I couldn't tell what the temp was at night but I had to scrape the inside of the trucks windows from ice. The bottled water on the dash froze. At about 9:00 am, another camper told my son and I it was -1.
I have never had a problem with winter camping, next year I am bringing a tent though.
My wife laughed her ass off when I told her about drinking a large coke before going to sleep.
We couldn't get our 2 dirt bikes started. Jetting isn't for 11000 ft and Artic riding.
We also missed the party in town due to the CDot closing the road north of Fairplay, the last 28 miles turned into about 130 more. Traffic was backed up near Wilkerson pass someone hit one of the cows on the highway.
Oh yeah, it also took about an hour to get through the traffic jam in Breckenridge. It would have been faster running to Denver and cutting back up on 285.
As for the riders who could get their bikes running.
We saw everything from Harley cruisers, a Yamaha cruiser, to all sort of dirt bikes, a bike with a side car, and duel sport bikes with or without tire chains and studs.
I was really impressed with the chains on the bikes.
I also liked the group of quad riders, they carried their beer on the back of the quads, and pulled their buddies in the sled behind them.
Next year the plan, I am putting a studded car snow tire on my BMW Montauk cruiser, and taking it up as far as I can. Already have the skid plate and car tire on it, just need to get one with studs. (Don't want to hurt my YZ450.) Now what to do with the front tire? My son suggested a ski.
Even without the ride, and all the detours it was a Great diversion.
Side note: with the amount of snow we have this year their will be snow on the higher Passes during NAFO. You may want to carry something to wash the water spray off the visors. The snow state wide right now is at about 130% of average, some places are at 200% of average, and there is more on the way. I went through a bottle of windshield cleaner on the truck from all the road spray.
Bob
