Day 7 - The adventures continue

While exploring the breckenridge area on day 5 we inadvertently found a couple of trails that some of the locals told us about. We decided we had acclimated enough to attempt riding the rockies so off we went. We did not carry the camera with us for fear of destroying it if we crashed, so we are unable to share the beauty of the pass.

The trailhead was 3 miles up an old narrow railbed that was now a dirt road. We talked to one of the locals to find the exact start of the trailhead as it was not clearly marked. We set off up the dirt road with the dogs at our side. The view over the side of the mountain was not as picturesque as the previous days hike, but was still picture worthy and i wished we had carried the camera. 

Just past our stop the local we talked to in the parking lot caught us. We had a conversation for the next mile and a half. He was from Minneapolis and relocated to denver 5 years ago, apparently some of his extended family followed and they had a cabin in breckenridge which he visited most weekends. He explained the history of boreas pass to us; an old narrow railbed, which we would learn later in the day was the only way in and out of breck until a road was built during the early 1900's. The trail was aptly named Baker's Tank because of the huge water tank sitting at the trailhead. This tank was used for the train to refill its water supply. Fortunately there was a cold mountain stream next to it that the dogs could cool off in.

As the dogs splashed in the cold water we said our fairwell to the "local" that accompanied us on our climb; he was continuing to the top of the pass, we used the dogs as an excuse to ride the singletrack back to the parking lot. 

The singletrack was very reminiscent of a trail back home called Rocky Road. Part of the way down Liz's back brake began to lose pressure, making for a quick descent back to the bottom. Many other riders were surprised at the dogs aptitude for the trail. As usual, they loved every minute of their run, this was turning out to be quite the doggy holiday.

After returning the our rental house and cleaning up we decided to head into town. We let the sleeping dogs stay on the comfortable leather couches and headed off. 

After exploring a few of the shops downtown we decided to stop for a hot dog at one of the carts in an alley. While our food was cooking we visited the historic ski museum in breckenridge. Museum makes it sound like a large building but it was actually the size of a small dining room. They had skis ranging from the late 1800's (what we refer to as snowshoes today) all the way up to 15lb wooden skis from the 1960's. 

We enjoyed out hotdogs, grabbed some chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and enjoyed a cup of coffee from the neighborhood Starbucks (shameless plug). A good ending to another beautiful day in the rockies.

Day 5 and 6: Hiking in the rockies

The rising sun on the peak outside of the living room window was almost as beautiful as the setting sun.

Being the good tourists we are, we stopped at the Welcome Center in downtown Breckenridge with the pups in tow. We picked up several flyers for all sorts of things and chatted with a lady about good hiking routes for beginners still acclimating to the elevation. She suggested we hike one of the ski slopes (Peak 8 I believe) and gave us directions to a trail head.

After that we did a little shopping and a little sight seeing, downtown Breckenridge is really pretty. There's a beautiful little stream that runs through it and every now and again, there are bridges that go across it. You could really just sit on a bench and while away the day, people watching and enjoying the mountain views. I made Steven pose in front of a really cute area that had a gorgeous view. He's a good sport.

I could get used to views like that.

After getting back to the house and having a bit of lunch, we took the dogs on a wild goose chase trying to find the fabled trail head we were told about. After about an hour of driving in circles and getting rather irritated we gave up and parked at a ski lift to walk up the neighboring service road. We discovered the trail head and headed up the peak. Woohoo! Success.

This was a good way to work into hiking because the terrain wasn't terribly technical and the slopes were mild. However it was hard to get a good photo with ski lifts all over the place! (The geek in me loved those too.) I did manage to get a couple decent photos of the days adventures.

We also used this hike to introduce packs to the dogs. They did so well!

We cut this hike pretty short because Steven's knee was yelling at him. On the way back to the house we decided to explore a little and found a street called Boreas Pass Road, sounds promising, no? It went up and up and up. At one of the pull offs we snapped a few pics.

That night was pretty low key - we made plans for a hike the next day!

Day 6 was our first real hike in the mountains. We found a website that called the Mohawk Lakes one of the most beautiful sights in Breckenridge, and it was only a moderately hard hike to get there. The subaru was really in it's element here.

We started on the Spruce Creek Trail which then forked to the different lakes or falls.

We set off around 11:30 am with Rhea and Gunnar in packs again and Masi eagerly hunting squirrels. Doggy family portrait:

About a quarter of the way there we found a clearing and I started snapping photos.

What are Gunnar and Masi staring at you ask? Our little buddy:

The Clarks Nutcrackers. We had to look them up after the hike. They are in the crow family, were very inquisitive and followed us part of the way up the trail. "Hi!":

Out of curiosity, Steven started holding his hand out (as if he had food) and calling the birds. The following happened (enjoy the facial expressions).

Friggin cool, eh?

So after a bit of playing with the birds we kept going. It was easy for a while, even with all the roots and steep hills but then we started getting into some real rocky mountain hiking. We passed a couple old miners cabins, I was amazed that they were still standing. At the beginning of the tricky stuff, we came upon a waterfall and decided to take a break. I snapped some photos:

We had a little food:

I wanted a group shot but realized I had forgotten my remote so... I set my timer and then scrambled up the rocks in the 10 seconds before the picture is taken. Talk about winded.

On we went, every time we climbed up to another plateau we thought for sure the lakes were just over the next ledge. This went on for a while. We eventually caught up to some other hikers from San Diego and used this chance to have someone else take our photo instead of using the stupid timer again.

We are sitting on an old mining wench. They must have used this to lower or raise the mined ore. It's amazing to think they hauled this timber and the big wheel up here!

We could practically hear the placid lake, we were so close, on we went. Up and over the next ledge. This time, we were right. There it was.

The lake was about a foot deep, maybe, and ice cold. The dogs love it. Somehow there were trout in it.

This was the mountain scape I was looking for. This is what I wanted to see.

The dogs really looked like they were in their element.

Steven was using his nifty little phone again to find out how high we were. This was a little under 12,000 ft.

We didn't hang around too long, we had already been hiking for 2.5 hours. On the way back down we snapped a photo of the plateau where the lake was. The cluster of trees in front of the rock face..that's where the lake was.

That night we ate Mexican at Mi Casa and questioned our server, Travis, for ideas on the mountain bike trails for dogs. It was a great end to a great day. We couldn't wait for our next Colorado adventure.

Day 4: Breckenridge Bound

Thanks to Becca we had an awesome nights rest. Although we still woke up at 6am because our bodies were still on East coast time.

We took the pups + Bentley (Becca's chocolate lab) on a walk around what used to be Lowry Air Force Base. Along the path were signs warning us of coyote (wonderful) attacking small children and dogs during twilight and dusk. As the day warmed the winds picked up and we were blasted by the dirt on our route. After our exfoliating walk we threw the ball for the pups in the soccer fields. If you haven't had the luxury of watching Bentley fetch yet, you're missing out. He could make the grumpiest person laugh. He runs full bore after the ball with no concern on how to stop. After a successful or unsuccessful snag of the ball he will tumble end over end for another 5-10 ft, eventually coming to rest on his belly, and he does this every time - It's hilarious.

Anywho...before hitting the road again we (Steven) washed off the mass amount of bug guts on the front of the car and we brought Becca some left over 12 Bones (after enjoying some ourselves) and got a tour of Alameda where we had to do the gratuitous photo shoot with the new Dr.

Finally, we were off to Breckenridge. That was probably one of the prettiest drives ever. The Aspens were golden, the mountains surrounded us and we went through the Eisenhower tunnel (continental divide) that was probably a mile or more long (the geek in me loved it)!

FINALLY! We took the exit to Breckenridge. The town itself only takes about 5 minutes to drive through and reminds me of Biltmore village. All the buildings were built in a mountain theme, there were no huge signs, and everything was just quaint. The house we rented is actually in Blue River 5 miles south of Breckenridge. It's called the Living Life Lodge and it's perfect. It's huge for what we need but it has everything you'd want in a mountain home. It has a huge master bedroom with a huge master bathroom with a friggin steam shower! It has more light switches than you'd ever know what to do with and every room has a window that was specifically positioned to take in the beauty of the neighboring mountains.

The dogs were so happy to finally be done driving. Masi snoozed...

And the other two chewed. 

After settling in we finally opened up the last wedding gift we received from Matt and Erin. Inside we found something so awesome, only a picture could express how pleased we were. 

On the left we have Matt's tasty Kiwi Wit and on the right a traditional Mead! Thanks Matt and Erin!

That first night, the setting sun behind the mountain outside the living room window was absolutely beautiful. Little did I know, a few days after I took this photo I would be summiting this very mountain. 

That is Quandary Peak, one of Colorado's 53 14ers (a mountain who's peak is over 14,000 ft). While taking pictures I discovered the first night that places in the rockies have two sunsets; the first when the sun drops behind the mountain peaks and the temperature drops by 5 degrees instantly and the second when the sun sets completely and the temperature drops another 5-10 degrees. 

It was so nice to finally be in Breckenridge. Let the adventures begin!

-Liz

Day 3 (9/28/2010): Colorado at last!

I'll be the first to say it, Day 3 kinda sucked. We drove most of the day. I felt so bad for the dogs at the end of the night. Our first plan was to stop right before getting into Colorado, but then we changed our plan and decided to stop at a small town called TRINIDAD (yes, Kate Nothnagel, it was called Trinidad) which was just over the border.

This was also the first day we got off the main highway. Our directions took us on some back highway routes that were only two lane but with a speed limit of 70 miles an hour through Texas. Do you remember the scene in Cars when Lighting McQueen gets lost in the middle of the night and tried to find Mac? He ends up on a country highway where he can see Semi's from miles away... that's what it looked like. That and cows, lots and lots of cows. 

When we finally arrived in Trinidad, well after sundown, we were both exhausted and ready to be done. Unfortunately for us, the only dog friendly hotel in town was another Best Western and it was all sorts of ghetto. We begrudgingly decided to just push on to Denver, another 2 hours away. There we crashed with Becca and very deservingly, slept in. Thank you Becca for putting us up for the night!

Day 3 and the majority of our driving was finally complete. We were now 2 hours behind the east coast and the Colorado mountains were in sight.

-Liz

Day 2 (9/27/2010): Tennessee to Arkansas

The coffee at the Best Western sucked about as much as the pillows...

We set off on day two with good intentions. We would stop in Memphis for some lunch and head to a town called Fort Smith in Arkansas. We were off to a good start when we stopped in Memphis for lunch. Steven was able to use that nifty little phone of his again and found us some excellent southern fried chicken (appropriate for Memphis, right?). If you ever find yourself in Memphis find Gus's...so...good.

We took our fried chicken and sweet tea to go and had a little impromptu picnic at a park on the Mississippi river. I've never seen the Mississippi before, good lord it is huge! The French broad looks like a stream in comparison. I managed to pose a couple photos of the 5 of us with my remote for the camera (thanks again, Dad and Debi)!

About 30 mins after taking this photo, we drove across that bridge and left Tennessee.

There's not a whole lot to say about Arkansas....it got pretty bland. So we started listening to the book on CD that I bought for the trip, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After getting through a painful first CD, it got pretty interesting and the afternoon flew by.

By about sundown we made it to Fort Smith, Arkansas where we stopped at another Starbucks to steal some more internet. We decided that Fort Smith was pretty crappy and decided to look elsewhere. Apparently, right across the river from us was a cute little town called Van Buren. We called around for a hotel that allowed dogs and found a Sleep Inn that was right off the highway. They only allowed dogs of 20 lbs or less....so we used the honeymooners card. That worked like a charm, we didn't even get charged for the pet fee! It was a pretty nice room too...and the pillows rocked.

Thus ended day 2. We got some food from a local place and promptly went to sleep.

I swear it gets more exciting soon.

Thanks for reading!
-Liz

Day 1 (9/26/2010): Asheville to Nashville

After a successful, excellent wedding weekend in Waynesville (Asheville), NC we set off for the wild west. We left during a monsoon (thank you for holding off until Sunday) around 1:30pm on Sunday and drove for maybe 5 hours until we reached Nashville, TN.

Somewhere along the way, we came upon the largest pumpkin we had ever seen! There must have been a fair close by because it was followed closely a huge watermelon. Unfortunately, we only were able to get a photo of the pumpkin...behold.

That would make one hell of a jack-o-lantern.

About half way to Nashville we realized that neither of us knew where the dog's leashes were (whoops). Before we could stop anywhere else, we had to get new leashes, Petsmart here we come! While I was in Petsmart, Steven was outside with his handy, fancy phone, finding an REI: we also needed a bike lock. In the REI parking lot I took advantage of the Starbucks next door and stole their internet to find us a hotel, we didn't feel like camping. The REI folks were great. They fixed our new gerber gadget we got from the Dardens (THANKS!) and gave Steven a few suggestions on pet friendly restaurants. I booked us a room at a local Best Western that allowed dogs and then we set off to get some grub!

We took a scenic drive to the restaurant that was recommended to us: Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery. Along the way we saw some amazingly huge houses. Old southern money maybe? Some of them were really beautiful, but I didn't get any photos of them.

Blackstone was pretty neat, they had the best warm pretzels we've ever had and some very good micro brews.

We were alone on the patio for a little while with the dogs until a young family joined us. They were very nice and their son, Townsend, was in love with our dogs. They tried to distract him with Sprite and even a tiny DVD player, but he always ended up bouncing around our pups again. Luckily, they were exhausted. Excuse the camera phone...it couldn't quite handle the lack of light.

After dinner we checked into the hotel where the pups were happy to discover they had their own bed.

Yep, exhausted. By the way, that hotel had the worst pillows I've ever slept on...I would not recommend the Best Western on Music Row.

That concluded Day 1. Some driving, eating and drinking and generally being merry.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! We'll try to update this as much as possible, we are a little behind at this point.

-Liz