Burnt Timber ride

We went on a short ride up the Burnt Timber trail yesterday, abut a 1/2 hour drive from home. Short because, well, we just got too cold. We do this trail every spring as sometimes there are big herds of elk with calves. It's been a chilly spring, but stubbornly we only brought along our normal riding gear like a light sweater and raincoats. Us women ended up wearing our rain gear to get a little warmer, not because it rained. It did, however, SNOW on us! I am so over the cold, are the warm temps ever going to arrive? Anyhow, enough of my complaints, here are the pics :)

This is a hugely popular trail for outfitters. Anyone who has watched Craig Cameron on RFDTV has seen parts of this trail and the big outfitter's camp way up the trail. Parking area for the Burnt Timber trail:

Entering into the Weminuche:


A short way up the trail it begins a steady climb which continues for about 3 miles:


We had ridden maybe 2.5 miles when Cindy and I began to ask each other "Is that aspen fluff or snow in the air?"......after a minute it was obvious that is was indeed snow. We could see across at some peaks that still have snow on them, and some of it looked fresh:


A short way past that Michaela announced that her chijuajua was shivering so we stopped to build a campfire and get warm:

Jypsi looking studious:

I know it looks sunny in the pic, but we were freezing and didn't want to leave the fire. We turned around and headed back, a 1/2 mile from the area where we usually see the elk. We were so cold we no longer cared about seeing the elk. If we would have had the proper gear it would have been fine, but our stubborn insistence that it was late spring got the better of us. As soon as we dropped out of the high meadows it became tolerable again.

This spring has been unseasonably cold. We did two Utah trips this spring and that was cold, too. I'm still waiting for some warm sunshine and a nice flat rock to bask on :)

I have a video of the only bad spot in the trail here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W4NZauVQrw&feature=channel_page