I’ve known the shot I wanted for the front cover of Lost Creek since before I started writing the book back in January. It was a simple shot. I thought. All I needed was a rickety old mining shack with a mountain peak in the background, during a snowstorm. The rickety old shack was easy to find — they’re everywhere in my neck of the woods. The snow, which is normally not an issue up here, has been much more elusive.

It wasn’t until March 9 that I got my chance. When I woke to a blizzard, with six fresh inches already accumulated, I knew it could very well be my only chance. But I also knew it could be the last powder day of the season. So, I loaded up my gear and hit the slopes. The turns were out of this world, best of the season, aside from a few epic powder days at Steamboat. It was still dumping buckets when the lifts closed.

I knew what I had to do. I had the perfect shack in mind. It was down the Moffat road, on my way home. But when I found the shack, there still wasn’t enough snow on the ground to cover the long grass and scraggly shrubs. It just wouldn’t do. I had another shack in mind, up a gnarly road a few miles further down Moffat, but its road doesn’t get plowed in the winter and the deep snowy uphill climb was more than Betty White Truck (my old Dodge pickup) could handle.

I had given up on getting my shot, but continued down the Moffat road because it’s such a beautiful drive — especially in a blizzard. The road follows a rushing river and train tracks until it dead-ends at the rocky peaks of the Continental Divide. The river continues to climb the Divide. The tracks continue through the Moffat Tunnel, cutting six miles through the Rocky Mountains to come out in Winter Park. Had I not stopped to roll one, crack a fresh brew, and admire the winter view, I never would’ve spotted the run-down shack long ago abandoned after the tunnel was completed in 1927. It was perfect. I shook and shivered and my fingers went numb as the frigid blizzard’s wind blew the snow sideways off the Divide. After a dozen angles and over fifty pictures, I got the shot.