”, the marketing manager, was east to contact and set-up MauiSkiBus with a warm welcome. “Irish Mike”, the shuttle driver with a western class, pointed at MauiSkiBus every pass around the parking lot, and “Ski Patrol Paul”, put me to work in trail maintenance.
The moguls under the chair, alias “Hollywood Alley”, were mine all alone and the open glades were a tease, for the still lack of Colorado snow. The mesa of Colorado was above, the vista view was wide open, and the lift lines of Powderhorn were not at all to be seen. The resort was recently bought by new experianced owners and a new vision is headed Powderhorn’s way. I still want to drive the access rode on a moonless night and experiance all of those wild animals that had left those tracks. Would I need to blow my horn?
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