Reluctantly, we moved on from Frisco. The leaf show was over, the fat lady has sung. The aspens had switched on their ‘Bring It On’ mode, their silvery trunks and skinny branches standing stoically prepared for the oncoming winter. All boats had to be removed from the lake, as it would soon start to freeze around them. Time for us to move on indeed, but who can resist a forlorn glance in the rear view mirror, an unspoken question on our lips as to when we’ll be back. Because for sure, we will be back.
We moved on to the nearby town of Leadville. If we thought we were high up in Frisco at around 9,000ft, Leadville tops that at over 10,000ft. In other words a smidgeon short of 2 miles high. At that elevation, good job the bike ride we chose was relatively flat. And more to the point, was on paved tarmac 🙂 Such a nice ride along the Mineral Belt trail, my love hate relationship with my mountain bike took a decided turn for the positive.
And of course a bike ride deserves a flight of beer, the two go hand in hand right?
Ever played darts in a British pub and found your form improves after a few beers? And so it would seem my corn hole skills (or corn hole luck) increased too. When Darren unexpectedly lost the first game to me, we upped the ante to Best of 3. At 10-0 down, I came from nowhere to steal the second game too. It is now a few weeks later when I’m posting this, and I can confirm we’ve not played since. Not that he’s a bad loser or anything 🙂
It was pretty snug in the Leadville campsite. We were tucked close into the real life Breaking Bad RV. Not even joking.
Also heard they called the town Deadville out of season, seems a bit harsh.
Leadville was a mere weekend dalliance en route to our destination for the week, Colorado Springs (co-working office) / Manitou Springs (camping).
It would appear spooky season is upon us.
What a surprise this turned out to be for excellent morning walking options. Turns out we had Garden of the Gods on our doorstep. The name’s a bit OTT, I’m with you, conjures up an Adam’n’Eve type paradise, I’m thinking snakes and apples. Instead we got ancient sandstone rocks, rather impressive actually, especially at sunrise.
Not entirely sure what was going on but there was chanting and humming. We gave them a wide berth.
The surrounding area also had some pretty cool morning hiking, complete with the most inquisitive, docile deer you’ve ever had the opportunity to meet.
The Epicentral co-working option worked out pretty well, we had our own office in a contemporary environment with plentiful coffee, beer and hand sanitizer. Also a good central location to partake in some of Colorado Springs’ local drinking establishments.
(good beer cheese sauce though)
Bad hair day, don’t judge.
After a couple of weeks break from running, I eased myself back into it along the scenic river path, just a couple of blocks from Epicentral. And bonus, they even had a shower in the co-working space, no need for me to squish myself into our teeny tiny bathroom in the BaseCamp.
So what’s next? Well we plan to head east, there’s vast parts of the US over there that we’ve not really touched. That being said, there seemed to be a lot of not much at all really between Colorado and a long way away. Fasten those seatbelts, we’ve got a big drive coming up.