I came across them at probably the worst possible place. A convoy of three trucks, each loaded with people and gear, each pulling either a utility trailer, an ATV trailer, or a horse trailer. All parked in a row at the crest of the steepest rise on the entire 90-some mile road. The front vehicle already over the crest of the narrow, barely two-lane dirt road that we all call Hi-Line. The other two vehicles separated from their fully loaded trailers, as men directed vehicles around, swapping one truck for another.

Apparently the white truck was the one to have on the horse trailer, packed to the roof with camping gear. Considering the road ahead drops 500 feet in about a third of a mile, on the shady northern slopes where snow freezes rather than melting, it's a good place to be cautious.

Obviously hunters, but there was no safe place to stop and visit. No place to stop at all.

They all had California plates.

I turned off the road about 50 meters below them, and headed in towards The Grove to see if I could find someone who was actually hunting. By the time I figured out the only vehicle tracks in the deep snow were tracks that went in and then came back out, the Californians were gone.

I eventually caught up with them at the base of the mountains.

They were all smiles by that point, looking ahead to the comparatively flat country before them. Several gathered quickly around my window as I pulled up.

They were hunters, all right.

Just not ours. They were trying to get to Walden!

Walden, Colorado.

And were going in exactly the opposite direction as their objective. Before I could ask about their poor sense of direction, one fellow quickly explained... they'd been stuck in our community for 36 hours by the highways all being closed by the blizzard. And with the Interstate still closed by the blowing snow that followed, they just couldn't stand sitting and waiting while their Colorado elk hunting season was already going on.

They were trying to go around.

Ohhh, geez. What they're trying to do is like sailing around the Cape of Good Hope because there's a week delay at the Suez Canal. Sure, you're moving towards your destination...

But it'd be faster to sit and wait for the canal to reopen.

They're happy to hear there are no more steep climbs like what they just went through on the rest of their chosen detour. And were undeterred when I explained they'd have miles and miles of mud before they hit the highway they were aiming at.

You know they'll probably get the interstate open a few hours before you finish your loop, I pointed out.

"Yeah, but at least we're movin'," the one leader explained. And no doubt it helps to have them out of town. The local grocery was out of gasoline when I tried to fill up this morning, and restaurants were probably low on food, too, with nothing coming in.

"And we're doing better than the semi," volunteered another. It seems, hidden deep within the canyons behind us, is a semi! Last seen chaining up his tractor so's he can pull his load up out of the narrow switchbacks that he foolishly dropped into.

Now this I gotta see! I wish the wayfaring foreigners luck with their detour, and turn back into the mountains. Almost immediately I encounter two local elk hunters, who also report on the semi trying to climb up from the dam.

"Probably some MapQuest idiot," the grumpier hunter sneered. Because, yes, digital and official maps show a road crossing the river at the dam. But the road is closed to the public, and narrows to just a trail servicing powerpoles on the other side. For miles and miles.

Despite what the maps say, you can't get there from here.

But there is no fast way over those mountains, and before I could get to the switchbacks going down to the dam, some deer hunters reported the semi had successfully escaped.

Last seen taking off his chains so he could return south.

Since I was maxed out on hours, I had to quit early, well before sunset. I was five miles from the Interstate when I saw them.

Semis. Rolling both east and west.

The Interstate was open.

I was surprised to see a green car in front of our house. The daughter-in-law, come to visit their convalescing corgi who has been spending nights with us the past week (and days at the vets'). I chided her for risking the bad highways just to see their ailing pet.

"The highway's fine," she answered. The only reason they had it closed between us and University Town was because it was still closed between them and Capitol City. And once University Town's motels, truck stops, restaurants and emergency shelters filled up, they had to close the highway between us to keep any more travelers from coming in.

Which was why they closed the highway to the west of us when we filled up. And so on down the line.

But our roads were fine. And dry.

Which means...

If the Californians had simply asked the patrolman sitting at the gates if they could scoot down the interstate for 14 miles and then turn south on the highway to Walden...

He or she would probably have said "Yes."