Berthoud Pass Labor Day Weekend

"We'll just go up to Fraser on Saturday morning to miss the traffic" we thought. Morning actually became noon. "Surely there will be no traffic by now", we said to each other. 3 1/2 hours later we finally got to Empire, twice the normal time. Clouds were starting to move in but we'd come all this way to ride the pass. We made it 7 of the 14 miles before it started to rain and almost 7.25 miles before it started to sleet. Both of us had rain jackets but John's was not exactly waterproof. The top of Berthoud Pass is almost at treeline, 11,331'. The wind can really roar across the pass  but this time it was relatively calm and only raining. We spent time warming up in the rest stop at the continental divide. We wouldn't get Boy Scout points for being prepared. John and I did negotiate some serious trades: my extra hat for his long fingered gloves, my arm warmers for leg warmers. Down the pass in the rain along with a surprising amount of traffic. One just doesn't get to do a ride like this anywhere.