Call of the Void

Vivian knew that driving over two hours just for an Eharmony date was a little bit crazy. But when you lived in a town of about 2200, it was not just smart, but necessary to expand the hunting grounds. The date itself had been unexpectedly fun, maybe even more so since she knew nothing could really come of it. Andrew was a traveling salesman peddling educational textbooks and curriculum to K through 8 schools. Both of them feeling anonymous in a town where no one knew them gave them the freedom to act more flamboyant than either usually would have. Vivian had expected the date to last no later than 10pm, but it was close to 2am when they finally said their goodbyes, promising to get together next time his work brought him to Colorado. 

Vivian took a few minutes to organize before starting the long drive back to Telluride. She briefly thought about getting a hotel room from the night and calling in sick to work, but knew she couldn’t afford either of those choices. With a sigh she tossed her flip phone onto the passenger seat and fired up the Garmin her dad had bought her for Christmas the year before. After several trips as her passenger, watching her try to simultaneously flip through her spiral bound book of maps while driving, he thought the Garmin was a much needed safety device. Vivian had grown dependent on it fairly quickly and didn’t even bother to keep the maps in her car as backup anymore.

After typing in her home address, the Garmin spit out two options: 

1. Take the 160 West to Dolores, then pick up the 145. Total Distance: 111 miles. Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes.
2. Take the 550 aka “Million Dollar Highway” North. Then West on 679 over Ophir Pass and then continue West on 630 until it meets up with the 145. Total Distance: 73 miles. Total Time: 1hour 10 minutes.

“Well that’s a no brainer” Vivian muttered. But then she paused. As a fresh transplant from mild mannered California, she had glimpsed the temperamental nature of the Colorado mountains: June Hikes that started under clear blue skies could encounter freak blizzards at mountain summits, backcountry roads spanning just a few miles could take hours to traverse, even in 4-wheel drive vehicles, and just 5 months ago she was treated to what she had previously thought of as a myth; clear sky lightening. Nothing about Colorado could be taken for granted. Vivian studied the route suggested by her Garmin. Looking at the estimated time of each route, Vivian felt the first stirrings of doubt. She had found that the estimated time was often off, especially if the route contained rural, rough roads. The Garmin seemed to estimate that all roads could be traveled at about 55 miles per hour, unless the road was obviously a freeway. 

She was very familiar with the first route listed, through Dolores, then North on the 145. She also knew that the 2 hour 15 minutes estimate was definitely shy considering the snowy and possibly even icy roads of early January. If she could shave an entire hour off the travel time, that would mean she would be that much less of a wreck for work tomorrow. 

Vivian felt the tug of common sense begging her to stick to the way she knew. Usually cautious, well anxious if she was being honest with herself, Vivian normally would have balked at trying a new route in winter, especially in the dead of night. What an asinine idea. But as she sat looking at both roads, they looked equally bright and cheerful, the street lights welcoming beacons in either direction. 

“Would the Garmin really suggest a route that was unsafe in any way?” rationalized Vivian. She wished she could call her roommate and ask her advice, but even if she did answer the phone, Vivian really didn’t want to deal with the teasing and chiding that was sure to follow a 2am “Cali driver freak-out” moment. She sat a few more minutes, kicking herself for not doing better research before leaving her house. Still feeling the lingering confidence left over from her delightfully fun date, she tapped the shorter suggested route and pulled out onto the Million Dollar Highway. 

The first hour and fifteen minutes of the drive were pretty much exactly what she had expected; tricky mountain driving, but nothing her Subaru Forester couldn’t handle. She thought about popping in one of the mixed CDs she had purposely burned for long road trips. She really wanted to be one of those carefree women that drove one handed, collecting hitchhikers like baseball cards, while blasting perfectly curated road trip music. But despite her every intention, she always found herself arriving at her destination, both hands on the wheel, with road noise as her only companion. 

Vivian noticed that her left turn onto Forest Rd 679 was coming up. She grinned a little as she realized that the road number matched her birth month and year, that had to be a good sign, right? Her smile faded along with her optimism as she approached the turnoff. Glancing at the dashboard clock, she noted the time. 3:20am. At first she didn’t see anything that resembled a road at all. The pitch black night thoroughly veiled anything her headlights did not touch. She hadn’t passed anyone in close to half an hour, likely because anyone sane had probably found a place to bed down for the night. Vivian put her car into reverse and slowly backed down the deserted highway, desperately scanning the shoulder for any indication as to where the turnoff might be. The night refused to yield a single clue. Vivian flicked her high beams on, finally illuminating a small sign about 20 yards ahead. She crept back up the road and then carefully angled her car so that her lights pointed directly at the sign. It read, 

NATIONAL FOREST ACCESS

OPHIR PASS

She blinked at the sign, dumbfounded. This was her turnoff? Angling her car so that she was now perpendicular to the highway, she inched up to the edge of the road and shone her lights as far down the path as she dared. She could see a few tire tracks in the snow, but the road was obviously not maintained. She put the car in park and got out to take a closer look. She could see down the road about 20 feet, but then it took a sharp right turn and disappeared behind the mountain. Vivian shifted nervously from foot to foot, wondering if she was shaking due to the cold or was it due to fear? She started to pace back and forth hoping the fresh air would clear her mind. 

She took a moment to consider what she would do if she decided not to take this route and hurried back to the car to consult the Garmin. She re-typed her address into the search bar. The first route listed was still over Ophir Pass, with an estimated travel time of 30 minutes. She opened the calculator on her flip phone and realized the Garmin was expecting her to travel at 55 miles per hour to cover the roughly 16 miles of mountain pass. She figured 25 to 30 miles per hour to be more realistic, in which case it would take her closer to an hour to reach her destination. The second route listed went through Ridgeway and clocked in at a whopping 68 miles. The Garmin estimated that this second route would take about an hour and a half, once again setting the speed about 55 miles per hour. Vivian knew from her trip so far that she had rarely gotten the speedometer needle above 50 and calculated that it would probably take closer to 2 hours if she took that route. Her eyes flickered back to the clock. 3:37am. Where the fuck had the last 15 minutes gone? 

Vivian groaned and started repeating the word, “fuck” over and over, hoping the mantra would bring enlightenment. The adrenalin from her date had worn off miles ago, and she was left feeling bone weary. She was scheduled to work at 9 the next morning. If she took the Ophir pass route, she would theoretically get home by about 4:30, could sleep for 4 hours and then roll into work. The other route meant loosing an hour of sleep. Trying to function on four hours of sleep would be miserable, but she worried anything less would be impossible. She stepped out of her car again, hoping the mountain air would snap her out of her indecision. She thought about shutting off her car as she mulled, but knew that the complete silence of the mountain shrouded in snow would definitely make her loose her nerve and take the long way home. 

Vivian walked over to the Ophir Pass turnoff and walked a few feet down the path. The snow was mostly hard packed, but every few steps she would sink down to her ankles. She knew that her car didn’t have any trouble with her unplowed parking lot, and it was definitely easier to drive through the lot than to walk, but she began to think that this unplowed road might be even too much for her vehicle. She had all weather tires on her car, was that the same as snow tires, she wondered? “Oh my God!! Does it even fucking matter!?” She yelled in frustration. She could feel the minutes slide by, knowing that if she didn’t make up her freaking mind soon, she wouldn’t even have time to brush her teeth before heading in to work. She slid back into the car, intending to select the longer route home, planning to just push through and pull an all nighter. But as soon as she sat down she realized that her exhaustion was so deep, there was no amount of coffee that could get her through the ten hour shift waiting for her. Vivian's eyes slid back to the clock. 3:53. God fuck it, she just needed to make a god damn decision! 

Vivian stared into the black hole pit that was the Ophir Pass turnoff, her mind just rapidly flipping between “DO IT!!” And “No, wait!.” Until finally at 3:58 she couldn’t take it anymore and she hit the accelerator, for better or for worse. 

——————-

Josh and his son, Cory parked their snow mobiles at the entrance to the Ophir Pass trailhead. They were surprised to see what looked like tire tracks covering their old snow mobile tracks from their last trip. Last week, the duo had ridden out to try and see if it was possible to drive their snowmobiles over the pass and into Telluride. They were both very familiar with the pass, and used it often in the summer as a shortcut back to town from their unsanctioned hunting shelter they had spent the last few years building in a hidden forest clearing. They usually didn’t go out to the shelter in winter, but had decided to try and winterize it this year, just as a fun side project. As they both strapped on snowshoes, Cory furrowed his brow as he studied the tire tracks. “Do you think someone was dumb enough to try and drive the pass in winter? Wouldn’t they know this road is closed this time of year? From the look of those tracks, it would have been a small SUV, but I don’t see snow chains and those definitely aren’t snow tires.” Josh considered the tracks and felt proud of how well his son could read them. Then concern set in. “Jesus, I sure hope not. We barely made it a mile before we hit that section completely blocked by that avalanche.”

The men exchanged a glance, then Josh reached for his back country Sat phone, really hoping he wouldn’t need to use it. They strapped on their packs and started snowshoeing down the path, eyes glued to the car tracks. They walked about a mile, shocked to see the telltale car tracks even this far. They stopped at the fork in the trail, which usually split off onto a dead end road that would take you to a sheer drop off, a beautiful spot for sightseeing, if you weren’t faint of heart. A fresh avalanche had wiped out not only the fork in the road, but also the car tracks. “Do you think they maybe turned around here and went back?” Cory asked his dad, the doubt on his face removing all hope from his question. “I don’t think so. It’s too narrow to turn around here and we would have seen a second set of tracks if they had backed out. Even if they got further, there’s no way this road is passable at the summit, especially in a car. What the hell were they thinking?” Josh said a silent prayer and then reluctantly pulled out his Sat phone to relay what they had seen to the Sheriff.

The two men stared awhile longer down the sheer cliff face knowing that if anyone had gone over here, if they were ever going to be found, it would be at least another 5 months or so before the snow melted enough to reveal the mountain’s hidden treasures. They looked at each other and sadly shook their heads. Then with one last look over the edge, they continued on their way, looking forward to the elk stew they had waiting back at their cabin.