I’ve broken my own cardinal rule around not being able to head off on the next trip until I’ve finished the blog from the last one. But you know, life got in the way – like the whole being 50 thing (which consumed a lot of mental energy!).

Anyway, better late than never, here’s the round up of the rest of Colorado and our last week of the Pacific Northwest ++ trip.

Colorado has the craziest weather. Take our stop at this Harvest Host on the outskirts of Denver. When we arrived, we opted to sit inside as it was 90 degrees out and felt ridiculously hot. We took a window seat with a view. Within half an hour or so, the temp had dropped just a little, maybe 5 degrees, and some ominous grey clouds were gathering. And then just like that, it started hail stoning. Like proper hard packed shards of ice torpedoing down from above. Very crazy indeed.

While El Rancho brewing wasn’t our ideal type of brewery, it served us well in providing WiFi, shelter (from the heat and the hail!), and overnight parking. But way more up our alley was an overnight stay near Avery Brewing in Boulder. We braved an outside table in the heat here, relieved as it was with misters spraying into the air to cool the punters. Ahhhh!

Also while in Boulder, the bikes got an airing on the Boulder Creek/Boulder Canyon trail.

As we continued our travels, we had to pass our favorite distillery, Stoneyard, such a convenient location to drop in on the east west I80.

They had recently bottled a new concoction: Cacao de los Muertos, with a whopping 88% alcohol or 176 proof (as a comparison, most single malts sit around 43%). But strength is nothing without flavor. And the chocolate hit you get from this baby slaps you around the face while you’re still reeling from the alcohol content. Think pipette level portion sizes. And the perfect nearly 50th birthday pressie 🙂

This time, Stoneyard was just a flying visit, as D was driving and we needed to get to our next working location. Pretty glad we didn’t hang around the distillery for too long because it was back to Colorado’s crazy weather… as we continued west, our journey was marred with fog and spray from the traffic in front of us in the increasingly sodden conditions.

And less than 30 minutes behind us, the fire-eroded banks at the side of the freeway could hold up no longer, creating a massive mudslide onto the freeway. The torrent of rain continued, making recovery efforts impossible and any through traffic faced an unpredictable night waiting to see if they could get through the next day… or a 250 mile detour. Phew, just dodged that bullet!

The last week of our trip was spent in Basalt, near Aspen. As I’m sure you can imagine, Darren and I spend a lot of time together on these trips. So we mixed it up a bit on Sunday with a his n hers You do your thing/I’ll do mine. Darren spent the day mountain biking and dropped me off to hike 10 miles to the pub where we would meet up. Woefully the nachos at the brewery were sub-par but the hike itself, just gorgeous.

Hipcamp is a website or app similar to Airbnb but for camping. In other words, private families rent out their land for you to camp on. We scored with a lovely secluded spot on farmland, cows and horses for neighbors, chickens freely scratching around and wildlife wandering past including deer and elk.

We squeezed a fair amount into our last week – biking, hiking and eating out.

Independence Day meant we had a long weekend to get home, so we’d planned on more alpine meadow play on Saturday morning before setting off home. That was until we got a phone call on Friday afternoon telling us we were supposed to have left our camping spot already and there was another couple waiting. Oops. Last minute change of plan – we decided to get some miles in on Friday night, and headed west to Fruita.

So the last night of our trip was spent in 100 degree heat at a noisy truck stop. Not quite what we’d planned but didn’t stop us getting the full charcuterie platter works out. Got a few double takes from the truckers but c’est la vie.

All that remained was a 760 mile drive home. What a long tiring day that was! But worth it to close out yet another epic road trip. In total over 4,000 miles through 10 US states.

Another stint back in Frisco, Colorado means we’ve spent 6 weeks hanging around this awesome scenic backwater over the last year, almost as much time as we’ve spent at home in California! I guess this is our second or wannabe home.

One of the many joys of camping in Frisco is that you’re immersed in the most incredible scenery. I’m a sucker for lakes and mountains and so indeed, in my element.

Our first camping spot at Peak One campground was nestled amongst the pines on the peninsula, with oodles of space. We made the most of the light evenings and rather excelled ourselves on the bbq front.

And can you believe that we were so intent on trying to capture a photo that we somehow forgot to get a video for the 1SE 🙄

Camping spot number two, just a few hundred yards down the road, dialed back on space and privacy but the upside was a prime lakefront spot. We twirled the Basecamp around to make the most of the views (technically Darren did the twirling, I was in observation/filming mode – didn’t want to miss another video opportunity).

EVO3 workspace required all attendees to be vaccinated. No arguments from us. This meant all restrictions were off, no masks required, desk configuration normal, and yet a healthy abundance of Clorox wipes and sanitizing gel. At one point, a potential new member walked in off the street, proudly bearing a Stars and Stripes t-shirt, and no mask. He huffed and puffed and did a double take when he saw the ‘vaccinated only’ sign. He then about turned and waltzed out, but not before loudly proclaiming that he didn’t want to be part of “the experiment”. Whatever, good luck to you dude!

Pre-work morning recreation was mainly hiking on the peninsula or biking on the peninsula. We mixed it up on the commute into work too – walking, biking and paddle boarding.

Post-work recreation involved a lot of bbqs at our campsite (why waste that view!). Oh, and sausages.

As we were in Frisco for a couple of weeks, we had various neighbors come and go at the campsite. Including a rowdy group of guys camping in a tent next door. We were not impressed with the state of their camp when we woke up in the morning. I don’t think they get out much.

A small group of us from the co-working office spent a fab evening on Aaron’s boat (the guy who runs EVO3), cruising around the lake and stopping off at a Tiki Bar at Dillon waterfront. There was much talk and hype leading up to our arrival at the Tiki Bar and as such I had high expectations. I’m thinking Hawaiian theming with palm trees and gaudy decor. Waitresses with grass skirts and leis. And I’m thinking exotic cocktails with paper cocktail umbrellas and Easter Island statue mugs.

What we got was a container bar that looked more at home on an industrial estate, and cocktails in plastic glasses.

Still, I’m not complaining, can’t beat a sundowner cocktail with a waterfront view, umbrella or no umbrella.

A two week stint meant we had a full weekend in between to play with, and no road trip miles to rack up. We packed it in with hiking, biking, kayaking, two breweries and the world’s highest distillery.

Weekend walk #2 was the iconic ‘must do’ up Mount Royal, steep as it gets. Little did we know we’d need our Bear Grylls survival skills.

Working our way up the winding switchbacks through bold green aspens and pine forest, we stopped in the shade for a breather and a swig of water. Good job we did. Bold as brass, less than 50 yards ahead of us, out pops a black bear, strolls across the path and then saunters on his way, without so much as a glance in our direction.

Bear-close-encounter over, we continued on our way. It’s a steep old slog up Mt Royal but worth it for the views.

As we approached the summit of Mt Royal, we could see storm clouds a gathering, and out of nowhere, a howling wind threatened to blow us off the mountain ridge. But it was when we saw the lightning on the next mountain over that we realized we’d better get a wiggle on. The highest point for miles around is probably not where you want to be when lightning is on the cards.

And one of the highlights of Frisco is getting out onto the water on your own steam. Bring on the kayak rental, a gorgeous early morning to get out onto the lake, and unleash the drone.