Early Morning Bike Ride and Breakfast at The Ruby
Dad woke me up early this morning and drove me up to the trailhead of The Upper Loop on Mount Crested Butte. With snow falling and just enough light to see the trail, I started my ride. I had heard that Crested Butte is one of the best places in Colorado for mountain biking. This “in-town” loop was better than many of the “destination” loops I had ridden. It meandered through huge Aspen groves bedside enormous boulders and provided incredible views of the mountains and the valley in between. The only other beings that I saw were a couple of deer bounding up the hill as I approached. It was the perfect way to start the day.
After the ride, I biked back to The Ruby for what might be the breakfast to beat all breakfast and the hosts to beat all hosts. Chris and Andrea, the owners of The Ruby, could not be any nicer…and there breakfast could not be any better. Today was there one year wedding anniversary. They celebrated by waking up early and making us cinnamon-pecan waffles and these declicious ham and egg cups. In addition to running a bed and breakfast, he is also trying to start his own one man law office in town and sits on about every board and council available in the town of Crested Butte. If you come to Crested Butte, definitely stay here…in my mind, there is really no other option.
Boulder to Crested Butte
Today Mom, Dad, myself and the two runts headed out into the wilds of Colorado. We had a gorgeous drive down 285 to Buena Vista where we ate our Subway sandwiches with an amazing view of the Collegiate Peaks. Afterwards we stopped for a photo on Monarch Pass. Dad on the Pacific side, myself in middle and Mom represented the Atlantic.
After 5 hours of gorgeous mountain views, we arrived in Crested Butte at The Ruby Bed and Breakfast. This bed and breakfast is incredible in its own right and to make it even better, it caters to dogs. There are cute signs like “Wipe Your Paws” and “Cat’s Suck” everywhere. With it being the off-season, we are staying here for marbles….really nice marbels….but marbels nonetheless.
The town of Crested Butte is incredible! It is tiny, flat, surrounded by fly fishing streams, mountains, the largest grove of Aspens in the state and lots and lots and lots of wildflowers (not right now though). Everyone walks, bikes or skateboards in the town. The Ruby even has free cruisers out front for use by the guests. I brought my mountain bike and am hoping to get a ride in in the morning….but, its going to be bitterly cold and wet. I feel like I can’t come to the mtn biking mecca of Colorado though and not go for a ride…so, we’ll see….
Mom and Dad’s first day in Colorado
After two solid days of driving, my folks finally arrived in Boulder all the way from Atlanta. Their trusty Garmin GPS device gave them friendly reminders of every turn. They drove through Kansas, so the Garmin remained hauntingly quiet the entire trip. They demonstrated how it could recalculate directions if you made a wrong turn. The woman who was announcing sound genuinely annoyed.
Dad and I headed out this morning for a pre-sunrise hike at Chautauqua. Me losing my sweatshirt was evenly balanced by the incredibly gorgeous morning we had. We saw deer with giant antlers eating grass. They seemed to really be enjoying themselves….
Afterwards, we all came back and finished a few hours of work to wrap things up before we take the rest of the week off to travel the state. At one point we were all three simultaneously on the phone making high-powered deals. It very much had the energy of a startup. It was awesome!
With work done, we began the vacation with lunch at Oskar Blues. As my mother’s name is Dale, we thought it appropriate to show her the birthplace of Dale’s Pale Ale. While dining, we were entertained by watching Dale himself dig a ditch. He did a really good job. It was a great ditch!
Then, as the afternoon sun was getting low, we headed up to Estes Park to take a far away look at Rocky Mountain National Park and to see The Stanley Hotel. This is where Stephen King wrote The Shining. The hotel is much less scary than the one in the movie, but you still couldn’t pay me enough money to stay there alone. I’m a big sissy when it comes to that movie. They do have t-shirts and coffee mugs though that say Redrum, which kind of makes that whole part a bit less frightening…
Mountain biking at Hall Ranch (Lyons, CO)
On Saturday morning, I finally got back out on my mountain bike. I didn’t take much opportunity to bike this summer due to the incredibly fun nature of rock climbing. My goal is to do more though….I know….just in time for winter.
In the photo below you can clearly observe that we are biking through a beautiful meadow with nothing to distract us except that incredibly majestic snow-capped mountain in the background. I often run off trail because I can’t keep my eyes off of my surroundings and onto the rocks that I’m racing towards. Don’t worry Mom….I’m wearing my helmet.
Josh Ritter and Brandi Carlile
I recently went to two incredible concerts….Josh Ritter at The Fox…and Brandi Carlile at The Gothic. You’ve never seen anyway as happy to be on a stage in front of a crowd as Josh Ritter. He is 100% smiles and the rest is pure gratitude. How many is that?
I almost didn’t get to see Brandi play. A bunch of us had pre-concert dinner at Watercourse in Denver, which is when I realized I had left my ticket back in Boulder. We went to a closed Office Max and begged at the window to use a printer. When that failed I went to the grocery store, the auto parts store and a hardware store asking them each if I could get on the internet. They all gave me the same look. Its similar to the, “please-get-out-of-my-store-before-I-have-you-arrested” glance….
In the end, The Gothic was able to look up my ticket and all was good. It was standing room only when we arrived, but I found a secret passage to the front of the concert. If Brandi sneezed, it was to land on my head. I was happy to discover that Brandi is the most beautiful and talented female musician in the entire universe. To make it even better, her band consists of two tall ball-headed twins with really high voices who like to sway….
Hiking at Tent Rocks
On Sunday, we all went hiking at Tent Rocks. This is one of the craziest places I have ever seen. I’m pretty sure that I had a nightmare about Tent Rocks when I was six years old. It was scary to be back.
Green Chile Peeling
I love spicy food. So, when it was mentioned that we would be purchasing and peeling green chiles this weekend, I was incredibly excited. Around this time every year, they harvest the chiles around New Mexico resulting in roasted green chile vendors everywhere. Andy and Debby always buy from Fred’s Green Chiles, which is a makeshift shanty made of wrought-iron fence and tarps outside of Smith’s Office Supply store. There are two automatic wire-frame drums full of chiles roasting over a huge propane jet engine. After sampling a medium-hot chile, I opted to for the level deemed “hot”. I’m sure I’ll soon write about this as a mistake, but for now, I am excited to have them.
Only being interrupted by a dinner party, we spent the rest of the night peeling three paper grocery bags full of piping hot chiles. I took the bad advice of Andy’s neighbor (a New Mexico native) to remove the plastic gloves. Andy warned that this would result in a sensation similar to dipping my fingers in a bowl of fire ants. As I was trying to fall asleep that night, I was sad to see that Andy was right. In any case, the burning has subsided and we are making green chile stew for dinner tomorrow night!
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Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta
If you come down to visit Andy and Debby for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, be prepared to get out of bed at a painfully early hour….in our case, at 4am. Through sips of coffee and gurgling stomachs, we headed south on I-25 to arrive in Albuquerque well before sunrise. The enormous backup of vehicles professed that we were not the only people attending the opening morning of the Balloon Fiesta. Mike and Ashley had only 2 degrees of separation from the Event Director of the entire Fiesta, so we were able to pickup our VIP parking passes and our tickets to the VIP hospitality booth. We soon separated into the spectator and pilots line of cars though as Mike and Ashley were fortunate enough to have also lined up a ride in one of the balloons. Being incredibly afraid of anything that goes straight up without much forward momentum, I was perfectly happy staying on the ground.
After buying breakfast burritos and coffee, we headed into the crowd of people as the balloons began to wake up with the sun. A handful of balloons took of before sunrise, making me think I has missed the best photo opportunity of the day. I realized just how wrong I was as an army of balloons began to rise up in every direction. The sky turned from indigo to royal blue as the sun peaked out from behind the mountains. Everywhere you looked there was a new shape and color to behold. The entire area was like an ever-changing organism. Eventually all of the balloons had lifted, leaving nothing but a field of smiling spectators watching a horizon completely filled with tiny balloons…floating to who-knows-where….
Bouldering at Flagstaff Mountain
This afternoon after work I headed up to Flagstaff Mountain with Ben, Baso, and Sadie for some bouldering. It was a picture-perfect, crisp fall afternoon. The colors of the changing leaves were only outdone by the contrast of the red and green rock against the afternoon blue sky. After an hour and a half bouldering, my hands are completely raw and my arms are pleading to just be left alone.
