Abbey's Road

In Frisco, I found a forest service campground that was on Dillon Lake and also close to town, though it wasn't anything super. Tuesday morning I took Abbey on a hike up Meadow Creek. Much of the way was along the creek so she got to get in a lot and it also meant I didn't have to carry water for her, which is a bit of a pain. It wasn't steep at all until the very end when the trail went up to Eccles Pass. The trail led further on to Vail, but the top of the pass was far enough for us. It ended up being over 9 miles round trip. The views from the top of the pass were real nice and we also managed to get down before the thunderstorms started. Have I mentioned that they're pretty much a regular afternoon occurrence out here? One thing about trails in this area, a lot of them are noisy because they aren't far from I-70. Plus, since Colorado is pretty much in the center of the US and this area is central to Colorado, airplanes seemed to fly over us every few minutes. It seemed like it was non-stop at some points. It got a little annoying for me personally, but because of Abbey it can be a real pain. She has gotten better about not getting too nervous from the plane noise, but sometimes it just really bothers her. For Wednesday I had a bright idea. I thought I'd give Abbey a rest day and go mountain biking. I got a late start because I needed to find a bike helmet, but I took the free Summit Stage bus from Frisco up to Breckenridge. There's another free bus that takes you up to the ski area and close to the beginning of the trail. I had a little time to kill before it came so I checked out Breckenridge on my bike. For a ski area, it's probably really nice. It's fairly commercialized and touristy, but at least it seems like there are a lot of diversions for people who don't want to ski all the time. And, it doesn't look too tacky even though most buildings are quite new. Well, the trail looked great, but I didn't get very far. I only got 100 yards down the trail before my front tire went flat. I had thought about bringing a spare the night before, but somehow didn't think about it that morning. I was really bummed, but I couldn't do anything else but walk back down to town. While waiting for the bus back to Frisco I tried to cheer up a little by treating myself to a coffee toffee milkshake. I took Abbey on a short hike, but it wasn't that great and didn't really make up for the aborted bike ride. To cheer us up we went to Abbey's Coffee and Abbey actually got to go inside. One of the girls working there fawned all over her and gave her a biscuit so she was happy. I did find an RV dump station nearby that only charged $2, plus it had drinking water so the day had some good points.

Thursday morning we headed out for Crested Butte. I had heard of Crested Butte a lot, but had never been there. It's pretty isolated and not so easy to get to from I-70, but it still seems to get a fair amount of traffic. On the way there I drove through Leadville, Buena Vista, and Salida. I think these are all old mining towns that have remade themselves into tourist areas with access to all kinds of outdoor activities nearby. Leadville didn't look too bad. It even had 3 coffee shops (they seem to be the guage of a small town's status in Colorado much like the way a Dairy Queen does in a small Texas town), which was a little surprising because it didn't at all have the touristy atmosphere of Frisco or Breckenridge. Salida also had a lot of shops, restaurants and outdoor stuff, but Buena Vista was pretty dull. The ski area, Mt. Crested Butte, is not what I expected. I don't know how it is as a ski area, but aesthetically it is pretty ugly '? some big, ugly hotels and tons of non-descript condo complexes. The village of Crested Butte is much better. It is similar in style to the old mining towns of Leadville and Salida, but a little nicer. It isn't all gentrified BS as my brother would say, like a lot of the ski area towns. They seemed to have kept a lot of the authentic flavor of the town. A word on dogs in Colorado '? the state seems to be real dog-friendly as a whole. In Boulder, you can actually get fined for leaving your dog in your car on even a mildly warm day. In Crested Butte, there are signs that say 'it is unlawful to leave your dog tied up on the public right-of-way (meaning the sidewalk in front of stores)'. Some people would say this is dog-friendly in that it is a safety measure for the dog, but as a single person with a dog, it makes it a little difficult for me. Like when I want to go in a coffee shop, for instance, I have to put Abbey in the RV. Which I don't think is very dog-friendly, but I guess Crested Butte wouldn't agree with me. OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

I did manage to find a real scenic campground on Lake Irwin outside of town a ways. The only problem with it is that the road from town quickly turns to dirt and it is quite bumpy. Pretty soon just about everything in my RV will be rattling. I guess that's the price I pay for not staying in RV parks right off the main road. Well I sure managed to fill up a lot of space for not having done much the last few days. More on hiking in Crested Butte in my next update.

Views from Eccles Pass