Songline for Wolf Creek Pass (Colorado Springs, Durango: home, college, maintenance)

[Colorado Rambler]

Songline for Wolf Creek Pass
- dedicated to John Crowder, in memory yet green

You know you’re almost home
when you reach that pullout on the road –
the one where you put your chains on
or take them off.
Immediately after is the last bridge
that goes over the Rio Grande.
The river is just a creek here,
headwaters a few miles away –
90 degrees due west on the Continental Divide.
Big Up Country starts NOW!

Gear down here and start to gather speed.
Consider the laws of classical physics:
Force equals mass times acceleration.
The area under a curve defined by topography and road.
Vectors become a calculus of place.
And in those days the road was narrow
Two lane no guard rail
The mountains demand that physics turn to dance –
Syncopated rhythm, improvisational jazz beat.

And up ahead now, there’s a semi
Going far too slow.
And I have a record to break.
Besides, I never cared much for brakes.
In the mountains, use your gears.
Don’t burn out going down.
Don’t break going up.

Swing out and around
into that outer lane,
tires skittering near edge.
Sharp curve, drive through the fear.
1,000 foot drop off -
Pay it no mind.
Keep your eyes where you want the tires to go.
You’re staying on the road.

Then pull back in smooth and easy.
It was a riff done by girl and car,
road and mountain,
accelerating into those curves
not moving the way fear demanded.
Fear would have you look over the edge,
stand on the brakes,
skid out of control,
spin over and down.

The trucker flashes his lights –
blinking On-Off, On-Off
twice in admiration.
I lift one hand from the wheel,
turn and blow him a kiss.
But the road demands my attention
Like a jealous lover.

You learn to respect the Pass
Listen to its demands
after 7 years of travel
Sometimes in winter blizzards
sometimes in sudden washouts of summer rain.
And don’t forget the occasional avalanche
thrown in just to see if your paying attention.

Wolf Creek always has its moods
And so do I.
Today I am in love
with this pass, these curves,
these mountains, these spring wildflowers
which have come out just for me, waving
as I take those sharp curves effortlessly, flying -
My small Suburu purring
like a great cat,
sure footed,
hugging the road tight
with the embrace of that lover
returning home after a long absence.

Three days later, sitting in the faculty lounge
I’ll boast to a friend
A professor and a librarian
As well as a philosopher and fellow poet.
But above all my main competition
in a serious contest -
Who could drive Wolf Creek the best!

“Did the entire pass
Averaging 50 mph,”
I say casually.
He set his coffee cup down with a sound
like a gauntlet being flung.
“Prove it!”
So I did,
Took a long drag on my cigarette
Said, “Let’s go!”

A couple of college teachers
cutting class on a warm spring day
leaving our students behind
like shadows in empty class rooms.
I hope I gave him good company
talking poetry and the philosophy of road advisories.

A couple of kids dragging the main strip -
Highway 160 between Pagosa Springs and South Fork
Showing off how well we belonged there
turning a little Suburu into a living thing
that danced through the mountains.

The real kids behind us
would be going back to the city
in search of better things.
We’d already found them
topping the summit of that Pass –
Wolf Creek – elevation 10,850 feet -
Chain law – no longer in effect.




Note 1: Kids, please do not try this at home.

Note 2: For anyone who might be interested: A Songline is a direction for travel used by the Australian aborigines. It is a map that is sung, describing dangers on the trail, where to get water and lots of other useful information. A Songline may cover 100's of miles of territory. The traveler who knows the songline will teach it to the next person who makes the journey.

[Idunn]

Nicely done.


Wolf Creek Pass is easier to drive now, wider lanes and easier to pass, as well as safer. It has been tamed a bit, homogenized. But still a beautiful drive in part along a tributary of the Rio Grand River, and across some lovely mountains.

But I miss the road that was before 'improved.' Then more raw and certainly less safe. But the type of pass that one would remember they crossed. Slower, but the time measured in what it meant, that one had better, and would be there in the moment.

[Colorado Rambler]

Yeah, I agree. I actually miss the Wolf Creek of the good old days. Red Mountain can still be kind of fun, though.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Idunn

Nicely done.


Wolf Creek Pass is easier to drive now, wider lanes and easier to pass, as well as safer. It has been tamed a bit, homogenized. But still a beautiful drive in part along a tributary of the Rio Grand River, and across some lovely mountains.

But I miss the road that was before 'improved.' Then more raw and certainly less safe. But the type of pass that one would remember they crossed. Slower, but the time measured in what it meant, that one had better, and would be there in the moment.

Idunn is right. I worked for the San Juan national Forest on a road crew for a couple seasons for road and cattleguard maintenance in the late 60's. Wolf Creek was nothing to trifle with whatsoever. I went over that pass many times. On one of the switchbacks on the Durango side there was a huge sign saying "Many lives have been lost on this road. Please be careful." The old pass had two old snowsheds that were small tunnels on both sides of the pass. That route was not for the faint of heart.

[Colorado Rambler]

I remember the first time I drove over Wolf Creek in 1980. I'm a Colorado native and had done plenty of mountain driving by that time in my life, but Wolf Creek scared the s*** out of me. Just two narrow lanes, very few guard rails, obvious avalanche chutes, etc.

I'm originally from Colorado Springs and had accepted a job at Ft. Lewis College. About a year after that my father became ill, and I was driving back and forth between Durango and the Springs constantly. I reached the point where I think I could have driven Wolf Creek in my sleep, and did I ever get annoyed at "flat landers" who crept over the Pass at 20mph. Ahhh, the good old days!

[pvande55]

YouTube - ‪CW McCall - Wolf Creek Pass‬‏

This is what I thought you were talking about. An old 1975 C W McCall tune.

[Colorado Rambler]

Yeah, although McCall doesn't call his recording a "Song Line" which has a very specific meaning that I explained in my OP.

But I guess I'm going to have to change the name of that poem, because so many are confused by it. Maybe "Crazy Chick defies death on Mountain Pass."

[pvande55]

I have never been on Wolf Creek Pass, but a few years back when I was studying highway tunnel lighting (now that is an esoteric art!), the manual had a picture of Wolf Creek tunnel. I figured that was the tunnel mentioned, or an upgraded version. It turns out the tunnel was not built until around 2005, and before that there was no tunnel. Life imitates art?