By Norm Vance

Sunday I groomed the snow on Lobo Overlook Trail, top of Wolf Creek Pass at 10,875′ and then up to 12,000’+ elevation via snow machine. It was a clear sparkling day and warmish. I had made several trips up and down mashing three feet of new snow into a flat trail. There is currently about 12 feet of snow that the trail is on top of! I was in the parking area about to put the machine on the trailer when three SUVs pulled in with license plates from Louisiana. One pulled close to me and the window went down. A silver haired lady started asking questions about snow recreation as kids to adults jumped out of the vehicles and rolled in the snow.

Turned out she was the mother and grandmother of the pack; they had never seen real snow, and granny was giving them all a vacation to remember. Granny said she had read about the Continental Divide and had always wanted to go to the top of the divide. I said, “Oh, this isn’t the top, the top is up there,” pointing to the mountain peak. “Does granny want to go up?” She looked at me and then looked at the machine and started bouncing in the car seat! She parked and with help from her sons climbed the 12 feet up to the trail level. She made sure the grandkids were watching and photos taken as granny disappeared into the forest behind a crazy man on a snow machine.

The ride is most beautiful with vistas both east and west and long shaded-dark distances under the canopy of the blue spruce forest. Near the top you rise above tree line and onto a bald peak on a good twenty feet of snow.   When on top she marveled at the scene. You can see over a hundred miles looking out over the snow-covered peaks of the San Juan Range. I took a couple photos of her, using her camera. She shared with me that she is very ill with Leukemia and that while she still can and before she goes, she wanted her kids and grandkids to see granny alive and having fun and adventure. I shared with her that I was recovering from cancer and surgery myself and we had a short moment of bonding that only people who have had a life threatening condition can understand. A handshake, a hug, and a couple of tears was touching. She pulled back, looked around and through tears and searching for words said, “This is the most beautiful church I have ever seen. If heaven is any better than this, I’m ready to go. Just give me a few more days with the kids.”

In twelve years of grooming snow trials I have had some moments out there, but this one is at the very top.

Post Script:
I was so touched by this encounter I wrote the account above. I sent it out to all of my friend’s addresses over the Internet wanting to remind folks what a spectacular environment we live in.  My sister, Sharon Tennison, was included on the Internet list.

Sharon is founder and president of the Center for Citizen’s Initiatives. CCI is a twenty-year-old, San Francisco based organization that aids Russian people. The purpose of CCI is to connect Russian businessmen with American businessmen to teach principles of capitalism. They also took Alcoholics Anonymous to the Russian people and other like efforts.

Sharon forwarded the story to over a thousand addresses worldwide on her organization’s e-mail list and I began receiving many heartwarming replies. By the third day, the e-mail was so overloaded it stopped working, allowing no messages in or out. I spent most of the day deleting pages of messages and trying to repair the e-mail site. Ultimately the event seized the computer completely with foreign language cookies and other such mysterious computer oddities. Many replies included addresses from important sounding locations such as Washington DC, Moscow and across Euro-Russia.   

That this lady would choose to visit the Continental Divide so as to leave her family a legacy of love and inspiration is truly wonderful. I was pleased to help in making her wish come true.

Little does Granny know that her story inspired people around the world.