Winter mornings on the valley floor often start under a lid of fog, the river cold, the sun waiting somewhere above the rim before it burns a hole through. Down Valley ground works is out in that hour with snow removal — plowing driveways and lots, clearing walks, and treating ice on the shaded approaches that never quite see midday. Storms here will stall over one bench and skip the next, so a route gets read fresh every time rather than run from memory. The name says where the work goes: Rifle, and on down the Colorado toward Silt and New Castle. By the time the fog lifts, the pavement is already dark and wet and open.